CHICAGO, Illinois (October 4, 2010) – Leopardo recently completed Tailor Lofts, a 10-story, 275,000-square-foot student residence, a development by Atlanta-based Place Properties in conjunction with Chicago-based Blue Vista Capital, which provides student housing for multiple nearby colleges and universities.

Located at 315 S. Peoria, the building features 135 student apartments containing 441 bedrooms. Each apartment is fully furnished with its own kitchen, granite countertops, dishwasher, microwave, 42” plasma TVs per bedroom, and individual bathrooms with almost every bedroom.

The first floor amenities include a tanning room, fitness center and custom lounge area with upgraded finishes, including a glass block wall with color-changing LED lighting, and 11,400 square feet of retail space. As part of the project, Leopardo also built a new two-story, 15,000-square-foot parking garage.

“Leopardo overcame several unexpected challenges to the already compressed 10-month schedule by aggressively managing its own self-performed trades of metal stud, drywall, rough and finish carpentry, taping and painting,” said Pierre Cowart, senior vice president at Leopardo. “We also design-built and self-performed the entire low-voltage infrastructure, including structured cabling, access control, audio and television, surveillance and telephony low-voltage. It was a massive project made successful by Leopardo’s active involvement at all levels of design and construction.”

The project utilized federal historic tax credits as the building required a combination of re-use, salvage and custom replacement of existing historical features, including perimeter windows, lobby areas and façade.

Leopardo served as the construction manager along with Fitzgerald Associates as architect.