Quietly nestled in the western Chicago suburbs, the village of Hillside is a developing municipality of more than 8,100 residents. A self-proclaimed “metro gateway”, this bedroom community boasts some attractive nearby amenities, including the Oakbrook Center Mall and the Brookfield Zoo.

For the Westbrook Condominiums, a 294-unit development on Wolf Road just north of 22nd Street, the property’s location alone is an enticing incentive for buyers. Westbrook residents can walk across the street to the Fresh Meadows Golf Course, and several restaurants and retail spots are just blocks from the property.

But for a limited time, says Jim Walsh, vice president of developer Interstate Properties Group, Westbrook buyers can upgrade kitchens and baths with new maple cabinets and granite countertops for free, and the developer will include a 42-inch flat-screen TV in each purchase. Additionally, Interstate Properties will shave two percent of the purchase price off closing costs and kick in $3,000 as a quick-closing incentive – on top of a standing offer from the developer to pay homeowner assessments for the first two years.

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Motor Row Development Corp. president Paul Zucker has 25 years of residential development experience under his belt, but that doesn’t stop him from exuding rookie enthusiasm at the mention of Motor Row Lofts. His firm’s 52-unit loft transformation of three historic properties at 2301 – 2315 S. Michigan Ave. sits squarely in the midst of the South Loop’s burgeoning Motor Row Historic District.

“We were drawn to this wonderful collection of turn-of-the-century – or should I say ‘last century’ – auto showrooms, designed by the city’s most famous architects,” says Zucker, referring to Holabird and Roche, who (as successors to Daniel Burnham) authored a plethora of Chicago landmark structures, among them Soldier Field and City Hall.

Back then, the giants of the auto industry displayed their wares in lavish buildings located in the area. Cadillac enlisted the architectural duo to design three structures that today define the neighborhood with their distinctive terra cotta façade and enormous windows. The five-story white Cadillac Building and its slightly shorter neighbors, the Cowles and the Saxon, were built between 1911 and 1915.

In those days, architects weren’t constrained by context. They were all trying to make their own unique statement.” Zucker says. “Holabird and Roche certainly succeeded with these three little jewels that have the flavor of the traditional Chicago loft look, yet are dramatic in their detail.”

Eventually the auto showrooms vanished, and then, according to the developer, “nothing happened.”

That is, until now. MRDC has restored, renovated and transformed the buildings into 52 luxury one-to three-bedroom loft residences with 36 different floor plans. And because the project is in the Motor Row Historic District, all original buyers benefit from an eight-year tax assessment freeze followed by four years of modest adjustments under the Illinois Property Tax Assessment Freeze Program.

The tax benefits are a huge selling point,” says Tina Feldstein, of Koenig & Strey GMAC Real Estate. “Buyers can afford to purchase much more for their money because the real estate taxes are a much smaller part of their annual costs.”

The beauty of the buildings’ stone, terra cotta and glass facades has been completely restored, according to Zucker. The shared ground floor lobby in the Cadillac building is replete with a 60-foot carpeted floor and 18-foot windows.

Two high speed elevators lead to the soundproofed loft residences, located on floors two through five, ranging from one to three bedrooms, with and without dens, with one to 2.5 baths. Square footage varies from 1,057 to 2,050 square feet.

The last of a dying breed in Chicago, the residences are lofts in the true sense of the word, according to Zucker. “We’re not back in the Flashdance era,” says Zucker. “But the exposed brick and ductwork, the heavy timber beams, the 13- to 20-foot ceilings, and the 10 to 15-foot windows certainly take these residences out of the overused ‘soft loft’ category.”

In January, prices began in the $310s and topped out in the $650s, with parking starting at $25,000. Motor Row Lofts were already 40 percent sold in January, according to Feldstein, who says the first units will be delivered in the spring of 2008.

-Story by Dan Schuyler, photography by Michael Kardas

by Dana Dubriwny

In the South Loop housing market, where homebuyers wade through a swell of newly constructed high-rises, loft living offers a tangible reminder of the city’s industrial past. History is a selling point, and Prairie District Lofts, 1727 S Indiana Ave, allows buyers to invest in the past.

“We found that the appeal of something that has history, something with exposed brick and timber, has more of an urban experience,” says Brian Giles, senior vice president of Kargil Development. “More so than the new construction, which can be found anywhere. These types of buildings are 100 years old and older, and you don’t get that everywhere.”

Built in 1905 for the commercial photography company Kodak, the building received a concrete addition around 1931 and was converted into a 116-unit apartment complex in 1994. In September 2007, Brian Giles, along with brother and business partner Keith, purchased the building and launched a $35 million condo conversion effort. (more…)

by Dana Dubriwny

Although River North has earned a reputation in recent years as a haven for high-rise development, it’s still possible to find something of the neighborhood’s gritty, industrial past hidden among the gleaming towers.

In its latest venture, development firm and River North landowner Cataldo/Marovitz Group has uncovered one of these urban gems. Forty loft homes are planned for a historic warehouse at 660 N Kingsbury Ave between Huron and Erie streets.

Rechristened the Park Kingsbury Residences, the building formerly housed a florist and today stands as “one of the latter turn-of-the-century timber loft conversions, representing a product and niche that is in high demand in this neighborhood,” says Rizzo Realty Group’s Carolyn Lester, sales manager for Park Kingsbury.

There is no doubt that area residents have supported the transformation of this building since its conception. When the Park Kingsbury was introduced to the River North Residents Association in May of 2007, it was met with overwhelming approval – which Lester credits to a neighborhood mantra of continuous renewal.

“The neighborhood is looking to reinvest in the value-driven River North sector, and many of these individuals do not have the kind of space they are looking for,” Lester says.

It was not long ago that the River North neighborhood was landscaped with warehouses and manufacturing facilities. Armed with a history that was transformed only 30 years ago, residents pride themselves on preserving the architectural diversity of the neighborhood while maintaining the chic and sophisticated image that has become River North.

Aptly named, River North is flanked by the Chicago River on the south and west sides; Michigan Avenue and Oak Street delineate the eastern and northern boundaries, respectively. The neighborhood boasts several renowned restaurants, including Harry Caray’s, House of Blues, Ed Debevic’s, Hard Rock Café and Rainforest Café.

During Park Kingsbury’s soft opening in 2007, 43 percent of the building was claimed in presales. Terese Cataldo, principal with Des Plaines, Ill.-based Cataldo Interiors Group Ltd., says the development’s early interest can be attributed in part to the high-end finishes selected for the Park Kingsbury units.

“Loft purchasers were getting tired of the same old interior elements inside, so my goal was to present a unit where a purchaser didn’t have to get any upgrades,” says Cataldo, whose company spearheaded the interior design of the building. “We went above and beyond what owners would receive as an upgrade at other developments.”
Calling it “the newest look in the modern urban loft,” Cataldo admits her inspiration for the interior finishes came from the Euro-style sophistication of the Milan, Italy’s fashion capital, combined with the lifestyle of the typical Chicago resident.

“Chicagoans are a blended people, with blended occupations and activities, and their home needs to reflect that,” Cataldo says. “What they all have in common is that they want a lifestyle that allows them to transition [from] casual to formal entertainment, and their home should reflect that. The units are like a good little black dress; you can dress them up or down.”

Park Kingsbury Residences, designed by local architecture firm FitzGerald Associates Architects, is comprised of 23 different floor plans, from 927-square-foot one-bedrooms priced from the $409s to custom three-bedroom-plus-den models starting at more than $1.1 million. The first deliveries are expected at the start of 2009.

Revisiting a childhood haunt can be heartrending – parks get paved over, houses torn down. But sometimes the ravages of time hold off, as they did recently for Tony Torres, president of Lyonhart Group, a residential developer. Torres grew up in Lake View, at Sheffield and Waveland avenues.

He remembers riding his bike to Wrigley Field to glide up and down the ramps and walking with his mother to church at St. Mary of the Lake, at Buena and Sheridan. On their route, they would pass a 1920s brick apartment building in the 3800 block of North Sheffield Avenue.

That was more than 40 years ago. Today, Torres owns the building, (more…)

Uptown and Edgewater contain perhaps the most varied housing stock in Chicago. Travel from the dense '60s high-rises that line Sheridan Road to the frame single-families and wide lawns of Edgewater Glen to the new flats wedged between shabby four-plus-ones on Winthrop and Kenmore to the mansions of Hutchinson Street, and you might feel as if you've been to a dozen neighborhoods.

In a sense, you have. (more…)

At 565 Quincy, 7-story loft plus 11 glass floors equals one eclectic building

Topping a vintage seven-story brick warehouse with 11 stories of glass is a bold architectural statement, but Belgravia Group is confident that 565 Quincy, a hybrid of lofts and new-construction condos, will be as funky and forward-looking as the buyers the developer is targeting.

Architectural firm Pappageorge / Haymes is transforming an existing 1920s tan brick and concrete warehouse into an 18-story high-rise. The older building will have 54 one- and two-bedroom lofts, and the vertical glass and metal addition will contain 187 one- and two-bedroom condos.

Pappageorge / Haymes is no novice when it comes to pastiche projects, having layered six stories of new construction atop a 10-story cold storage warehouse in the South Loop to create Dearborn Tower, also a mix of lofts and new condos. There the architect unified the disparate parts of the building by using similar materials and colors and by echoing the older building's square windows in the new floors. (more…)

On a typical day at the sales office for The Park Millennium, a condo conversion project on the New East Side, a guide takes four or five potential buyers on a group tour of the 480-unit building because there are too many shoppers for individual showings. (more…)

Rare condo conversions selling while luxury resales linger in Lincoln Park

Margot Huston was visiting her son at his rental apartment in the vintage highrise 2000 N Lincoln Park West when he gave her the heads-up that the building, with its killer views of the lake and Lincoln Park Zoo, was going condo. Mother and son quickly hatched a deal for her to buy. Carrie Sullivan heard colleagues at her real estate firm discussing the condo conversion of an old apartment building in Lincoln Park where junior one-bedrooms were selling in the low $200s. Did she want to buy? (more…)

Housing Watch

By the end of 2005, more than 4,000 rental units in downtown Chicago will have converted to condominiums, according to estimates by Appraisal Research Counselors. That represents the biggest conversion market since the record Chicago set in 1979, but the current crop of towers is much different than its '70s counterpart. (more…)