They want to proceed and say they are doing so, mostly. One even says all the turmoil will work to his advantage.

But no one knows for sure, and a sense of unease quickly emerges. As real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield summarized days ago, while it would be "premature" to reach any final conclusions, "if the virus has a sustained and material impact on the broader economy, it will have feed-through impacts on property as well."

Indeed.

"When we started this huge project, we knew there would be cycles to work through," says Curt Bailey, president of Related Midwest, developer of the 78 project on former railroad land that stretches from Roosevelt Road south to Chinatown. "We remain extremely confident in the (ultimate) success of our project."

Yet, speaking from his home office, even Bailey concedes that he's asked himself whether an illness that has particularly impacted dense urban areas around the globe will discourage people from living and working in cities, at least for the time being.

Downtown megaprojects were a hallmark of former Mayor Rahm Emanuel's tenure and, despite some pressure from the political left, his successor, Lori Lightfoot, has thrown no new obstacles in their way. Those big projects offered the possibility to put a little more zip into the fastest-growing segment of the regional economy: downtown Chicago and the people who work and increasingly live there.

But there always has been a question of whether all those projects will make it at the same time. The list includes the 78, Lincoln Yards along the North Branch of the Chicago River, a remake of the former Michael Reese Hospital site, and the still only partially unveiled One Central project on air rights just west of Soldier Field.

Now the coronavirus and the economy have thrown them one whopper of a curve. So what are the developers saying?

Bailey, despite his wondering, has reason to be optimistic. Gov. J.B. Pritzker's recent decision to release $240 million for the University of Illinois' proposed Discovery Partners Institute on donated property from the 78 is "an incredible engine" to attract private users to the office space, apartment towers and other elements of the envisioned $7 billion complex.

Related Midwest and the university are still working off a letter of intent rather than a formal contract. But Bailey says he still expects ground-breaking "within 12 months," and he points out that regular talks continue between his firm and the university even in the face of the coronavirus crisis. Bailey also stresses that construction related to the project is proceeding on an extension of Wells Street south to Wentworth Avenue.

Ultimately, he predicts, people will want to flock back to central cities for the same reason they always have—creative synergy and efficiency.

Sterling Bay CEO Andy Gloor argues in a guest piece in this Forum issue that Chicago will need good jobs more than ever when the virus passes. In other words, it will need his firm's Lincoln Yards project.

But asked exactly where things stand, he replies in a statement that he's trying hard to keep everything on track.

"Like everyone else, we have been working from home for the past few weeks under less than ideal conditions. We have not yet encountered any major delays," he says. "In the meantime, we will continue to do everything we can to keep our development at Lincoln Yards on track to put thousands of Chicagoans to work as soon as possible."