Most condo watchers have figured out at this point that any tower that isn’t out of the ground already probably won’t be going up anytime soon. But what effect does the market have on multi-phased projects?
A few readers have asked in recent months whether The Enterprise Companies and Mesirow Financial Real Estate still planned to break ground on Walton on the Park‘s north tower, and while I’ve had no luck getting an answer from either developer so far, signs are surfacing online that suggest what you see right now — one high-rise on the northwest corner of Delaware Place and State Street in River North — is what you’ll get.
Construction has progressed, albeit at a leisurely pace, on Walton on the Park’s 31-story south tower at 2 W Delaware Pl for about a year and a half. Representatives from Enterprise, Mesirow, and Coldwell Banker all said at the outset that work on the 37-story north tower wouldn’t begin until sales on the south tower reached 75 percent, and that was before the bubble completely burst. As of today, more than half of the south tower’s 198 units are still listed on the MLS, meaning the developers would need to land about 40 more contracts and bank on everyone actually closing on their homes come next spring in order to even consider work on the north tower, and that’s assuming lending conditions will magically revert to the way they were in 2007 or earlier.
So for some time, my gut has said, “No, the north tower isn’t going up anytime soon.” Although I don’t have any first-hand evidence to back this up, I can direct you to the “Chicago Retail Restaurant Thread” on the SkyscraperCity message board, where SSC regular “spyguy” recently shared renderings of a 34,000 square-foot, two-story retail development planned for the southwest corner of Walton and State streets, the exact site of Walton on the Park’s north tower. (The shops facing Walton are in the rendering above; those facing State are in the image below.)
A source connected with the project tipped off “spyguy” about the change in plans, and he pulled the images seen above and below from commercial real estate listings. (I’ve had no luck tracking down those listings so far.) I left messages with Enterprise principals and Mesirow spokespeople last week asking for a status update on Walton on the Park, but haven’t heard back from either company. Have any Yo readers seen or heard anything about these commercial spaces?
Among the 107 condos listed at Walton on the Park’s south tower are one-bedrooms with 920 to 1,000 square feet, priced from the $520s to $620s, two-bedrooms with 1,280 to 1,920 square feet, priced from the $640s to $970s, three-bedrooms with 1,920 to 2,165 square feet, priced from $1.25 to $1.68 million, and one four-bedroom with 3,435 square feet, priced at $2.74 million.
