Real estate news & trends
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Woodlawn
Back in 2006 a blogger calling herself the Woodlawn Wonder began writing I Hate My Developer, the saga of her efforts to solve the problems plaguing the small condo development she had bought into just off Jackson Park in Woodlawn. Early last year she stopped paying her mortgage and began waiting for the foreclosure process ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on January 17, 2013
We begin with the fairy tale – a two-part video panegyric to the Rev. Leon Finney Jr, with cameo appearances by a number of Chicago notables. A more realistic note is sounded by The Chicago Reporter’s articles on the Subsidized money pit and Following Finney. Finney’s Woodlawn Redevelopment Corporation was recently added to the City ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on January 3, 2012
The Renaissance on Kimbark, 6457 S Kimbark Ave, is Phase IV in a series of Woodlawn developments. According to sales agent Hasani Steele’s website, Phases I, II, & III sold out in record time averaging 35 days on market, per Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Phase IV is currently 50% presold with construction underway at 6457 ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on September 26, 2011
The morning email brought news that a $30.5 million grant has been awarded to the City of Chicago and Preservation of Affordable Housing for Woodlawn‘s Grove Parc Plaza under Housing and Urban Development’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative. We’re told that: Choice Neighborhoods grants transforms distressed neighborhoods and public and assisted projects into viable and sustainable mixed-income ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on August 31, 2011
One by one we’ll take a brief look at the state of the eight neighborhoods we spotlighted as Chicago’s hottest back in June of 2006. Our intrepid reporter wrote this about Woodlawn: Homebuyers squeezed out of Hyde Park and expensive North Side neighborhoods increasingly have seen Woodlawn’s potential, and more and more developers have been ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on May 30, 2011
YoChicago’s archived stories can be a reminder of how often Chicago real estate dreams turn to dust – and how quickly. Back in June of 2006 we noted that the new construction market was cooling after a lengthy boom, but continued our annual New Homes Magazine tradition of spotlighting Chicago’s “hottest neighborhoods.” We gathered information ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on May 26, 2011
The Tribune brings us yet another chapter in the decades-long saga of initiatives to revitalize Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood. Woodlawn has long been a national poster child for stunningly certain ways to squander hundreds of millions of dollars of public and private funds under the guise of “neighborhood revitalization” and “community development.” Private developers and home ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on November 27, 2010
One of the most-viewed videos on the YoChicago YouTube Channel in early November 2007 was this segment of a longer interview with George Thrush, who started his real estate career renovating rowhomes in DePaul in the 1960s and went on to build more than 50 developments throughout Chicago. Here, he explains how he chose the ...
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Posted by Joseph Askins on November 4, 2010
Despite worries that the project might fall apart after the city’s failed Olympics bid, Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) is moving forward with the first phase of Woodlawn Park, a new mixed-use, mixed-income community that will replace the old 504-unit Grove Parc Plaza development at 63rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue in Woodlawn. At the ...
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Posted by Joseph Askins on October 28, 2010
This peaked-roof three-flat at 6620 S Ellis Ave in Woodlawn has drywall but needs an HVAC system and finished kitchens and bathrooms. Think it still has its copper? The board-up just dropped in price from $259,900 to $149,900, making it a “great opportunity for a builder or investor,” according to Robert Shutay‘s listing. The new ...
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Posted by Joseph Askins on June 3, 2010
Near the end of our latest visit to the Renaissance on Kimbark, as we stood atop Stonemason Group’s latest eight-flat, @properties agent Hasani Steele turned the discussion away from the development itself and toward its surrounding neighborhood. Hear what he has to say about the people who are buying homes in Woodlawn, the perks and ...
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Posted by Joseph Askins on September 29, 2009
Hasani Steele was able to make a lot of pre-sales during the first two phases of construction at the Renaissance on Kimbark, but that was then…what about now? Believe it or not, half the development’s third eight-flat, located at 6507 S Kimbark Ave, is already under contract, and another two units in a proposed but ...
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Posted by Joseph Askins on September 28, 2009
As I mentioned when posting the first of my new videos with @properties agent Hasani Steele, the Stonemason Group received a Good Neighbor Award (PDF) from the Chicago Association of Realtors this year for “expand[ing] Hyde Park’s prestige further south with the creation of affordable, high‐quality luxury condominiums.” I asked Hasani what he believed the ...
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Posted by Joseph Askins on September 23, 2009
We don’t hear many homebuilders boasting of their pre-construction sales these days — especially not in neighborhoods like Woodlawn — so it came as a surprise to learn that many of Stonemason Group’s new Renaissance on Kimbark condominiums went under contract before they were even built. In this video, @properties agent Hasani Steele offers his ...
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Posted by Joseph Askins on September 22, 2009
The past year has done a number on the selection of new true lofts throughout the city. Some developments, like University Village, finally reached sellout, while others, like the Park Kingsbury Luxury Lofts, gave up the ghost without ever reaching completion. Friday afternoon I ran down our old list of true loft developments (adapted timber ...
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Posted by Joseph Askins on September 19, 2009
Stonemason Group received a Good Neighbor Award from the Chicago Association of Realtors earlier this year for its ongoing Renaissance on Kimbark project in the 6400 and 6500 blocks of South Kimbark Avenue in Woodlawn. According to @properties agent Hasani Steele, the first two of these eight-flats have sold out in the past year, with ...
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Posted by Joseph Askins on September 18, 2009
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