This interesting project - 64 condos in the heart of Portage Park on the Northwest Side - managed to completely escape our notice while it was under development (at least in the annals of YoChicago). Now Klee Plaza at Six Corners is in delivery, and about 20 condos remain.

In this video, developer Marc Sussman walks us through several model units. The Klee Building's interior layout afforded some interesting homes, including a handful on the top level that aspire to true loft-hood. This week we'll follow up with an updated price list and some still photos of the project - including the 19,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space that's still under construction.

It's only obliquely related to new homes, but we couldn't resist this item.

New Homes Magazine contributor Dana Dubriwny snapped this photo of the shuttered American Apparel outlet at 837 W Armitage Ave in Lincoln Park. As the scribbled messages suggest, shoppers were a little confused as to why the trendy clothier wasn't open for business.

Crain's solves the mystery today: Apparently all four Chicago-area American Apparel shops had been operating without a Chicago business license.

The Lincoln Park violation was uncovered in November during a routine inspection along Armitage Avenue, the spokeswoman said. American Apparel was issued a warning and given 30 days to apply for the $250 license, which lasts for two years. The store failed to produce the license during a December follow-up visit, she said.

American Apparel submitted its application last week and paid for all four licenses on Tuesday, the spokeswoman said.

The store re-opened today.

Surely we can tie this amusing little item into residential real estate, right? Maybe some thoughtful readers can suggest a few angles.

Remember 3255 North Paulina? A few commenters liked its contemporary design back in 2006. It's all but finished at this point, and folks are already moving in, so let's see what people have to say about it today.

The last time we wrote about the development, the Domus Group was in charge of marketing. Jameson Realty has taken over that role since then, but little else appears to have changed.

The four-story building, developed by JML Builders, comprises nine condominiums ranging from 1,600 to 1,900 square feet and three ground-floor retail spaces. Each of the condominiums is a "very wide, very square" corner unit with two bedrooms and two baths, says marketing agent Michael Downing. (Each top-floor penthouse has a loft above its living area that Jameson is marketing as a third bedroom.)

Finishes include oak floors, stainless-steel appliances, oversized showers with body sprays, and stone tile and counters. Every unit has a balcony, and all three penthouses have rooftop decks. (Those are 20-foot ceilings you're seeing on the fourth floor, as well.) Spaces are available in a heated garage at additional cost.

With prices in the $580s to low $700s, the units are on the high end of the market for the Lakeview neighborhood, but Downing said he believes those numbers are appropriate for the building's contemporary design and location - it's two blocks south of the Paulina Brown Line stop and 50 steps to Whole Foods, but who's counting?

Three of the units have sold since going on the market in the fall; those buyers received $10,000 upgrade packages as incentives, and a similar deal should still be on the table for people interested in the six remaining units.

According to our extensive neighborhood mapping, Ten East Delaware will stand just inside the boundaries of River North. Prime Group CEO Michael Reschke, however, pledges his high-rise’s allegiance to two adjacent neighborhoods.

“It’s not River North,” he insists. “It’s the heart of the Gold Coast. And just a block and a half off of Michigan Avenue, too. You can walk to anywhere you’d want to go from there.”

Ten East Delaware was New Homes Magazine's cover story in August. (Click here to read our interview with architect Lucien Lagrange). At that time, The Prime Group had sold 75 of the building's 121 luxury condominiums; that number has risen to 80 in the past four months.

Most of the people who have purchased condominiums in the 35-story building are from the area and “moving up to a better building,” he says, although about one-third the buyers plan to use their condos as pieds-a-terre. Whether they call Ten East Delaware home all the time or just some of the time, they’ll all have access to amenities that Reschke believes are uncommon at other Gold Coast developments.

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There's just a single duplex left at 2038 W. Iowa St., a six-home development in the heart of Ukrainian Village. Igor Dolgikh, of Jameson Realty Group, confirmed the list price at $499,000 for the 2,400-square-foot home.

I lived in Ukrainian Village for most of the last three years, and my intersection at Chicago Avenue and Leavitt Street seemed to be the epicenter of residential development in the neighborhood.

It was a real treat, then, to cruise the neighborhood today and check in on developments (like the one picture above) that, when I lived in the 'hood, had been little more than fenced lots decorated with brick piles.

Less than a block down from 2038 W. Iowa, I found an interesting delivery from Ralko Development at 2020 W. Iowa St. The project consists of six duplexes starting in the $470s (for a two-bedroom unit) up to almost $600,000 for a three-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot model.

Only one is spoken for; Ralko's marketing agent tells us that rest of the units are about 45 days from occupancy.

There's a lot of development going on in Ukrainian Village, both new construction and gut rehabs. Prices like the ones described above are at the high end of the spectrum, but buyers who might have been scratching their heads at the area's neighborhood appeal should consider this: Last year, Dominick's opened a new grocery store (with an in-store Starbucks) at Chicago Avenue and Damen Avenue. Say what you will about the deal, but the retailer's entry is a barometer on the neighborhood that shouldn't be overlooked.

I still remember when I first visited Chicago as a tourist. Friends in the area advised me: Don't go to Aurora and expect to find the Spindle. That hallowed site, I soon learned, was in nearby Berwyn.

But last year brought the news that a planned strip mall renovation project would displace the rust-belt monolith. The latest from the Trib is that the developer's expansion project is moving forward - albeit slowly. The property manager for the retail center estimates it may cost $300,000 to refurbish the Spindle. No word yet on whether or not the owners will pay out to save the circa-1989 relic.

Hyde Park Progress writes that the shareholders' buyout vote could aptly be termed a landslide. The vote margin (approximately 60 percent in favor versus 38 percent opposed) mirrors LBJ's 1964 presidential election.

The real standouts from the HP Progress post, though, are the reader comments - almost three dozen and counting, reflecting the storied history of the grocery store that's been a fixture on the South Side since 1932. Check 'em out to see what I mean.

After starting with an initial pool of seven developers, Oak Park's village board narrowed the playing field down to just three candidates last week, according to an article in the Wednesday Journal of Oak Park and River Forest.

Up for grabs: the Colt superblock, a village-owned plot between Lake Street and North Boulevard west of Harlem. The fate of the art-deco-inspired Colt Building is still up in the air; sources estimate a rehab of the property at nearly $6 million, almost as much as Oak Park paid to purchase the property last year. From the Wednesday Journal article:

The three finalists - Centrum Properties, AvalonBay Communities Inc., and Mid America Development Partners LLC - were each awarded a $10,000 stipend and a chance to move to the next level in the competition. All three teams, in some fashion, met the board's top three requirements in the competition of quality architecture, sustainability and solid finances.

A Club Monaco clothing store and a new Lettuce Entertain You restaurant are among the latest tenants to sign deals at 108 North State Street, Joseph Freed and Associates' development of the city's storied Block 37, according to Crain's. That restaurant can't open a moment too soon; as some Yo readers commented awhile back, the Loop could use some better dinner options.

We got word recently that sales have started at Clark 36, three adjoining buildings at 4860 - 4872 N Clark St. Construction is moving along, too (it's progressed quite a bit since this photo was taken in August). The buildings are starting to gain some critical bulk, raising questions about what kind of neighbors they'll turn out to be.

As we've mentioned, the project comprises 30 condos and six ground-floor retail spaces. That's quite a few stores for a stretch of Clark that right now seems a little dead (partly that's because the east side is occupied by a cemetery, but the west side is pretty bleak, too). More retail is planned at several other mixed use projects along the strip: Rainbo Village, the development underway at 4836 N Clark St, includes 15,000 square feet of retail, and another mixed-use building nearing completion at 4880 N Clark St includes two storefronts.

As a local (I live around the corner in Uptown), I'd love to see a thriving row of new, interesting shops and restaurants. I'll be a wee bit disappointed if it ends up a strip of chiropractors, real estate offices and salons - the kinds of businesses that often wind up on the ground floor of mixed-use buildings along main streets. Franchises might win the day; the blog Uptown Update says rumor has it that Panera Bread is coming to Rainbo Village.

This would be an interesting turn for "Andersonville South," the term many real estate agents have been using for the Clark Street retail corridor that extends south of Foster Avenue (even though it's technically just inside the western border of Uptown). In part because the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce has taken a big stand in favor of mom-and-pops and independents, Andersonville proper veers towards the cute, funky and eclectic. It'll be interesting to see if the new retail follows suit.

Barabara Buchel, of Jameson Realty Group, has starting prices for the two- and three-bedroom condos at Clark 36 ranging from the high $380s to the high $480s, including garage parking. First deliveries are planned for the spring of 2008.