Every year, New Homes takes a step back and surveys the new-construction and rehab landscape to determine which projects represent the cream of the housing crop. We’ve singled out six projects, ranging from a townhouse development on the Northwest Side to a super-luxury high-rise near the Gold Coast, as our favorites from 2008.

This time around, we chose to focus solely on projects where construction has already begun, and where homes are either ready for occupancy or on pace to delivering in 2009.

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Developers always put on smiles and spout assurances of success when a real-estate market goes sour. But when pressed, few are willing or able to come up with hard figures to back their sunny claims.

That’s what makes Brian Giles’ confidence so impressive. Giles, a senior vice president at Kargil Development and a partner with the Frankel & Giles real-estate team, has developed or marketed more than a dozen South Loop projects over the past 15 years, and he can back up his bragging about his companies’ latest projects with real numbers.

“I have the numbers right here, so I can tell you that as of today, we’ve sold 72 of the 116 units at Prairie District Lofts, and we’re averaging about a sale a week these days,” Giles said in late July.

Prairie District Lofts, one of two developments Frankel & Giles is marketing in the South Loop, is one of the neighborhoods last “true loft” projects, Giles says. The timber and concrete lofts are inside a 103-year-old brick building in the 1700 block of South Indiana Avenue. The building was home to a commercial photography company before being converted into rental apartments. Kargil has converted those units into one- to three-bedroom condominiums with renovated bathrooms and kitchens.

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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.

Baseball pitchers love corners, and so does Bob Horner, president of Winthrop Properties. Winthrop is developing Printers Corner, a 17-story condo tower where every home is a corner unit.

“Obviously that has to be the first thing you mention when someone asks you about the building,” says Mike DeRouin, of FitzGerald Associates Architects, the firm that designed Printers Corner, located at 170 W. Polk St., in the South Loop’s Printers Row enclave. “But the building brings a unique presence to the neighborhood in another important way.

“The lower portion blends in with the brick façades of the neighborhood, yet you know something is happening above it because we brought the tower design down through the base to ground level.” (more…)

The rolling hills of Bucks County, Penn., feel a long way from suburban Chicago – unless you happen to be driving down Laurel Avenue in Lake Forest. CBI Custom Homes channeled the historic region in its latest project, a rambling six-bedroom mansion at 172 W. Laurel Ave. that evokes Bucks County’s stock of Quaker-inspired stone houses.

That influence is most obvious in the home’s central section, made from gray New England granite, according to Brett Marlowe, CBI president. The stone structure is flanked by white clapboard wings. Graduated slate roofs cover each section of the house, and its street-facing windows are framed with crown moldings.

“The big difference between our company and other luxury homebuilders is that we confine ourselves strictly to creating period-specific homes,” Marlowe says. (more…)

It’s no secret that people in Lincoln Park love big homes. Any cursory tour of the North Side neighborhood will reveal enormous houses rising on double- or even triple-sized city lots, many of them ornate faux-historical creations with jumbo price tags.

“In Lincoln Park, there are some extraordinary numbers that come out when people can assemble residential lots,” says John Murphy, a principal in Ricker Murphy Development, LLC.

He ought to know. Ricker Murphy is building Lincoln Park 2520, an ultra-luxury high-rise at 2520 N. Lakeview Ave., overlooking the park and Lake Michigan from the sort of site that rarely becomes available in the pricey, popular, highly developed neighborhood. (more…)

Designing a building for CMK President Colin Kihnke can be a challenging task for an architect. Known for his bent toward contemporary, cutting-edge design and his propensity for blending art and architecture, Kihnke invariably asks a lot from his supporting cast.

CMK’s newest building, 235 Van Buren, a 46-story condominium tower, is no exception. “This project was value-driven from the outset,” Kihnke says. “I want to be able to tell my buyers that they are paying less than they would down the street. So I asked the architect to create a world-class building that I can sell at an economy-class price.”

Ralph Johnson has obliged. Johnson, design director at Perkins & Will, is the world-renowned architect who designed CMK’s award-winning Contemporaine condo building in River North. (more…)

You might call Avenue East the condo building that could. The site, at 160 E Illinois St, in Streeterville, presented a set of unusual challenges, according to Arden Freeman of Built Form Architecture, the firm that designed the 26-story tower.

The half-acre footprint required building lot line to lot line, not uncommon in big-city development. However, Freeman says, that challenge was exacerbated by the InterContinental Chicago, the hotel that is virtually flush with Avenue East’s western wall. That required precision when digging the foundation, and it meant the new building had to be designed not to block the InterContinental’s east-facing windows. (more…)

David Chase likes to stay ahead of the curve. In the mid-1990s, the West Loop was largely a gritty postindustrial district with no major grocery store and few amenities. Chase, president and CEO of The Thrush Companies and himself a West Loop resident, built major residential projects such as Block X (1996) and Block Y (1999). These and other developments helped transform the neighborhood into the growing residential enclave of galleries, boutiques and upscale restaurants that it is today.

Chase argues that 740 Fulton, Thrush’s new 14-story boutique condo building, is having a similar effect in the Fulton Market District, a slice of the West Loop that’s bounded by Lake Street, Carroll Avenue, Aberdeen Street and the Dan Ryan Expressway and known mostly for its meat-packing plants. (more…)