Talk of a housing bubble has not deterred Chicago developers, who are on track to match last year’s boom in new construction. Just when you thought they’d already built on every available piece of downtown ground, they surprise you with a new burst of creativity. Witness the new $1 million homes for sale at 1015 W. Fulton, conveniently located amidst the poultry processing, whirring forklifts and humming refrigeration trucks of the Fulton Market.
The homes look nice — duplex units with three bedrooms, 3.5 baths, roof decks, three-car garages, elevators and, in a new twist on the old merchant setup, commercial space on the first floor. But these homes are not on the edge of an industrial area, they’re in the heart of one. Perhaps the residential-commercial combo will attract the right sort of resident, but the buyers who pay $1 million for their homes often don’t make the best neighbors for the local chicken plant.