Fifield Company is best known for developing high-rise office buildings in the West Loop, the recently-opened K2 luxury tower and other high-rise apartments in the Fulton River District.
A year ago, after seeing people staying longer in the city and looking for larger spaces in emerging neighborhoods, Fifield Company set out to identify neighborhood sites where it could develop smaller 4-story buildings patterned after its successful projects in Santa Monica.
Fifield Company recently closed on a site at 1850 W Chicago Ave where it will build two 16-unit, 4-story buildings with ground-level retail space. A third 16-unit building at the East Village site will be developed by Steve Fifield’s son Chris — his first rental project.
The evolving plans for the development have been covered in depth at the East Village Association site. Crain’s Chicago Real Estate Daily reported last Friday that a Fifield venture closed on the acquisition of the site for $2.6 million.
Fifield Company CEO Steve Fifield outlines the new venture in the video.
The 48-unit development marks the first foray by a major builder into rental housing in the East Village, and is one of only a few new rental buildings in the area, which has seen quite a few new condos and single-family homes in the last several years. There appears to be solid demand for apartments in the area. One landlord who owns 100s of units in Wicker Park, Ukrainian Village and East Village recently told me that he has zero vacancies and a waiting list for his renovated apartments.