How is the local real estate market performing?
Like gangbusters, if you ask Belgravia Group, the Chicago builder behind projects ranging from the Via Como townhouses west of the Loop to the Belden Centre condominium conversion in Lincoln Park. The company, which had its biggest year ever in ’03, opened several new projects in the fall and hopes to open another in March or April.
Belgravia has been busy enough, in fact, that the builder created its own sales force last year to sell its product exclusively.
“If we were doing a project or two a year, it would be difficult to maintain a sales force, but with the number of things we have going on, it fits well,” said Alan Lev, of Belgravia. “It allows us to provide a better service to buyers. We ended up taking back all of our product (from outside brokers), and we’re able to staff it now full time, instead of just weekends. The sales people become experts at just one product.”
The company’s latest development is Hartland Park, a development of 23 single-family homes and 35 townhouses set to break ground in the spring at Paulina and Wrightwood. Belgravia’s partner on the deal, Schillaci Birmingham Development, is building the single-family homes. Belgravia is building the townhouses and selling both the townhouses and single-families from a built-out sales center on site.
The single-family homes are priced from $1.2 million. They have three bedrooms, 4.5 baths and high-end features, including Crystal custom cabinets, granite counters, stainless steel appliances, marble master baths, red oak floors in living areas and attached two-car garages.
“These are on wide lots, all of them,” Lev said. “We were able to set them up our own way, 40 feet wide instead of 25. The townhouses vary, but they’re generally over 20 feet wide, which is wider than a lot of single-families.”
The townhouses are priced from the high $500s. They have three to five bedrooms and 3.5 to 4.5 baths. Features include yards, rooftop decks, maple cabinets, granite counters, fireplaces with marble hearths, marble baths and heated garages.
The development includes a private park and is located just west of Ashland Avenue in the Paulina Corridor, a one-time industrial enclave that has become a hotbed of residential development.
“We’re definitely less expensive than (homes) east of Ashland, and I think a little less money and more value compared to other things in our neighborhood,” Lev said. “That’s something we always try to do.”