In late May the Chicago Association of Realtors handed out Good Neighbor Awards to dozens of new commercial and residential projects throughout the city and suburbs. If you put stock in CAR’s awards and prefer to ride with a winner, you could opt for a home in either of the new-ish loft developments that received honors for “Mixed Use Renovation”: the 3133 Lofts in Lake View, and the Shoemaker Lofts in Avondale.
The 3133 Lofts, located at 3133 N Lakewood Ave, are finally nearing the end of initial sales. The Macon Group and Jonathan Splitt Architects started adapting the two warehouses into 25 condos and two retail spaces back in 2007. As of today, just one developer unit remains on the market, a one-bedroom / one-bath loft with wide-plank cherry floors, exposed brick, granite and limestone finishes, and a private balcony, priced in the $220s.
Earlier purchases included one-bedrooms sold from the $350s to $370s, two-bedrooms from the $310s to $570s, and three-bedrooms from the $450s to $600s; the most recent sales were two-bedrooms that sold in March and April, both in the $330s.
Dubin Residential‘s Shoemaker Lofts project dates back to at least 2006, according to our archives. The CAR credited Dubin with redeveloping the old Florsheim shoe factory at 3963 W Belmont Ave and filling about 90 percent of its new retail spaces.
There’s still some blight to deal with, though — nine of the 12 units listed for sale in the building are designated as short sales. All but two of those 12 have seen some sort of price adjustment since going back on the market, including a ground-level two-bedroom / two-bath with deeded garage parking that has dropped from $285,000 to $180,000 over the past six months, and a 1,625 square-foot, two-bedroom “penthouse”, also with parking, that has gone from $429,900 to $289,890 since February.