River West is on the brink of welcoming a roughly $1.8 billion casino resort. Bally's Chicago Casino Resort has officially topped off at 34 stories above the North Branch of the Chicago River, roughly 1,000 tradespeople are working the site at 777 West Chicago Avenue, and Bally's Corporation reaffirmed in September that the permanent casino will open in early 2027.
The integrated resort will hold 500 hotel keys across the tower's 34 floors, with the casino, entertainment, and retail below them in a single program of about 680,000 square feet. The 30-acre parcel sits where Chicago Avenue meets the North Branch.
Before Bally's arrived, these 30 acres were a printing plant. The Chicago Tribune Freedom Center occupied the full riverfront parcel, and the tower now rises where the plant stood. The North Branch has been busy. Up the river on Goose Island, Onni Group's Halsted Pointe went vertical over the summer of 2026, a 46-story, 460-unit Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture design. In Fulton Market, VISTA Property's Pearl Fulton Market topped out in March 2026 at 32 floors and 494 units, designed by Antunovich Associates, while Sulo Development's Fulton Bond, a 33-floor, 149-unit Kohn Pedersen Fox tower, opened bookings in June. In the West Loop, Riverside Investment & Development's 566 West Van Buren topped out in September, with Antunovich Associates designing the 12-floor, 199-unit building.
The rest of the city hit its own marks this year. Related Midwest opened bookings in August at 400 Lake Shore Drive, its 72-story, 635-unit Skidmore, Owings & Merrill tower rising in Streeterville north of the river. In July, the same developer closed $424.9 million in city tax-increment financing for The 78 in the South Loop, a 10,000-unit district also designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
Bally's confirmed on September 23 that the Chicago casino remains on track for an early 2027 opening. The full resort's delivery is scheduled for the second quarter of 2027, with the hotel and the rest of the program following the gaming floor by a matter of months. The $1.8 billion tower enters its last months of construction as the one gaming-anchored project in a pipeline otherwise filled with residential towers.