Several years back I'd already heard so many garish tales of American Invsco's dealings that I almost shouted "don't want to hear it" when an insider attempted to unload a dumpster full of them on me.

In a rare lapse from my usual disinterest in variations on the theme of Invsco being Invsco I read through this article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. I checked several times to ensure that I was, in fact, perusing a respected daily newspaper rather than the Onion.

The story line, in brief: when American Invsco converted The Meridian in Las Vegas an affiliated company entered into a lease with the associaton for a parcel of land. That parcel was the main driveway to the property. When the association fell behind in rental payments the landowner erected a chain link fence blocking access to the property via the main driveway.

Read the entire story.

Spring's here, which means summer is will be here before you know it. Way back in 2006, Barry suggested that Metropolitan Tower, located at 310 S Michigan Ave in the Loop, might be just the spot for people-watchers to keep an eye on activities like Taste of Chicago. Fast-forward almost three years, and guess what? You can still get an unsold home inside the building today.

We've used the phrase "crawling toward closeout" in old write-ups about Metropolitan Properties' conversion, and there's no reason to stop now. In fact, the tower's Equity Marketing sales team is trying to sell more units today than it was the last time we checked in. There are still 37 homes for sale through the developer, which makes the building at about 85 percent sold, says Pat Young of Equity.

The starting prices for each unit type are slightly lower across the board compared to our last report. Young says one-bedrooms range from the $290s to the $620s, two-bedrooms from the $460s to the $950s, and three-bedrooms from the $750s to more than $1 million. I didn't get a breakdown on the range of floor space for the available units, but according to the development's Web site, the "Burnham" and "Avenue" residences, which make up the majority of the building's homes, comprise one-bedrooms with 749 to 1,225 square feet, two-bedrooms with 1,202 to 2,081 square feet, and three-bedrooms with 1,585 to 2,481 square feet.

Larger homes, dubbed "Buckingham Townhomes," can be found on the lower levels, while the penthouses fill the 24th through 30th floors.

The tower has its share of resales, too, according to the MLS: Four one-bedroom homes with 751 to 825 square feet, priced from the $250s to the $360s, six two-bedrooms with 1,252 to 1,965 square feet, priced from the $570s to $1.19 million, and seven three-bedrooms with 1,585 to 2,800 square feet, priced from the $890s to $2.19 million.

Additionally, 12 condos are listed as rentals, with monthly prices running from $1,575 for an 825 square-foot one-bedroom on the 10th floor to $6,500 for a three-bedroom / 3.5-bath with 3,400 square feet.

Most of the homes in the old Graham, Anderson, Probst & White-designed Straus Building have 9-foot ceilings, walk-in closets, oak hardwood floors in the main living areas, individually controlled heating and air. Kitchens are finished with granite countertops, Brookhaven cabinets, GE stainless-steel appliances and Grohe fixtures, while bathrooms feature stone and marble countertops, ceramic tile floors, soaking tubs, and Grohe, Kohler and Toto fixtures.

Building amenities include a 24-hour door staff, fitness center, event room, sun deck, storage lockers, indoor parking, guest suites, dry cleaning valet service, and on-site management and maintenance.

NewHomeNotebook:
• Rate and review Metropolitan Tower

One of the latest additions to Jameson's stable of new developments is Merida Place, a nine-unit conversion on the southeast corner of Armitage and Monticello avenues in Logan Square. It hasn't been on the brokerage's development page for more than a couple weeks — I noticed it for the first time last Monday — but it's been on the market long enough to pick up three contracts.

According to agent Ted Nash, the six homes still for sale at Merida Place are two-bedrooms with one or two baths, priced from the $160s to the $210s. Improvements throughout the building include hardwood floors , 42-inch kitchen cabinets, stainless-steel appliances, granite countertops, fireplaces with granite surrounds, crown molding, recessed lighting, speaker wiring and new decks and patios. Each unit has central air and heat, washer / dryer hookups, and basement storage space, Nash says. The development doesn't have on-site parking, but a nearby lot leases spaces for $40 a month.

All of the homes are finished and ready for delivery. FHA approval for the entire development is pending, Nash says.

NewHomeNotebook:
• Rate and review Merida Place

This morning I went up to the 42nd floor of The Park Monroe, 55 E Monroe St, to check out its new model (a 2,549 square-foot two-bedroom / 2.5-bath priced at $1.6 million), and brought back a few shots of the home's eastern and northern views. Sales consultant Audra Hall also took me up a couple more stories to check out the views to the views to the west.

The Park Monroe is just under 80 percent sold, Hall says. Remaining units include one-bedrooms with 925 to 1,227 square feet, priced from the $440s to the $480s, two-bedrooms with 1,246 to 2,569 square feet, priced from the $720s to $1.7 million, and two-, three- and four-bedroom penthouses priced from $1.6 million to $2.8 million.

Despite having some contracts dating back as far as the salad days of 2006, the development has yet to see any buyers dropping off at the last minute, Hall says. Closings at the building began last month.

Crews are still working on the 49th floor's amenities, which include a lounge, rooftop deck, indoor pool and fitness center. Interior improvements should be completed by the end of next month, says Hall.

NewHomeNotebook
• Rate and review Park Monroe
• View our list of new downtown conversions

Speaking of Edgewater, it's the site of another one of those "Not Yet Listed" properties Mario Greco's promoting right now. His office sent me specs last week for this, a new eight-flat rehab at 5434 N Winthrop Ave, just about a block and a half south of the Red Line's Bryn Mawr station and a short walk away from both the Foster and Osterman beaches on the northern end of Lincoln Park.

Six two-bedroom / two-bath units will sell from the $320s to the $340s, while two garden-level one-bedrooms are set to be priced in the $230s, according to an early price sheet. Roof rights will be available to the buyers of the two third-floor "penthouses" at $10,000 per home.

Greco's preliminary specifications seem very preliminary (they're full of notes and asides about potential changes and alternatives), but the features and finishes stack up something like this: The homes will have oak floors throughout, crown molding in the main living areas, granite countertops, breakfast bars with overhangs, maple kitchen cabinets with undermount lighting, stainless steel appliances and sinks, Grohe showers, stone bath flooring and surrounds, in-unit laundry, and multiple outdoor spaces per plan.

Gated parking will sell for $10,000 per space.

Judging from our NewHomeNotebook entries, the few recent projects in Edgewater Beach have split evenly between new construction on or near Sheridan Road and rehabbed buildings on Winthrop. The new-construction one- to three-bedroom homes at Provenance, 5230 N Kenmore Ave, and 5430 Sheridan, 5430 N Sheridan Rd, range from about the $230s to the $510s (the proposed Bluewater 5440 high-rise on Sheridan would have homes from the $160s to $1.3 million, while the Winthrop projects, including this one, have one- and two-bedrooms ranging from the $160s to the $360s.

NewHomeNotebook:
• Rate and review 5434 North Winthrop
• View our list of new Edgewater condos and townhomes

Homes recently started to close at Six North Michigan, the converted Montgomery Ward catalog center at 6 N Michigan Ave, right across the street from Millennium Park's Cloud Gate and Pritzker Pavilion. If we can be patient just a little while longer, we can get a look inside the building from top to bottom. @properties agent George Schultz left me a message yesterday saying that crews should have the tower's lobby and common areas finished and ready for viewing by the end of March.

A little less than 60 percent of Six North Michigan's 120 homes have sold, Schultz says. The total hasn't changed much since last September, because Schultz has seen a few old contracts fall off as new ones come in. He sounds pleased with the level of traffic the building's seeing right now — one home just went under contract and will close later this spring, he says.

By mid-April, all of the units currently under contract except that latest one will have closed, he says.

The remaining mix of floor plans include one-bedrooms starting in the $320s, two-bedrooms priced from the $730s to the $850s, three-bedrooms priced from $1.25 million, and penthouses priced from $1.69 million. In the past we've reported unit sizes as ranging from 900 to 4,800 square feet.

On-site amenities include a 24-hour door staff, lounge, an eight-seat movie theater, a fitness room with a sauna and steam room, and a common terrace on the 20th floor.

NewHomeNotebook
• Rate and review Six North Michigan
• View our list of new downtown conversions

Related posts
• Photo update: Six North Michigan (Sept. 10)

Mario Greco's ads are chock full of pre-sale properties these days. His Web site even has a tab labeled "Not Yet Listed" at the top of the page, and this development, located at 441 W Surf St in Lakeview East, is right at the top of those… er… unlisted listings.

The rehab, developed by Nicclare LLC and designed by Hanna Architects, has just four units, none of which lack for space. The smallest, a fourth-floor "penthouse," is a three-bedroom / 2.5-bath with approximately 2,900 square feet of living space and roof rights. It's listed (or will be, at least) at $1.69 million, which is the lowest price you'll find in the building. Two single-floor four-bedrooms on the third and second stories have 3,500 and 3,600 square feet and are priced at $1.79 and $1.84 million, respectively. A $1.99 million duplex-down with four bedrooms, 4.5 baths, and 4,800 square feet comprises the ground floor and basement.

There are some slight differences in gas-range measurements and cabinet brands among the four units, but for the most part, they'll all have the same features and finishes. Kitchens will have stainless-steel appliances and under-mount sinks, stone tile back-splashes and under-cabinet lighting. Bathrooms will feature steam showers with rain-shower heads, body sprays and half-inch framless doors, whirlpool tubs, Kohler and Toto fixtures and radiant heated floors. All homes will have crown molding, white oak floors in the living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms and libraries, recessed lighting and in-unit laundry. Each comes with two parking spaces in a heated garage.

According to Greco's preliminary specs, an eight-year property tax freeze is available at the property. The development's Web site includes an update from last June stating that Nicclare received "written approval for Part 1 of our Property Tax Assessment Freeze Program from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency" and hoped to have the second step of its application complete by September 2008.

NewHomeNotebook
• Rate and review 441 West Surf

"Not yet on the market!" screams Rubloff's ad for Edge Construction's new conversion at 4544 N Seeley Ave in Lincoln Square. Sure enough, none of the development's eight homes are on the MLS yet, but the Mario Greco Group hooked us up with some prices and specs for the units, all of which should be ready for delivery this summer.

The unit types at 4544 North Seeley will include:

• One two-bedroom / 2.5-bath garden unit priced in the $340s
• One three-bedroom / 2.5-bath garden unit priced in the $370s
• One two-bedroom / 2.5-bath single-floor unit priced in the $470s
• Three three-bedroom / 2.5-bath single-floor unit priced in the $530s and $540s
• Two three-bedroom / 2.5-bath third-story "penthouses" priced in the $570s

Greco's newspaper ad describes the homes as having 1,800 to 2,000 square feet, but there's no mention of floor space next to any of the units and prices on the price sheet.

According to a list of "preliminary specifications," the homes will have white oak floors and crown molding in their main living areas, gas fireplaces, recessed lighting, granite kitchen countertops, breakfast bars, stainless-steel appliances, and stone bath flooring and shower surrounds. Every unit has "multiple outdoor entertaining areas," such as garage decks, rooftop decks, and heated patios.

Garage parking is available for the six first-, second- and third-floor units at $25,000 per space. Buyers of the two garden units can purchase outdoor spaces for $15,000. Those who'd prefer not to drive can get on the train at the newly reopened Brown Line station on Damen Avenue, located just a couple blocks north. For shopping and dining, the Lincoln Avenue corridor is three blocks to the west.

NewHomeNotebook:
• Rate and review 4544 North Seeley

After two and a half years of sales and marketing, the first new homes at the Glenstar Properties' Park Monroe conversion at 55 E Monroe St in the Loop are almost set to close, says sales agent Audra Hall.

Closings should begin by the end of this month, Hall says. By mid-March, she'll be able to move her sales center up into one of The Park Monroe's units, and several models will open for visitation. One model, seen below, was closed through the later months of 2008 as crews tore away the old facade and installed new windows and balconies, but it has since reopened and is again available to tour.

It should come as no surprise that sales have been "pretty slow" at The Park Monroe over the past six months, according to Hall. About 20 percent of the 156 units built on the tower's upper floors are still for sale, most being two-bedrooms priced from the $850s to $1.7 million.

NewHomeNotebook
• Rate and review Park Monroe
• View a list of new downtown conversions

As Joe pointed out last week, options are pretty limited for new condo buyers in the Gold Coast. With just three Gold Coast developments listed in NewHomeNotebook.com, RDM's 391-unit conversion at 1400 N Lake Shore Dr accounts for about 90 percent of the new homes in the neighborhood, which should be good news for that development.

According to Matt Garrison from Coldwell Banker, 1400 Lake Shore Drive has been pretty resilient, despite the sluggish downtown market. "We have been selling several units/month, even in the 4th quarter," Garrison writes in an email. "We have sold over 320 units in this building and expect to close it out in 2009."

One- to three-bedroom condos are still available in the building, and although there are no official price reductions at present, Garrison says that there are unpublished deals to be had. Some one-bedrooms are currently selling for less than $200,000, according to Garrison, and that three-bedrooms with lake views are selling for under $300 per square foot.

According to the price sheet I received in November, studios start in the $140s, one-bedrooms start in the $180s, two-bedroom / two-baths are priced from the $290s to the $570s, and three-bedroom / two-baths are priced from the $320s to the $590s.

NewHomeNotebook
• Rate and review 1400 Lake Shore Drive
• View our list of new Gold Coast condos and townhouses

Related posts:
• Deal of the day: Price cuts on studios and one-bedrooms at 1400 Lake Shore Drive (Nov. 3)