was originally zoned for two 35 to 50-story buildings. Originally, it was to be sold by a joint venture of LR Development Company of Chicago and JER Partners of Virginia for $64 million to Christopher Carley of the Fordham Company. After numerous short-term extensions, and later Carley's failure to obtain financing, Kelleher of Shelbourne Development purchased the land instead and pledged to finance the rest of the project. DuSable Park When the project was first announced, the Fordham Company pledged almost $500,000 to assist in the development of the city's proposed DuSable Park, which would adjoin the property of the Chicago Spire. DuSable Park would cover and a $11.4 million budget was planned for its renovation. On March 26, 2007, Shelbourne pledged to pay $6 million toward the development of the park, making up the deficit left over from the city's own initial pledge of $6 million and far exceeding the Fordham Co's initial offer. In May 2007 Shelbourne's pledge jumped to $9.6 million. Soil tests performed in December 2000 on the soil of the proposed park showed contamination of radioactive thorium. Thorium was used by the Lindsay Light Company, which operated a location nearby. After the closing of the location in the 1930s, contaminated soil was dumped on the location of the proposed park. In March 2003, the Chicago Park District stated that the thorium clean-up on that land was incomplete. Hazards of contamination can be avoided by laying a minimum of of concrete over any affected soil, an approach that would be more feasible for the site of the Chicago Spire than for the adjacent park. In 2012 the Chicago Park District received funding from the EPA for remediation of the site, bagging the radioactive soil and shipping it to a Superfund site. By summer 2013 the Park District website reported the remediation had been completed by September 2012. Architecture As with many of his designs, Calatrava was inspired by themes and designs in nature for the tall, twisting skyscraper. He likened the structure to an imaginary smoke spiral coming from a campfire near the Chicago River lit by Native Americans indigenous to the area, and also related the building's newly designed pinnacle to the "graceful" and "rotating forms" of a snail shell. Standing at , the Chicago Spire would have further transformed the always-growing Chicago skyline. Plans for the tower included 1,193 condominiums with each of the