Dive Brief:

• Magellan Development Group, which is behind Chicago's planned $1 billion Vista Tower, has proposed four more skyscrapers for the city, including an 80-story high-rise that will feature condominiums and a hotel, according to DNAInfo.

• Magellan would build three towers — ranging from 40 stories to 80 stories — with construction behemoth Lendlease, according to the Chicago Tribune, and another 60-story high-rise with Hanwha Engineering and Construction. The bKL Architecture–designed structures would provide 2,040 residential units and 569 hotel rooms.

• The buildings are part of Magellan's $4 billion, 20-plus-year Lakeshore East development, which includes additional towers, a 6-acre park, a school, townhomes and retail. The city must still approve a zoning change for the 28-acre site.

Dive Insight:

Crews broke ground on the Vista Tower, which will be the third-tallest building in Chicago when complete, back in September. The skyscraper will also be the tallest building in the world designed by a woman, architect Jeanne Gang, who heads up the Chicago-based Studio Gang. The project, which Magellan is developing with China's Dalian Wanda Group, is expected to generate 2,000 construction jobs, 500 permanent positions and millions in tax revenue.

Wanda's involvement is the biggest Chinese investment in Chicago history, as foreign investors continue to look at the commercial real estate industry in the U.S.

Only last month, project officials announced that they had secured a $700 million construction loan from Chinese lender Ping An Bank. Breaking ground on such a large project without full financing isn't common, but developers said they believed they would get better loan terms by waiting until they had more presales and completed the higher-risk underground portion of the project.  

The Vista Tower will also benefit from up to $200 million in EB-5 visa foreign investments. The program puts foreign nationals at the top of the green-card application list in exchange for a $500,000 to $1 million investment in a qualified U.S.-based business ventures. It was set to expire at the end of April, but Congress extended the deadline to the end of September.

Volatility in Europe and Asia along with Trump's promise of deregulation has encouraged foreign investors to put money into the U.S. commercial real estate market, Bisnow reported. Investors from Korea, German and Qatar are among those becoming more active as Chinese capital threatens to slow.