I always think of Chicago's River West neighborhood as Bergerville.

Architect / developer Jack Berger moved there in 1979 and has since transformed the neighborhood with his pioneering River West Lofts and a raft of new modernist buildings.

The largest of those new buildings is Mondial, a 17-story high-rise nearing completion in the 900 block of West Huron Street.

Join us for the first part of our tour of Mondial with Jack Berger, who is both the architect and developer of the project.

The Q2 2008 Residential Benchmark Report from Appraisal Research Counselors (ARC) serves up a variety of generally downbeat news for developers of new downtown Chicago condo projects.

Perhaps the worst news is the pace of sales vs deliveries. In a normal market sales accelerate as buildings near completion and units are ready to deliver to buyers. Exactly the opposite has been occurring this year.

In Q1 and Q2 2007, 1,800 new condo units were sold, according to ARC. Excluding the Chicago Spire, only 196 units were sold in the first six months of this year. Just over 3,000 unsold units are scheduled for delivery this year and next in the downtown market.

In previous posts we quoted ARC on resale / rental competition, vulture funds, growing inventories and rising contract cancellation rates.

With their team mired in a five-game losing streak, I'd imagine Cubs fans are putting on their rally caps and trying figure out some way to bust the slump. Could that include the purchase of a new condo just a block east of the bleachers? I don't see why not.

This place should be added to Joe's "Living in the shadows of Wrigley" post from April: a six-unit rehab development at 3645 - 3647 N Wilton Ave in Lake View. Dean Stellas of JP Stellas Properties says five of the building's six three-bedroom units are still available, and they're priced from the $450s to the $520s.

Stellas says the building had rental apartments before, but it didn't have to be entirely gutted. However, new porches, electrical, plumbing, and a new roof have all been added.

Each unit comes with a 1.5-car outdoor parking space, and the building is located less than a block from the Addison Red Line station. Stellas says a model will be ready next week, and the units will be ready for delivery by late October.

All it takes is a lollipop or two for Alderwoman Vi Daley (43rd ward) to get Michael Kardas' support.

Kardas ran into Daley outside her Lincoln Park office last month, as he was scouting out some photographs for the North Side-centric October issue of New Homes.

See more of Kardas' pictures and thousands of our own on the YoChicago Flickr photostream.

As long as there's a lake, a park, and a cityscape, there will always be a market for sky-high penthouses in downtown Chicago. Many of the homes under construction in the Loop, Streeterville, River North, Gold Coast and South Loop will benefit from beautiful vistas, even if they aren't in the tallest of towers, but there's no denying that the view from a 70th-floor condo overlooking Millennium Park, or an 87th-floor residence…well…anywhere, will be hard to beat.

Only three high-rises currently under construction will have 72 stories or more: The Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago, Magellan Development Group's Aqua, and Mesa Development's Legacy at Millennium Park. (Since I'm considering buildings under construction, I've left out stalled projects like the 90-story Waterview Tower & Shangri-La Hotel and the 74-story Mandarin Oriental Tower, or projects still in pre-construction phases, such as the 150-story Chicago Spire.)

Yesterday, I called each development to find out where its highest available unit is located, how much it costs, and what kinds of views it has. Here's what I learned:

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Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago, 401 N Wabash Ave (92 stories)

• Floor: 87th
• Price: $9.6 million, or $1,401 per square foot
• Size: 6,850 square feet
• Views: East, north and west
• Neighborhood: River North

Trump's penthouse, not surprisingly, is the highest of the lot , as well as the most expensive. Trump's Web site, unlike most, doesn't seem to have a "views" page, but the simulated model shot at the top of this post may be a good representation of a unit with eastern and northern views.
- Rate and review Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago at NewHomeNotebook.com.

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Aqua, 225 N Columbus Dr (87 stories)

• Floor: 80th
• Price: $1.17 million, or $639 per square foot
• Size: 1,830 square feet
• Views: South
• Neighborhood: New East Side

The highest available home at Aqua, by comparison, is almost as high as Trump's, but it's also smaller and priced at one-eighth the cost. Unlike the homes at Trump or The Legacy, this penthouse has exposures in only one direction, but at least it's the right direction. The home has a terrace as well, which will help to expand sight-lines further to the east and west.
- Rate and review Aqua at NewHomeNotebook.com.

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The Legacy at Millennium Park, 60 E Monroe St (72 stories)

• Floor: 70th
• Price: $4.25 million, or $893 per square foot (unit #7002) to $970 per square foot (unit #7001)
• Size: 4,378 square feet (unit #7001); 4,757 square feet (unit #7002)
• Views: East, north and west (unit #7001); east, south and west (unit #7002)
• Neighborhood: Loop

The Legacy has two 70th floor units available. The north-facing home has 379 fewer square feet than the south-facing unit, but both carry the same price tag of $4.25 million. Both have exposures to the east, overlooking Millennium Park and the lake (as seen above), as well as to the west, looking back out onto the rest of the Loop.
- Rate and review The Legacy at Millennium Park at NewHomeNotebook.com.

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I'm still waiting to hear back from representatives of the next three highest buildings, and will have a second list up once I do. In case you're interested, those towers are:

• One Museum Park, 1201 S Prairie Ave (62 stories)
• The Elysian Hotel & Private Residences, 11 E Walton Pl (60 stories)
• One Museum Park West, 1215 S Prairie Ave (53 stories)

I haven't made a visit to Edgewater recently, but apparently construction on The Granville at 6238 N Broadway St has been doing just fine without me. Brant Booker from Koenig & Strey GMAC Real Estate says that some of The Granville's 160 units will start delivering in October, and construction should wrap up by the end of the year.

Booker says about 50 of The Granville's 160 units are still available. Looking back at the Yo archives, I find that Yo writer Kate Hawley reported in January of 2007 that 106 of the units had sold before construction began. I can only speculate on what happened over the past year and a half, but if both of those reports are correct, a net total of four units have been sold in this building over the past 20 months.

The majority of those 50 remaining units are two-bedroom / two-baths, but there are also about a dozen three-bedroom / two-baths and a handful of two-bedroom / one-baths. Prices for the 1,100 square-foot two-bedroom / one-baths start in the $250s, while two-bedroom / two-baths start in the $270s, and 1,400 square-foot three-bedroom / two-baths are priced in the $390s.

Monthly assessments should range from $220 to about $300, Booker says, and residents will have access to a common roof deck. Garage parking is offered for $25,000. Booker still isn't sure what tenants will move into the retail space, but I'd expect them to be pretty large, considering that the building has about 34,000 square feet of retail space.

- Rate and review The Granville at NewHomeNotebook.com.

Every morning, we survey scores of local and national newspapers and magazines, amateur and professional blogs and other interesting Web sites in search of stories that are relevant to Chicago home buyers. We add those stories to own news feed, thereby creating a one-stop news source for anyone interested in Chicago's neighborhoods and new-home market.

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Eating at a diner is kind of like floating down a river: If you don't pay attention, you'll never know how long you've been there or where you'll end up. Be the first to name the neighborhood where there's no need to count the seconds and win a Yo yo-yo.

Remember that invitation to live at Grand Plaza for the summer while developer Jaeger Equities pays off six months of rent? Well, Labor Day is behind us and summer is coming to a close, so I guess that means it's time for Grand Plaza Penthouses, 545 N Dearborn St, to reconfigure its incentive package.

Instead of boring promises to cover your rent, the Web site urges buyers to "Make your dream home at Grand Plaza…For Free!" and "Personalize your penthouse - on us!" and "Find out how to spend $150,000 of our dollars!"

The amount of money buyers will get back actually depends on the price of the unit. Buyers of one-bedrooms in the $410s will get less than $40,000 back, while buyers of $1.5 million penthouses will get $150,000.

In reality, buyers don't actually need to put the money towards customization - they could spend it on a new car or just pocket it - but if we're to believe the before and after photos on Grand Plaza's Web site, most people would be inclined to invest in some basic features like flooring and stairwell carpeting. Curiously, these "before" photos show the unit, not with standard finishes, but completely gutted, with cement floors, unpainted walls and unfinished stairwells. I don't remember any "as-is" units advertised at Grand Plaza, so it seems a bit strange to contrast the upgraded unit with a raw, unfinished one.

- Rate and review Grand Plaza at NewHomeNotebook.com

Why do I suddenly feel the need to end every sentence in an exclamation point! Judging by the ads we see and the Web sites we visit, developers and marketers are forgoing any promotion of their actual homes and instead are focusing solely on lifestyle! At Emerald, people down cocktails in the lobby all night long, and at VB1224, located at 1224 W Van Buren St, buyers throw on sportcoats and leap over invisible hurdles!

We always get a kick out of West Loop ads: Their mixed drinks always have the most frightening neon tones, and sometimes we even learn a new word or two. ("Ratelicious," anyone?) I realize Realtors aren't supposed to say a lot about demographics, but you can learn a lot about a project and its neighborhood by the way developers portray their buyers. The idealized West Loop, it seems, is the place for fun-loving young professionals, ones who grin and jump around and scream a lot.

Mark, the square that he is, posted a far less exciting update about VB1224's construction and sales a couple weeks ago. (Nerd!) Back in July, a handful of two-bedroom / one-baths were starting in the $340s, so if @properties' new ad is correct (and the MLS does back it up), the prices of some of those lofts have just dropped by about 10 percent.

- Rate and review VB1224 at NewHomeNotebook.com.