South Loop's Wells Street Is Becoming a Construction Corridor to Watch — and a New Fitness Studio Is Filling a Long-Empty State Street Gym
By Socialhood News · South Loop ·
South Loop neighbors, two developments that have been quietly building toward critical milestones are worth catching up on this week: the Wells Street corridor along the Chicago River is rising fast, and a fitness concept that is genuinely new to the neighborhood just moved into a State Street address that has been dark for too long.
Start on Wells Street, where CMK Companies is executing what may be the most ambitious stretch of residential construction currently active anywhere in the South Loop. The company's Riverline master plan along the South Branch of the Chicago River has two major towers in motion simultaneously. At 1010 S. Wells, a 21- to 22-story glass-clad tower is actively rising — a November 3 drone flight captured the site in what observers described as a high-energy phase of vertical construction. That project is the same one for which CMK landed an $83 million construction loan earlier in 2026, a financing milestone that locked the building's trajectory firmly in place.
Just to the south, CMK's 910 S. Wells project — a 28-story mixed-use building designed by Gensler — cleared its piles permit in July 2026, clearing the way for foundation work to begin. The 910 S. Wells building is planned to include 350 residential units and 3,300 square feet of ground-floor retail, along with an outdoor amenity space for residents and a pedestrian connection directly to the Chicago Riverwalk. CMK received site plan approval for 910 S. Wells in November 2025, and the piles permit issued this summer marked the project's transition from approved plans to active ground disturbance.
Taken together, 1010 S. Wells and 910 S. Wells represent a concentrated bet on a stretch of the neighborhood that sits between the existing Riverline residential buildings to the north and The 78 mega-development site to the south — a corridor that, when these buildings deliver, will have transformed the South Branch riverfront from a largely industrial and underutilized edge into one of the denser and more walkable stretches of the South Loop. The riverwalk connection planned for 910 S. Wells is a particularly meaningful detail: it means future residents won't just be adjacent to the river, they'll have a pedestrian path that ties them directly into one of Chicago's most beloved public amenities.
Meanwhile, over on S. State Street, a gap in the neighborhood's fitness landscape is finally getting filled. Club Studio is moving into 819 S. State St. — the second-floor gym space with a street-level entrance at the base of the condo building that has been sitting empty since XSport Fitness closed. The space has a history worth knowing: XSport held it for years before its chain was folded into LA Fitness, the parent company of Club Studio's operator, Fitness International. That means, by a roundabout route, the same corporate family that vacated the space is now the one bringing it back to life — this time under a concept that is meaningfully different from a standard big-box gym.
Club Studio's format at 819 S. State will include Pilates reformer equipment, cryotherapy, and cardio trampolines — a boutique-fitness stack that reflects what the South Loop's residential demographic has been seeking and largely leaving the neighborhood to find. Construction is underway at the site as of September 2026; no opening date has been confirmed yet, but the work is active and the concept is set.
For South Loop residents who live in the dense residential towers along S. Indiana, S. Michigan, and S. Wabash, the Club Studio opening will represent the return of a fitness option within walking distance on a block that has needed one. The Pilates-and-cryotherapy format also points toward the kind of wellness-focused boutique studio that has taken root in Lincoln Park and the West Loop but has had limited presence in this neighborhood's own retail fabric.
South Loop neighbors: are you watching the cranes rise on Wells Street and tracking what CMK's Riverline corridor will look like when both towers are finished? And if you've been driving or taking the train to a Pilates studio elsewhere in the city, is Club Studio at 819 S. State the reason you've been waiting to work out closer to home? Drop what you know — and what you're curious about — on Socialhood.
Sources:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ4Ifu60f80
2. https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2026/07/20/cmk-grabs-permit-to-launch-28-story-south-loop-high-rise/
3. http://www.sloopin.com/
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverline_(development)