Which developers dominate the housing market in Chicago and the suburbs? Crain’s has republished a list of Chicago’s largest homebuilders, based on 2005 revenues (the 2006 list is not yet available.) The information is a little dated, of course, but the figures highlight the booming markets of the South Loop and the New East Side. It’s a pretty sweet time to be James Loewenberg of Magellan Development Group. The same couldn’t be said in 2005-06 for Nicholas S Gouletas (senior) of American Invsco.
Suburban developers head the list: First was Elgin-based Pulte Homes, Inc; followed by Cambridge Homes of Libertyville and Lakewood Homes of Hoffman Estates.
Downtown developers figure prominently: American Invsco (Ontario Place, Millennium Center and others) comes in at number eight with $292.1 million in revenues in 2005. The company sold 792 housing units in 2005 but also reporting the largest revenue drop, of 17.1 percent. The Enterprise Companies was ranked ninth, with $281.1 million in revenue (up 6.9 percent from 2004) and 1,160 housing units sold in 2005. Magellan Development’s siezable Lakeshore East project propelled the company to 10th position, with $227.5 million in revenues, up a whopping 85 percent. Magellan sold 726 housing units in 2005, and considsering that the company opened sales at the New East Side high-rise Aqua in 2006, I’m guessing this year was pretty sweet for Loewenberg, too. Wonder who else had a good 2006?