If you’re familiar with the conventions for naming real estate developments you’ll immediately know that Edgebrook Glen is not in Chicago’s Edgebrook neighborhood and has no glen on site.
That knowledge is insufficient to prepare you for the radical disconnect between the way the development of 64 single-family homes was marketed and the reality of the site.
Edgebrook Glen was hyped 5 years ago as a lifestyle of woodsy tranquility in a community bordered by forest preserve. Its website still offers “homes for sale nestled alongside the Indian Woods Forest Preserve” and describes “tree-lined streets … wooded grounds and your own landscaped park.”
To gain access to Edgebrook Glen, which is in Jefferson Park, you pass through light industrial / warehousing uses along Elston Avenue and turn into a large CTA bus staging area on Armstrong Ave. As you enter the development you’re greeted by a sign informing you that you’re “on a park … in the heart of Chicago.”
Nothing you’ve read prepares you for what you actually see. About a third of the homes have been completed or are under construction. Forest preserve access is barred by fencing and most of the forest preserve is across a set of railroad tracks. There are no tree-lined streets or wooded grounds and the “landscaped park” is a pathetic thing.
Pre-construction prices five years ago ranged from the $680s to the $960s. Prices now start in the $380s and the developer is offering a $30K decorating credit for new homes. A home that sold for nearly $1,000,000 in September of 2007 went into foreclosure and came back on the market in January of last year for $450,000.
And that woodsy tranquility is interrupted every few minutes by the roar of jet planes on a flight path toward O’Hare Airport.