JDL Development

JDL Development is a Chicago residential developer that’s spent more than three decades building high-end towers around the city. By its own count, JDL has developed more than 3,500 units and 6 million square feet, with 5,000-plus units in the pipeline and about $2.5 billion in capitalization behind it. Its biggest bet is Foundry Park, the riverfront neighborhood it’s building with Kayne Anderson Real Estate on the former A. Finkl & Sons steel site along the North Branch of the Chicago River, land JDL bought in 2025 after the Lincoln Yards plan stalled. The full build-out is pegged at $3 billion through 2034. Phase one broke ground Oct. 21 with Power Construction as GC.

JDL was founded in 1993 by Jim Letchinger. Its offices sit on the second floor of One Chicago at 14 West Superior, which is to say the firm works out of a building it developed.

One Chicago is also the clearest measure of what JDL builds: 2.2 million gross square feet of mixed-use luxury multifamily and, by the firm’s count, the sixth tallest building in Chicago. North Union is the bigger play, an eight-acre master plan of twelve buildings in downtown Chicago, with 868 and 920 North Wells among the early phases. Foundry Park adds a 31-acre riverfront site on the Near North Side.

Two figures on the project list read as market signals rather than marketing. No 9 Walton set Illinois’s record sale price at $58.75 million. 1225 Old Town sold in 2013 for $156.9 million. Both are JDL’s own numbers.

The portfolio is neither purely Chicago nor purely high-rise. Caretta, in Florida’s Juno Beach, is 95 residences near the ocean. The team pages describe a hospitality portfolio, multifamily renovation work, custom single-family homes and smaller townhome projects alongside the towers — a wider range than the skyline reputation implies.

Capital is where the depth shows. Mary Dooley, who serves on the board of the Real Estate Finance Forum, has closed more than $7 billion in capital across financing types. John Plunkett is a registered architect. Anthony Davila holds a real estate broker’s licence. Joey Letchinger’s remit covers residential buyer construction and multifamily renovation, and separately a set of restaurant partnerships — DJ’s Great Room, Layla and Ringo, Gemini Grill, Petit Pomeroy and Sophia Steak — which explains the food-and-beverage programming that turns up in the firm’s mixed-use buildings. Doug Metzger’s work spans the North Union buildings; Garrett Andrew came in from a prior role covering the Midwest and Eastern Canada.

JDL publishes no social profiles on its site. Enquiries go through info@jdlcorp.com or 312.642.9797, at 14 West Superior Street, Suite 200.