“Everybody talks about a housing slowdown, but I don’t see it,” Wabash Properties principal See Wong told Chicago Magazine last year, adding: “I have a niche that seems economy proof.” That niche, according to Chicago‘s Dennis Rodkin, includes more than 1,000 residential units that have been built in Chinatown and Bridgeport over the past two decades.
Today, most developers would be unlikely to describe any part of the condo market as “economy proof.” One Wabash Properties development, 1349 South Wabash Private Residences, proved susceptible to market pressures, and the construction timetable for that building has been pushed back. However, Canal Crossing (pictured above and at right), Wabash’s 60-unit mid-rise development at 2318 – 2328 S Canal St, appears to be moving ahead.
When I spoke with Ling Yow from Wabash Properties in August, 11 of the 60 condos in Canal Crossing were still available, which is just one less than Rodkin reported eight months earlier. There are currently four three-bedroom condos listed on the MLS that are priced from the $280s to the $320s, but because I haven’t been able to reach anyone at Wabash this week, I can’t say whether those four units represent the development’s complete stock of available homes.
One certainty is that construction is moving at a snail’s pace. When I visited the site in August, it was about half as tall as it is today, meaning that workers have only added about one floor in the past four months.
NewHomeNotebook:
• Rate and review Canal Crossing
• Rate and review 1349 South Wabash
Related posts:
• Sales and construction update: Canal Crossing (Aug. 28)