Photos: Checking in on Salesforce Tower at Wolf Point

Roughly a year after breaking ground along the banks of the Chicago River, downtown's Salesforce Tower is more than 20 floors in the air. The building's concrete core continues to soar skyward and workers have been installing structural steel beams for the past several weeks.

Developer Hines Interests and crews from Walsh Construction started work on the $800 million project in April 2020 and have persevered through the pandemic, stay-at-home orders, and economic uncertainty.

The three-building Wolf Point project occupies a small peninsula where the main, north, and south branches of the Chicago River come together.Rendering by Steelblue/Pelli Clarke Pelli

The 60-story, 820-foot-tall office tower represents the third and final phase of the three-building Wolf Point Development. It is flanked by the existing 485-foot Wolf Point West apartments and the 660-foot Wolf Point East rental high-rise.

Designed by architecture firm Pelli Clarke Pelli, Salesforce Tower Chicago features a glassy curtain wall facade, underground parking, and a continuation of Wolf Point's publicly accessible riverwalk.

Anchor tenant Salesforce will occupy 500,000 square feet in the 1.2 million-square-foot building. The deal gives the company not only naming rights for the tower previously known as Wolf Point South, but also corporate signage at its crown.

The riverfront skyscraper is on pace to finish construction by the end of 2022 and welcome its first tenants in early 2023. In the meantime, downtown Chicago's office market grapples with COVID-related record vacancies and the growing work-from-home trend.

Upcoming developments like Salesforce Tower and the 1.5 million-square-foot BMO Tower (under construction near Union Station) will add even more supply to the mix. It's entirely possible that these projects may be the last new office skyscrapers to break ground in Chicago for some time.

Salesforce Tower is rising between the apartment buildings of Wolf Point West (left) and Wolf Point East (right).Harry Carmichael