Important dates in
Marina City history
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September 14, 1959 – Plans announced to local media.
November 22, 1960 – Groundbreaking ceremony.
February 16, 1961 – A construction fund account is opened with $20 million at Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company.
April 30, 1961 – Writing in the Chicago Daily Tribune, Marina City architect Bertrand Goldberg says downtown areas are being turned into “canyons of glass and steel, teeming with office workers during weekdays but deserted nights and weekends.”
September 1, 1961 – Financing is completed for the $36 million project.
September 15, 1961 – Three construction workers being hoisted on a form for concrete are killed when the form tilts and they fall 43 stories.
October 3, 1961 – Bertrand Goldberg Associates files for a permit to construct the 16-story office building on the north edge of the site.
January 9, 1962 – Two model apartments open to the public at 316 West Randolph Street, the office of the rental agent, Marina Management Corporation.
June 19, 1962 – A second accident in the east tower injures seven workers when a gear shaft holding a construction hoist breaks, causing it to fall ten stories.
August 30, 1962 – Wooden crates on the 45th floor cause the first reported fire at Marina City.
September 24, 1962 – William Jones, a plasterer, slips on sand as he jumps from one balcony to another and falls 40 stories off the east tower, becoming the fourth construction worker to die while building Marina City.
October 14, 1962 – The first tenants move into the east residential tower.
October 29, 1962 – The Illinois Department of Financial Institutions announces a charter has been issued to Marina City Bank.
November 22, 1962 – Dedication ceremony.
January 12, 1963 – The first tenants move into the west residential tower.
February 5, 1963 – The first fire in an occupied apartment is put out by firefighters who carry hand pumps by elevator to the 31st floor of the east tower.
February 12, 1963 – The first passenger car drives up to the 19th floor of one of the parking ramps.
May 8, 1963 – It is announced that Hilton Hotels Corporation has signed a $2 million lease to operate the restaurant at Marina City.
November 6, 1963 – Phillips Petroleum Company signs a multi-million dollar 20-year lease to operate the marina.
February 25, 1964 – Marina City Bank opens at the east end of the office building on the main floor.
March 2, 1964 – National Design Center officially opens.
April 11, 1964 – The three main dining rooms at Marina City are shown off for the first time to a private benefit for Saint Joseph Hospital.
June 1, 1964 – The marina at Marina City opens.
July 10, 1964 – Marina Management Corporation, led by Charles Swibel, purchases from the Building Service Employees International Union full control of Marina City for $2,625,000.
September 25, 1970 – Marina Cinemas, a triplex movie theater, opens at Marina City with The Hawaiians, Hello, Dolly!, and M*A*S*H.
May 5, 1972 – Gloria Kirkpatrick, the young, pretty manager of the movie theaters at Marina City, is stabbed to death in the middle of the afternoon at Marina City.
August 4, 1977 – The property management company announces to tenants the apartments at Marina City will be converted to condominium units.
September 21, 1979 – For the Paramount Pictures film The Hunter, starring Steve McQueen, a green 1980 Grand Prix Pontiac is launched off the west tower parking ramp into the Chicago River.
June 6, 1981 – At Marina City, First Deputy Superintendent James Riordan becomes the highest-ranking Chicago police officer killed in action.
May 27, 1987 – William Goodstein resigns as Marina City’s first condo board president a week after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges he looted from the employee pension fund of a company in Naperville.
November 3, 1988 – It is announced that the commercial property – everything except the residential floors – will be sold at an auction later in the month.
November 18, 1988 – Marina City Associates, owner of commercial property at Marina City, files for bankruptcy.
November 22, 1988 – Matas Corporation is the successful bidder for the commercial portion of Marina City, purchasing from a bankrupt partnership led by Ellison Trine Starnes, Jr., who had acquired the property from Charles Swibel in 1983. Matas soon backs out of the deal.
November 21, 1990 – After a deal falls through for Hiffman Shaffer Anderson Inc. to purchase the commercial property, Judge Richard L. Curry orders a mortgage foreclosure judgment that had been pending since 1987.
May 3, 1991 – Police raid a Marina City apartment and seize 285 guns, the largest single seizure of weapons in Chicago. They later realize the weapons were properly owned by a licensed gun collector.
May 6, 1991 – A suspect in three rapes and robberies in downtown Chicago, who had escaped earlier in the day from Cook County Jail, is captured at Marina City after allegedly attacking a woman in the lobby.
September 27, 1992 – Writing in the Chicago Tribune, J. Linn Allen describes Marina City as “a seedy, crumbling wreck, overwhelmed by so many problems that any near-term solution appears unlikely.”
November 11, 1994 – John L. Marks announces plans for major renovations after buying the commercial property at Marina City for $3.35 million.
September 14, 1995 – Developer John Marks and entrepreneur Isaac Tigrett announce plans for what will become the House of Blues nightclub and hotel. HOB investors Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi, and John Goodman arrive at Marina City by rail car and perform.
November 23, 1996 – House of Blues opens at Marina City.
October 8, 1997 – Marina City architect Bertrand Goldberg dies.
February 26, 1998 – Loews Hotels is selected to operate the House of Blues hotel.
April 15, 1998 – Smith & Wollensky opens a restaurant in a new structure that replaces the skating rink.
March 26, 2001 – The involuntary bankruptcy case of Marina City Associates officially closes after 12 years, four months, and nine days.
February 22, 2006 – House of Blues Hotel and adjacent commercial property is sold to LaSalle Hotel Properties for $114.5 million.
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