There are 1,000s of ads on Craigslist for South Loop apartments, most of them touting the fewer than a dozen major apartment complexes in the South Loop.
How does that happen? Well, it’s simple: a plague of apartment locators (I call them maggots) are on a holy crusade to make life difficult for apartment renters. They place 100s of repetitive ads every day, add “South Loop” as a keyword to many out-of-area apartments, indulge in sheer fantasy and flagrant fraud and on and on so that you, the renter, lose sight of just how easy it can be to see all of your options and narrow them down.
This post, and the accompanying South Loop rental page (which I’ll update and expand as time permits), is a starting point for clearing up the confusion and replacing fantasy, fraud and inexact locations with facts and specific addresses.
Renting a condo, townhome or single-family
There are 100s of condos and townhomes, and even the occasional single-family available for rent in the South Loop, but you’ll never hear that from most of the maggots. Look to reputable broker sites to find what’s listed for rent in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). I recommend our major clients: select property type Rental and search ZIP codes 60604, 60605, 60607 and 60616 at Coldwell Banker, or Chicago / Loop and Near South Side at Koenig & Strey or Rubloff.
South Loop apartment complexes
There are fewer than a dozen major apartment complexes (and only a handful of smaller ones) in the South Loop, which makes your task of comparing options a fairly easy one. We’ve listed the buildings in order by their proximity to the heart of the Loop, with the nearest first.
Fisher Building City Apartments, 343 S Dearborn St 60604
20 stories. Completed in 2 phases in 1896 and 1906. Renovated in 2002. A Chicago Landmark, and also on the National Register of Historic Places.
Reviews: ApartmentRatings, Yelp
Regal Apartments, 651 S Wells St 60607
Reviews: ApartmentRatings, Yelp
Burnham Pointe, 730 S Clark St 60605
Reviews: ApartmentRatings, Yelp
AMLI 900, 900 S Clark St 60605
23 stories, 440 units.
Reviews: ApartmentRatings, Yelp
1130 South Michigan Apartments, 1130 S Michigan Ave 60605
43 stories, 656 units, built in 1967.
Reviews: ApartmentRatings, Yelp
Roosevelt Collection, 150 W Roosevelt Rd 60605
Mid-rise, 324 units, completed in 2009 / 2010.
Twelve Twelve South Michigan, 1212 S Michigan Ave 60605
30 stories, 344 units.
Reviews: ApartmentRatings
Sky 55, 1255 S Michigan Ave 60605
40 stories, 411 units. An 11-story wing is seniors housing, and the complex includes 83 units designated as affordable.
Reviews: ApartmentRatings
1401 South State St Apartments, 1401 S State St 60605
22 stories.
Reviews: ApartmentRatings, Yelp
Marquee, 1464 S. Michigan Ave 60605
26 stories, 223 units, built as condos in 2008.
2101 Michigan Apartments, 2101 S. Michigan Ave 60616
Income-restricted apartments
Reviews: ApartmentRatings
Help YoChicago make renting easier
We welcome your suggestions – and criticisms – on this post and the accompanying page. Leave a comment or send me an e-mail with your feedback.
If you like this post, send a link to anyone you know who’s looking to rent in the South Loop.
In due course I’ll be adding posts and pages for other neighborhoods.