We asked one prominent South Loop developer how sales have been at his latest project, and he told us, “Great, until about six months ago, when they haven’t been.” The real estate market was showing signs of slowing even before the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, which has hit residential sales hard.

You’d never know that, however, from taking a ride through the South Loop, which remains a sea of construction sites. In mid-October, New Homes counted around 40 significant residential developments, totaling more than 2,300 units, underway in the South Loop. Many of those homes have sold, and the developments range from buildings that have not yet broken ground to properties that are complete and offer nearly immediate occupancy. (more…)

The dark-haired, dark-eyed woman in the white dress twirls her wrists and snaps her castanets, her skirt swiveling with the movement of her hips, her feet beating a staccato rhythm on the pavement. Some passersby stop to watch, others move on to the booths where vendors are hawking ceramic rice bowls or oil paintings or gold bracelets in the shape of slinkies at the Bucktown Arts Fest, which features the work of nearly 200 artists.

The event is packed, and the late August afternoon is warm, creating a sort of human stew in which the main ingredients of Bucktown and Wicker Park, its neighbor to the south, seem to be simmering: a mix of Latino culture, independent artists and hordes of well-heeled shoppers. That combination echoes the neighborhoods’ recent history: the influx of Puerto Rican and other Latino immigrants that peaked in the ’60s and ’70s, followed by a wave of artists looking for cheap studio space in the ’80s, giving way during the last decade or so to young, affluent professionals.

These broad trends are composed of individual lives, each a thread in the larger fabric of neighborhood growth. We talked with five residents of Wicker Park and Bucktown, seeking out stories of neighborhood change writ small. Some, like the artist Caroline Picard, are relative newcomers. Others, like Brian Culliton and Ruth Vandemark, came just before the recent wave of gentrification. Others, like Miriam and Gerardo Cerdas, have been there for decades. (more…)

By Kate Hawley

The showdown between residents of the Dakota condominium building and Circuits Nightclub has become something of a touchstone in Lake View, often surfacing in discussions about neighborhood development.

In early 2002, shortly after residents moved into the Dakota, 3631 N. Halsted St., some of them began complaining about the noise at Circuits, one door north. The dispute escalated to the point that Dakota residents Evelyn and Tom DiLisio launched an initiative to ban the sale of alcohol in Circuits’ precinct. That would have effectively shut down the club, and with it, part of the Lake View neighborhood’s party-centric Boystown strip.

The initiative lacked enough signatures to get on the ballot in the Nov. 2, 2004 election, and these days, the furor about the noise has subsided (not least because Circuits is closed for renovations, according to Mike Hines, a Dakota resident). Circuits supporters chalked it up as a victory over the growing mass of high-end condos that has sprung up along the neighborhood's main arteries – condos whose owners hope to enjoy their pricey new homes without thudding music, shouting revelers or other urban noise. But if Lake View's vibrant, eclectic commercial environment won that battle, it's struggling to prevail in a larger war. (more…)

As you follow the Chicago River northwest, past Lake View, the factories and skyscrapers that line its banks to the south give way to foliage so thick, it’s easy to think you’re in the country.

Industrial and office buildings are replaced with parks and single-family homes, some palatial by city standards, perched uphill from the water, their private (often illegal) docks jutting into the river. Increasingly, the view from the river also takes in condo buildings and townhomes, either recently completed or under construction.

The neighborhoods that the river traverses as it snakes through the Northwest Side of Chicago range from urban and eclectic to solidly middle class, verging on suburban. Each has its own character, but all have drawn growing numbers of homebuyers – and builders – across a waterway once treated as little more than an open sewer.

Today, however, the North Branch of the Chicago River is considered an amenity, and it has become a catalyst for development. Builders even highlight it in the names of Northwest Side projects such as North Branch Condominiums, RiverHouse and North River Court – something that would have been unthinkable not long ago. River tours are conducted in canoes, and bike paths follow the river’s snaking route. (more…)

A neighborhood on the cusp of "emerging" is by now such a familiar notion in real estate that we hardly pay attention when we hear the story.

You already know all the elements: a diminishing industrial base (thinned further by relocation of businesses to more modern facilities) leaves a glut of industrial building stock, which is discovered by bohemian types,
who are followed by art galleries, which are followed by hip restaurants and clubs, which are followed by upscale residents, who may or may not be followed, ultimately, by retail, entertainment and recreational uses of the kind that, generally, make a place livable.

Think New York's SoHo, Philadelphia's Northern Liberties, or even Cleveland's Flats.

Do I have to tell you that Chicago's West Loop, which stretches roughly from the Chicago River on the east to Ashland Avenue on the west, and from Grand Avenue on the north to the Eisenhower Expressway on the south, is on the cusp? The real question is whether it will spill over that cusp and become a "real neighborhood." (more…)

Compiling a list of "hot" neighborhoods in a cooler market might, on its surface, seem like an exercise in futility, but there is perhaps no better time to seek out a pioneering neighborhood. This is a buyers' market, and if you're looking for long-term appreciation, shopping for a new-construction home at a time when builders are willing to bargain makes sense.

The market for new homes is cooler, but it's far from cold. During the first quarter of 2007, only half as many condos sold downtown as during the first quarter of '06, but developers also have unveiled far fewer units. The number of condos sold downtown during the first quarter of '07 was about the same as the number that started marketing programs, according to Gail Lissner, of Appraisal Research Counselors.

The trick for those who want in on the ground-floor of an up-and-coming neighborhood is figuring out where the heat is – or is likely to be in the not-too-distant future. Enter the New Homes list. Our definition of a hot neighborhood is one in which homes haven't already experienced galloping rates of appreciation but are poised to see above-average increases in housing values. (more…)

Every morning in his office reception area, Albert Friedman passes a set of wooden display cases, the kind most people use to show off fine china or trophies. But Friedman's cases are filled with old beer cans – Schlitz, Bud, Huber – battered wine bottles and dusty half-pints whose whisky was drained decades ago.

The flotsam and jetsam, collected during years of rehabbing River North's historic buildings, serves as a constant reminder of the neighborhood's sordid past and how far it has traveled since Friedman, president of Friedman Properties, acquired his first building there in the late '60s. (more…)

Mention Chicago real estate and some immediately conjure images of Lake Shore Drive and the Magnificent Mile, sleek glass towers and architectural wonders. But those who know the city well think of neighborhoods, and when one is revitalized, the process elicits at least as much pride for Chicagoans as any Gehry bandshell or Miesian masterpiece.

Parkside of Old Town is a case in point. The project, from developers Kimball Hill Urban Centers, Holsten Real Estate Development Corp. and the Cabrini-Green LAC Community Development Corp., will ultimately bring 790 new homes to eight square blocks in the Old Town area, bounded by Larrabee, Division and Oak streets and Seward Park.

(more…)

Massive mixed-income communities replace projects in bold effort to remake a neighborhood

Story by Kate Hawley | Photos by Jon Randolph

Rosemary Coleman has some disturbing memories from the 20 years she lived in the Chicago Housing Authority's Madden Park Homes - bullet casings littering the sidewalks, addicts lining up for dealers stocked with fresh supplies, a neighbor who got shot "right in the street," she says. "It was really nervy."

But when she learned Madden Park was one of the many CHA projects slated for demolition, she had no interest in moving to the mixed-income community that would be built in its place.

"I said, 'I ain't moving. I ain't going nowhere,'" she says. (more…)

See also: New construction is being added to area conversions 

New restaurants, retail, nightlife create hotspots in Uptown, Edgewater

Story by Alison Soltau  |  Photography by Jim Newberry

Decades ago, builders and landlords tried to use Truman College as a springboard for revitalizing a rough patch of Uptown. Plans called for rehabbing buildings around the school at 1145 W. Wilson Ave. and developing businesses that would cater to students, creating a symbiotic relationship between campus and the neighborhood. (more…)