Prison condos: New York housing trend coming to Chicago?

Chicago Metropolitan Correctional CenterThe almost criminal rise in prices during the last decade of Chicago’s booming real estate market has resulted in the conversion (“adaptive reuse” is the phrase of choice now) of just about anything you can imagine – churches, hospitals, warehouses and factories – to residential use. But we’re still the Second City, and New York, where correctional facilities are now going condo, has one-upped us again. A story in this week’s New Yorker, chronicles how the Brooklyn House of Detention is likely to follow the trail blazed by the old Parkside Correctional Facility, a Harlem jail that converted to condos.

New York real estate site Curbed.com offered another possibility this week, reporting that a developer wants to demolish the current building and replace it with two new structures — one luxury condos, the other a facility for inmates. Curbed writes that the proposal “gives new meaning to mixed-use development.”

Where is the local developer with the vision and creativity to propose using the artsy triangular floor plate, terrific views and beautiful (and secure) roof deck / exercise facility of the Metropolitan Correctional Center to full advantage, with a conversion to luxury residences? Michael Lerner, Keith Giles, Ron Shipka – are you listening? Chicago loft kings should note the rules that seem to be evolving for such developments among their eastern brethren.

If the cells – sorry, condos – are going to be upscale, they should be located in gentrifying neighborhoods, according to the New Yorker. A healthy amount of time should pass between the previous use and the new one, and all fixtures that say “penal institution” should be removed. Structural obstacles, such as ceiling heights of around eight feet, can prove substantial, so “emphasize the unit’s `loft-like’ open floor plans.” Open houses can be risky, as buyers might be subject to startling comments from passersby.

On the upside, the writer states, the fact that the facility currently is occupied should not be a deterrent.

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