Magellan Development Group

Magellan Development Group was founded in 1996 and works from 225 N. Columbus Drive in Chicago’s New Eastside. The firm develops high-rise residential, condominium, apartment and mixed-use property, and manages much of what it builds. Its signature work is Lakeshore East, the roughly $4 billion, 28-acre master-planned neighborhood between Michigan Avenue and Lake Shore Drive that brought residential density back to Chicago’s central business district. Magellan is now a partner with Tree Street Group on 410 North Elizabeth in Fulton Market, a two-tower, 724-unit development that broke ground in July 2026 and is the city’s first all-electric geothermal apartment high-rise. The firm keeps a small in-house team and builds project-specific partnerships.

Thirty-five large-scale projects and more than $8 billion of completed development stand behind the Magellan name. The firm counts over 11,000 residential units delivered and, by its own tally, 11,270 vertical feet of residential and mixed-use high-rise built.

Chicago is the base but no longer the boundary. Magellan describes itself as a national development, investment and management platform working in first- and second-tier cities, with recent completions including the St. Regis Hotel and Residences in Chicago, a dual-branded Thompson and Tommie hotel with a multifamily component in Austin, and the W Hotel in Nashville. Its stated focus is ground-up mixed-use hotel and residential product for institutional investors in high-barrier markets.

The forward pipeline the company publishes runs to nearly 2,900 hotel rooms, 1,500 hotel-branded condominium residences, 1,500 apartments and more than 1.5 million square feet of life-science office space.

Internally, Magellan carries design, legal and construction management professionals on staff rather than outsourcing those functions. David J. Carlins is chief executive officer and J.R. Berger is president; co-founder Joel M. Carlins holds the title of chairman emeritus. The senior roster also includes a chief financial officer, a general counsel, two vice presidents of architecture and design, and a vice president of residential asset management, which is consistent with a firm that holds and operates a share of what it builds.

Magellan and its affiliates report more than 60 awards. St. Regis Chicago took a 2022 Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat Award of Excellence for best tall mixed-use building and best tall building in the Americas, followed by an AIA Chicago people’s choice award in the tall building category in 2023. The company also claims the highest condominium in Chicago measured in feet above ground level, and the second-highest condominium sale price in the city’s history.

The resident-facing side is unusually developed for a builder. Magellan Rewards offers discounts from a network of local partners through an app; an artist-in-residence program is positioned as a building amenity; a community relations department handles ongoing resident relationships; and Magellan Gives directs charitable work toward children, education and public improvements.