If you’ve strolled (or floated) down the main stem of the Chicago River in the last 4 years, you’ve probably spotted the unfinished concrete skeleton at 111 W. Wacker Drive. The building, to be called the Waterview Tower, epitomized the 2008 recession. Construction started in 2006 with a grand vision for a 90-story luxury hotel with high-rise condominiums which would be sold using the fractional ownership model where they charge four people full price for a condo and tell them they only get a certain number of days per year to use their property (wonder why that brilliance didn’t pan out..)

Unfortunately, after the recession hit and funds for the project dried up, work on the building halted after only getting concrete poured for about 20 floors.  Down came the crane, out went all of the equipment, and there it has sat going on four long years, blocking a lane of traffic on Clark and running the lights regularly (who’s footing that electric bill?) Negotiations for a new loan package on the building fell through in 2009, and eventually even partner Shangri-La Hotels pulled out of the deal, putting the prospects for the project further into limbo.

However, after changing hands last year (and seriously scaling down the plans for the building), it appears as though things are about to kick off again.  With us sitting at multi-year highs in the stock market and optimism starting to rear its head again – the way that the building echoed the 2008 recession (impractical optimism that came to a screeching halt when reality reared its ugly head), we can’t help but wonder whether the resumption of work on this monument to the credit crisis might be a sign that we’re nearing the top of this post-recession rally. Will Waterview Tower be the bubble-o-meter again?