According to World Atlas, Chicago is currently the second most visited city in the United States, only behind New York City. Chicago’s 54 million visitors in 2017 is testament to the great history and culture of the city. From its significant contributions to such performing arts as improv and jazz and its innovative skyscrapers and historic landmarks, to its booming economy, the Windy City boasts a multitude of interest points to explore and experience.
With such an influx of visitors, the need for accommodations in Chicago continues to grow, and contractors work to meet that demand. Listed here are the best of those contractors- the top 15 contractors in Chicago.
Burling Builders
44 W 60th St, Chicago, IL 60621
Burling Builders is a proudly African-American-owned general contracting company in Chicago. The firm was established in 1980 by President Elzie Higginbottom, who continues to lead Burling today.. The company has an impressive portfolio covering a diverse set of markets, from aviation and infrastructure, to commercial, residential and retail. Burling Builders is an approved vendor for the Chicago Minority Supplier Development Council, and proud recipients of the HACIA Contractor of the Year Award and the ComEd President’s’ Award.
Serving as general contractor, Burling undertook the construction of a new 232 unit, five-story precast concrete and structural steel building of the South Loop Hotel at 11 West 26th Street. In addition to the new construction, hotel and site improvements were also undertaken.
Power Construction Company
8750 W Bryn Mawr Ave, Suite 500, Chicago, IL 60631
Founded in 1926, Power Construction Company is a general construction company specializing in residential, healthcare, hospitality, office, institutional and industrial projects within Chicago and northern Illinois. Crain’s Chicago named the firm as among the Largest General Contractors in Chicago, considering the company’s annual revenue of $1 billion and professional staff of 270, not to mention a workload of which more than 90% come from repeat clients. Power’s projects have garnered several awards, including R+D Award, and the Modern Healthcare Gold Award.
The 23-story hotel at 108 North Jefferson Street is an unique project for Power Construction as well as for the hospitality industry. The tower is a dual-flag, or dual-brand, hotel, housing two hotels within the same building. At this building,128 rooms are under the Homewood Suites flag, while 210 rooms are under the Hampton Inn brand. The 300,000 square-foot tower is LEED Silver-certified.
WM. A. Randolph, Inc.
820 Lakeside Dr, Suite 3, Gurnee, IL 6003
WM. A. Randolph, Inc. is a Gurnee-based engineering consultancy and general contracting firm established in 1958 with offices in Chicago and New York. From its concentration on Illinois infrastructure for its first quarter-century, the company moved on to building construction, with a diverse portfolio including hotels, hospitals, parking decks, schools, office buildings, prisons, restaurants, and retail centers. Randolph prides itself of its diverse workforce and its staff of highly-trained engineers.
Randolph built the Hyatt Place Hotel at 66 West Illinois Street as the “signature centerpiece” of the University of Chicago’s Harper Court mixed-use development. The 84,000 square-foot, six-story hotel houses 131 rooms and includes a bar/café, swimming pool and meeting room facilities. The building is expected to achieve at least a LEED Silver certification. Hyatt Place was named the ENR Best Midwest Residential/Hospitality Project for 2014, and was an honorable mention on Lake County Contractor’s APEX Award for Project Excellence.
Norcon, Inc.
308 W Erie St, Suite 400 , Chicago, IL 60654
Founded in 1999 by principals Jeff Jozwiak and Charles Norwesh, Norcon, Inc. is a Chicago-based general contractor with a staff of over 65 highly-trained professionals. The firm’s current portfolio includes over $125 million of work annually. The firm couples “the experience and management capabilities of a larger firm with the personal attention and service of a smaller firm.” Norcon has received many honors over the years, including the AIA Honor Award, the AIA Chicago Divine Detail Award, and the CBC Merit Award.
Norcon constructed The Hotel at Midtown at 2444 North Elston Avenue, a 55-unit hotel with meeting spaces and a restaurant. Touted as a sports and wellness resort in addition to a hotel, The Midtown Athletic Club features a spa, an outdoor pool, an indoor pool, a fully-equipped gym, and a yoga studios, all of which are made available to the hotel’s guests.
Mortenson
300 Park Blvd, Suite 100, Itasca, IL 60143
Mortenson is a Minneapolis-headquartered developer, designer and builder established in 1954, with offices in 10 US cities and in Canada. As both developer and builder, the company has a diverse portfolio of projects all over North America in many sectors, including hospitality, renewable energy, commercial, data, infrastructure, education, and institutional. Mortenson has received, among other accolades, the HACIA General Contractor of the Year Award and the DBIA Awards.
Currently under development and construction by Mortenson is the Home2 Suites by Hilton at 110 West Huron Street. This 17-story tower will house 206 rooms, as well as 5,000 square feet of ground floor retail. Mortenson’s innovative building techniques including ‘Lean’ and prefabrication are being used for this flagship development in Chicago. As of mid-July 2018, the tower has been topped-off, and the hotel is expected to be open by the first quarter of 2019.
Clayco
35 E Wacker Dr, Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60601
Clayco is a full-service developer, designer and builder in St. Louis with offices in Chicago, Atlanta, and Greenville, SC. The company has a portfolio that includes 350 iconic and complex projects across the country, 190,000,000 square feet of new construction, and 70,000,000 square feet of renovation. Clayco’s more than 2,000 employees have earned the firm $2 billion in revenue for 2017 alone. Among its many accolades, Clayco has received a spot at ENR’s Top 400 Contractors.
Clayco led the conversion of the top 13 floors of an existing 20-story office building into the new 260,000 square-foot, 287-room Conrad Hotel at 101 East Erie Street. The hotel features a unique “sky lobby” on the 20th floor where the hotel’s concierge, restaurant and executive lounge can be found. The 19th floor, meanwhile, features an expansive conference center.
Skender
1330 W Fulton Market, Suite 200, Chicago, IL 60607
Founded in 1955, Skender is an integrated design-builder with manufacturing capabilities headquartered in Chicago with an office in San Francisco. The firm specializes in multiple markets, including hospitality, interiors, healthcare, multifamily, office, higher education, retail, senior living and affordable housing. Skender is ranked among the nation’s top contractors according to Building Design+Construction and Engineering News-Record, and has received more than 20 best-place-to-work awards in both Chicago and San Francisco.
Skender is currently building Hyatt House, a 14-story extended-stay hotel located at 105 North May Street in Fulton Market. The 167,000-square-foot structure will feature 200 guest rooms, future retail space, an indoor pool, workout center and lounge.
Bulley & Andrews
1755 W Armitage Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
Founded in 1891, Bulley & Andrews (B&A) is a Chicago-based private general contracting company owned and operated by the Bulley family. Currently leading the firm are Executive Chairman Allan Bulley, Jr., and Chairman and CEO Allan Bulley, III, hailing from the third and fourth generations of the family, respectively. The firm prides itself on being a company that maintains tradition while also moving forward with the latest innovations and technologies. B&A has received many awards over the years, including the CBC Merit Awards, the Gold Key Award, and the ULI Vision Award.
The historic Chicago Athletic Association building at 12 South Michigan Avenue was transformed by B&A into a new 241-room boutique hotel. The building, left abandoned for 7 years prior, now showcases the 225,000 square-foot hotel,featuring 17,000 square feet of event space, a game room, retail shops, and restaurants including a rooftop bar with views of Millennium Park.
Linn-Mathes, Inc.
309 S Green St, Chicago, IL 60607
Established in 1919, Linn-Mathes, Inc. is a Chicago-based residential, industrial, mixed-use and commercial construction company. The firm is currently under its third generation of family ownership and operation, led by President Brad Mathes. The decades of experience and its diversified portfolio of completed projects enables the firm to handle all sorts of projects, from the smallest renovations to the largest of new construction. Linn-Mathes has been honored with multiple awards, including the LISC Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards, the National Trust/HUD Secretary’s Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation, the AIA Merit Citation, and the ULI Vision Awards.
At 10 South Wabash Avenue, Linn-Mathes converted an existing 10-story office building into the Silversmith Crown Plaza Hotel. The hotel is host to 140 rooms and 8,000 square feet of flexible meeting space.
AECOM Tishman
303 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601
AECOM Tishman is one of the oldest builders in the United States, having its start as a one-man real estate company by Polish immigrant Julius Tishman in New York in 1898. The firm would grow into Tishman Realty & Construction in 1928, an integrated real estate and construction firm, before the company’s construction division is sold off to AECOM in 2010. AECOM Tishman is best known for building both iterations of the World Trade Center complex in New York, including both the Twin Towers and the replacement WTC One. Included among its many accolades are the ACEC Engineering Excellence Awards.
AECOM Tishman is currently building Aloft Mag Mile at 243 East Ontario Street. This new 18-story hotel will feature 337 rooms, along with a business center, a fitness center, and an indoor swimming pool. The hotel, designed by Valerio Dewalt Train Associates and developed by Tishman Realty, is slated to open in October 2018.
Walsh Group
929 W Adams St, Chicago, IL 60607
Walsh Group is a Chicago-based and headquartered, family-owned design-build firm that began as a small carpentry business in 1898. The company is currently led by the 4th generation of the Walsh family, particularly by Co-Chairmen Daniel J. and Matthew Walsh, and President Sean Walsh. The firm operates out of 18 regional offices across North America, employing more than 8,000 skilled tradespeople and professional staff. The firm has won multiple awards, including the ACEC New York Platinum Engineering Award, the Women in Construction Award, the DBIA National Award of Merit, the Envision Platinum Sustainability Award, the DBIA National Award of Excellence, and the Brick in Architecture Award.
Walsh was responsible for building the Hilton Garden Inn North Loop at 66 East Wacker Place. The 27-story, 96,000 square-foot hotel includes 191 guestrooms, back-of-house areas and public space which includes a full-service kitchen, dining space, bar and lobby located on the main level, as well as a fitness room and a meeting room on the lower level.
W.E. O’Neil Construction
1245 W Washington Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607
Currently led by the fourth generation of the founding family, W.E. O’Neil Construction is a general contractor established in 1925 and headquartered in Chicago . The firm currently has operating units in eight US cities, including Chicago. The company has a strong reputation in the construction industry for delivering complex, logistically challenging projects. Accolades W.E. O’Neil has received over the years include the CISCO Project of The Year Award, the Chicago Commercial Real Estate Development of the Year Award, and numerous Chicago Building Congress Merit Awards.
W.E. O’Neil built the LondonHouse Hotel at 85 East Upper Wacker Drive. The project involved the construction of new 22-story tower plus adjacent remodel of a 21-story Beaux Arts historic landmark office tower. The luxury 317,000 square foot hotel features 452 guest rooms, meeting and boardrooms, and a large two-level rooftop bar and terrace overlooking the Chicago River. W.E. O’Neil kept all retail tenants on the first and second floors operational throughout construction. In recent years, W.E. O’Neil also delivered the Marriott Residence Inn and is currently completing the Hotel Julian, set to open this fall.
Pepper Construction
643 N Orleans St, Chicago, IL 60654
Stanley F. Pepper established Pepper Construction in 1927 in the midst of world-firsts and record-breakers, from Babe Ruth, and Charles Lindbergh, to the movie The Jazz Singer. From humble beginnings in a ground-breaking world, Pepper Construction now stands as a respected and reputable general contractor in the Midwest, with an impressive portfolio of projects that includes historically significant buildings. Pepper has won numerous prestigious industry awards, including the NAHB Pillars of the Industry Award, the National AIA Design Award, and the National Brick in Architecture Award.
Pepper built the 350,000 square-foot St. Jane Chicago from the Hard Rock Hotel at 230 North Michigan Avenue, which Pepper previously renovated. The project involved the renovation of the Carbide & Carbon Building and the upgrade of its 33 luxury residence suites and 330 guest rooms in the upper levels, along with the renovation of the lobby, restaurant, kitchen, ballrooms and meeting rooms in the lower levels.
James McHugh Construction Company
Address:
1737 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60616
Since 1897, James McHugh Construction Company has been building some of the most complex and iconic buildings and infrastructure in Chicago and the Midwest, including Marina City, Aqua Tower, Blackstone Hotel, Trump Tower, and the Navy Pier Centennial Wheel. This general contractor is currently led by Chairman Patty McHugh and President Dave Alexander. Among its many accomplishments, McHugh was a recipient of the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design Award, American Architecture Awards, the ACEC Grand Award, the AIA Chicago Distinguished Building Award, and the SEAI Award of Merit.
McHugh is currently building Hilton’s first triple-brand hotel at 123 East Cermak Road, consisting of Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, and Home2 Suites. The hotel will encompass 380,000 square feet over 23 floors and will feature 466 guest rooms and suites. The tower will also offer common amenities to the three brands, including an exercise room, an indoor pool, a business center and extensive meeting space, and a 9,500-square-foot rooftop dining lounge.
Clark Construction
216 S Jefferson St, Suite 502, Chicago, IL 60661
Clark Construction has grown from a small local excavator in 1906 into one of the most capable and trusted contractors in the entire United States today. The firm is proud of having balanced its heritage as a local contractor with its reach throughout the country. With over 4,200 employees spread across its regional offices, the company has the experience and capability to tackle every project of every size imaginable, and successfully deliver them through their impeccable service. The firm has won many awards, including the AGC Alliant Build America Awards, the ABC Eagle Awards, the ENR Best of the Best Awards, and the DBIA Awards.
Clark was responsible for both the 1998 new construction and the 2013 extensive renovation and expansion of the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place at 2233 South Martin Luther King Drive. On the first run, Clark built a 32-story, 800,000 square-foot tower with 303 king guestrooms, 449 double guest rooms, 48 hospitality suites, three VIP suites, and two deluxe suites, as well as 600-car above-grade parking, a spacious lobby, ballroom, and pre-function accommodations, a restaurant, boardrooms, and a business center. In 2013, Clark added a 13-story, 270,000 square-foot tower with 462 additional rooms, and brightly-lit public-space vistas on the east and west facades of the building. The existing hotel, meanwhile, received extensive renovations.
