A plan to build an Equinox-branded hotel, health club, and apartment tower at the corner of Fulton Market’s Restaurant Row and the Kennedy Expressway cleared an early, but key, city hurdle at this month’s meeting of the Chicago Plan Commission.

Commission approves new plan for 725 W. Randolph St. that will allow for a 52-story tower with a 165-room hotel, 370 residential units and 5,000 square feet of restaurant space. The developer of the $395 million project will pay $4.85 million into the #ChicagoNOF system. pic.twitter.com/mOzpTGmzjl — Chicago DPD (@ChicagoDPD) July 19, 2018

Originally presented to rise 58 stories and 680 feet, the proposal at 725 W. Randolph Street was approved at 52 stories and 615 feet. Even at its shorter height, the project would still eclipse the newly topped-off 495-foot tower at 727 W. Madison Street and take the title of Chicago’s tallest building west of the Kennedy.

The skyline-changing high-rise comes from developer Related Midwest—whose parent company owns Equinox fitness—as well as Connecticut-based design firm Roger Ferris + Partners and Chicago-based architect of record Perkins Eastman. The plan includes 165 hotel rooms, 370 luxury rental units, a 30,000-square-foot health club, 5,000 square feet of restaurant space, and 138 on-site parking spaces.

The height reduction from 58 to 52 floors isn’t the only apparent change to come out of this month’s Plan Commission meeting. A new street-level rendering highlights revisions to the facade, most notably the removal of the “inverted” three-part bay windows from the tower’s base. Floor heights and the glass windscreen shielding the amenity deck also appear to have been tweaked since February’s community presentation.

Next, the project will head to the Zoning Committee and the full Chicago City Council for its final okay. Related Midwest hopes to break ground on the Randolph Street project in early 2019 and is hosting a temporary “box shop” shipping container market in the meantime.

The busy developer is working to secure approval for a second residential tower at nearby 170 N. Peoria Street as well as exploring new Randolph streetscape improvements, including one option that could replace the roadway’s adjacent service drives with dedicated pedestrian spaces.

In addition to the Equinox project, July’s Plan Commission meeting resulted in city officials approving a Fulton Market office proposal for 310 N. Sangamon Street, a senior housing project at 4801 S. Cicero Avenue, and a plan to turn the Chicago Housing Authority’s former Ickes Homes, at 2200 S. State Street, into a sprawling mixed-use complex known as “Southbridge.”

Commission OKs 13-story building with 225,000 square feet of office space and ground-floor retail at 310 N. Sangamon. The developer will pay $2.4 million into the #ChicagoNOF system. It will be the largest #PassiveHouse commercial building in America @PassiveHouseCHI. pic.twitter.com/oQsK68zY2f — Chicago DPD (@ChicagoDPD) July 19, 2018

Commission approves four-story, 62-unit senior housing development at 4801 S. Cicero Ave. pic.twitter.com/BbEz5aUNn8 — Chicago DPD (@ChicagoDPD) July 19, 2018