The shops at the base of Tribune Tower are filling up for a second time, and the second time looks different from the first. The tenants that opened between 2022 and 2024 were a museum, a German watchmaker's boutique, a piercing studio and a specialty café. The ones signed in 2026 are a fast-casual lunch counter, an athletic apparel store, an optician and a tax-software storefront. They answer to a different owner, and they serve a different kind of visit. All of it is coming together a few weeks before the biggest crowd Pioneer Court sees all year arrives on Saturday, November 21.
Two Owners, Two Rounds of Leases
The Real Deal reported on September 30 that North American Real Estate, the Chicago investor led by Savas Er, bought the retail portion of Tribune Tower last year in anticipation of a Magnificent Mile rebound. The first group of tenants came through earlier announcements from CIM Group. The newer group has been reported over the past three months by Crain's Chicago Business and The Real Deal.
| Tenant | What it is | When it arrived at 435 N. Michigan |
|---|---|---|
| Museum of Ice Cream | Interactive installations and ice cream tastings | Opened July 16, 2022 |
| Blue Bottle Coffee | Specialty café | Lease announced June 2022 |
| Rowan | Ear piercing and jewelry studio | Lease announced September 2022; opened by January 2024 |
| A. Lange & Söhne | Watch boutique | Lease announced December 2023 |
| Intuit TurboTax | Tax-software retail store | Reported by Crain's August 21, 2026 |
| FARE | Fast-casual bowls and plates | Took Foxtrot's former plaza-facing space, reported September 2026 |
| Lululemon | Athletic apparel, 12,000 square feet | Lease reported September 29, 2026 |
| Big City Optical | Eyewear | Lease reported September 2026 |
The earlier tenants mostly give people a reason to make a special trip. A timed ticket to the Museum of Ice Cream and an appointment at a watch boutique are planned outings. The 2026 tenants are places you stop at on the way to somewhere else: lunch, a pair of running tights, an eye exam, help with a tax return. For anyone living upstairs, that changes what is available in the building's own footprint on an ordinary Tuesday.
The timing has a market explanation. The Real Deal reported in September 2026 that the availability rate for Magnificent Mile retail had fallen to 26.1 percent. At the worst of the pandemic it was 33.8 percent, and the 2026 figure is about three points lower than a year earlier. Er told the same publication in June that most of the space still available on the Mag Mile sits on upper floors, and that street-level storefronts are becoming scarcer as retailers come back. Tribune Tower's ground floor is the kind of space he was describing.
The Corner Facing Pioneer Court
The clearest sign of the change is the roughly 1,800-square-foot storefront that faces the plaza. That was Foxtrot's space. Foxtrot and its sister brand Dom's Kitchen & Market closed all their Chicago stores on April 23, 2024, according to Block Club Chicago, and the parent company said it had found "no viable option" to keep going.
FARE has since moved into that storefront, according to The Real Deal's account of the Crain's report. FARE grew up in Chicago. Its founders started with a food-hall counter at Wells and Wacker after years of cooking for dinner parties, and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association dates the first café to fall 2018. The current menu is built around seasonal ingredients. Diners choose a base of greens or grains, then add vegetables, a protein and a sauce, or order one of the set plates. The chain also has locations in the Loop, Old Town, Lakeview, Logan Square, Oak Park and on LaSalle.
Foxtrot sold coffee, groceries and grab-and-go meals. FARE fills the same storefront with a lunch counter. Facing Pioneer Court, it puts an everyday meal right outside the residential entrance.
What Stayed Through the Turnover
The newer tenants join a group that has held its place through the Mag Mile's slower years, and those earlier tenants still anchor the building's draw.
Museum of Ice Cream. The Chicago location opened at Tribune Tower on July 16, 2022. Inside are the Sprinkle Pool, a Chicago-themed "Sprink-L," mini golf and displays on the history of ice cream. The museum's site describes a self-guided visit of about 90 minutes. Timed general admission with unlimited ice cream starts at $24, flexible admission at $32 and VIP at $49, and prices vary by day and time. The museum is closed Tuesdays. It opens at 10 a.m. on Saturdays and stays open until 9 p.m.
Rowan. This ear-piercing and jewelry studio says its piercings are done by licensed nurses using hypoallergenic jewelry. It opened at Tribune Tower around the start of 2024 as its third Chicago location.
Blue Bottle Coffee and A. Lange & Söhne appear on the current roster at The Shops at Tribune Tower, along with Lululemon, FARE, Big City Optical and Intuit. Blue Bottle's lease was announced in June 2022, and A. Lange & Söhne's in December 2023.
Put the two groups together and the ground floor now covers a much wider range. A visitor can spend an afternoon there on a planned outing, and someone who lives upstairs can pick up lunch on the way out the door.
November 21 at the Front Door
On festival day the building's location at the river end of the avenue matters more than usual. The Magnificent Mile Association is holding the 35th Wintrust Magnificent Mile Lights Festival on Saturday, November 21, 2026, and the day starts and ends a few steps from Tribune Tower. Here is the schedule from the association's festival guide:
- 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Booths open along Lights Festival Lane at 401 N. Michigan Ave., which is Pioneer Court.
- 3 p.m. North Michigan Avenue closes from Oak Street to Wacker Drive, and Upper Wacker closes from Michigan Avenue to the east turnaround.
- 5 p.m. Upper Columbus closes from Wacker Drive to Randolph Street.
- 5:30 p.m. The parade leaves Oak Street and Michigan Avenue and heads south toward Wacker Drive, passing Tribune Tower near the end of the route.
- 7:15 p.m. The Wintrust Fireworks Spectacular goes off over the Chicago River at Michigan Avenue.
- 7:30 p.m. The main street closures lift.
Mickey and Minnie Mouse are this year's grand marshals. The parade includes floats, marching bands and Santa, and Wintrust presents the event with Enjoy Illinois and Chicagoland Kia Dealers as partners. According to Choose Chicago, ABC7 will broadcast the parade on Sunday, November 22, for anyone who would rather watch it the next day.
If you have a car in the building, the closure window is the part to plan around. From 3 to 7:30 p.m., Michigan Avenue and Upper Wacker are both shut beside the tower, so drop-offs, deliveries and rides home need to land before or after those hours. Several streets farther north close as early as 8 a.m. for staging, including the curb lanes on Clark Street and Delaware Street. Anyone hosting visitors can point them to the 10 percent parking discount at the four Millennium Garages, valid November 20 through 23 with the promo code LIGHTS26.
This is the first Lights Festival since the 2026 leases were signed. Crowds will spend the afternoon on Pioneer Court in front of a ground floor that has more on it than last year. The Museum of Ice Cream's posted Saturday hours run past the fireworks, and FARE now holds the corner the plaza crowd walks past.
At Tribune Tower, the new tenants have made the base of the building more useful on ordinary days, not only on special trips. If you own at 435 N. Michigan, or you're weighing how a building's retail affects the value of a residence above it, Mike Larson can walk you through what this round of leasing means at the building level. Schedule a confidential consultation.
