You can only truly assess a neighborhood in relief against other neighborhoods, and the most immediate and natural comparison point for the West Loop is the South Loop – and vice versa. We hope to help homebuyers shopping these neighborhoods – and edify our readers on the comparative merits of the West Loop and South Loop next week with our first Developer Smackdown – West Loop vs. South Loop.
In the West Loop corner, wearing red and white trunks (or, more likely, casual business attire), is David Chase, president and CEO of The Thrush Companies, developer of the current 740 Fulton condo tower and a wide variety of completed developments, including the West Loop’s Block X and Block Y projects.
In the South Loop corner, weighing in at – well, let’s not worry about weight, this ain’t a park district fight – is Keith Giles, co-founder and owner of Frankel & Giles and a principal in Kargil Development. Giles is currently marketing X/O Condominiums, two high-rises in the South Loop, where he has developed and sold a wide variety of projects since his 1994 Filmworks Lofts.
Before we ring the bell and send the builders out swinging, we’d like your input. What should we be asking these guys about their respective neighborhoods? What would you like to hear from either builder about the new-homes market in his community – about value, appreciation, location. Or about general livability – dining, shopping, parks, politics and schools?
Click on “Comments” below and fire off the questions inquiring minds want to know. We’ll collect the best of the bunch and ask them of Giles and Chase when we video the smackdown next Thursday.
At what point does a neighborhood become over-saturated with new development? In a similar thread, how do developers work together to ensure a neighborhood doesn’t leave them with too many unsold units?
This is not even close. It’s like comparing Shaq to Mini-Me. You can compare on multiple issues and aspects, but if you asked previous buyers the simple question of reputation based on development quality and integrity, Thrush wins with a air-wiff jab. To make an accurate assessment, how about each developer posting their confidential non-disclosure settlement agreements from their past developments. Would also be curious to see who wins the battle on campaign and other donations to previous alderman.
I don’t live in either neighborhood, but I have been shopping around in both and I really don’t understand why anyone picks the West Loop over the South Loop these days. Once Roosevelt Collection is complete, that nook of the South Loop will have nearly every kind of retail a resident could want within walking distance (while also guaranteeing that those big-box retailers are not going to open another location in the west loop, since they’d only be a mile or two apart). Plus, the south loop offers closer proximity to the lake and parks, better promise of continued gentrification southward vs. the likelihood of gentrification pushing through garfield park in the next five to ten years. The west loop might have better restaurants and might be quieter, but that hardly seems to even things out. With all that said, I am genuinely open to hearing any west-loop perks that I haven’t considered, so feel free to fire back, west-loop lovers.
I am sure you guys will be throwing softball questions that’s for sure because if they go down so does this site that’s for sure!
As a West Looper, it’s proximity to highways, walking distance into the loop for work, and more pedestrian friendly sidewalks trump congested Roosevelt and company.
6-8 blocks walk to work beat 12-16 blocks any day.
What is the relative price per SF for land in West Loop Vs South Loop?
Unit prices per SF seem to be about 50-75 dollars higher in the South Loop and I’m trying to understand why.
Why hasn’t the northwest corner of Madison and Morgan been developed? Seems to be a prime corner in the West Loop that remains vacant.
Proximity to the lake and park. Red Line, Blue Line, Orange Line, Brown Line. South Loop is a much better place to live in my opinion, as long as you’re not much further south than Roosevelt.
West Loop does have some good features, but South Loop has more.
They are both great places to live. I own a condo in the west loop.
The south loop has better retail (Target, Whole Foods, etc). I like the buildings in the west loop more though. Mid-level warehouse buildings that have been converted to residential and commerical spaces. Some of the buildings still have watertowers on top. I think these buidlings give the neighborhood character. I’m not a fan of living in a neighborhood dominated by modern high-rise glass condos.
As a westlooper who goes to southloop quite a bit to visit friends, this is what I think:
It is 100 times easier to find parking in westloop, so if you are hosting a party in westloop, people will actually come.
Westloop is 100 times more family-friendly, with the skinner park and quieter neighborhood.
If you are simply looking for a investment property, Southloop is great, as tons and tons of residential and commercial is moving that way. If you are looking for a place to call home, westlopp best southloop hands down.
And Oprah…let’s not forget…the West Loop has Oprah (part-time,anyway)…which means the police presence has got to be pretty good. 🙂
To Tom:
Plenty of parking usually means that your neighborhood is simply lacking in things to do. Trying to tout that as a good quality just plain doesn’t cut it.
I’d take a neighborhood with more amenities and less street parking (whoopty doo, the whole point of city life is to get out on your own two feet and walk) than ample street parking and dead sidewalks any day of the week.
Chalk one up for the burgeoning South Loop
Also, to each, his own, but I don’t see proximity to highways as a big plus for the west loop.
When I rent a car or am in a cab, LSD is close, the Eisenhower is about 3 minutes away, as is 90/94. Shoot down Clark to get on 55 to Midway at Cermak. How close to a highway do you really want to live?
As far as parking goes, at night after say 8pm, it gets much easier to find parking by me (Printer’s Row). And there are a few public lots within a couple blocks of my building. If my guests leave late enough, they often don’t have to pay, as the operators of those lots usually just leave around 11pm. There is a slight advantage in the amount of street parking in the West Loop, but the issue really doesn’t come up all that often with me.
Again, I wouldn’t want to live much further south than Roosevelt, but the South Loop beats West Loop every way in my book.
Try finding a parking spot to go to Orange for breakfast on Sunday at 10am.
Having lived in the Gold Coast, Lincoln Pk and West Loop…there are always trade-offs.
For me, owning in LP or GC wasn’t really that practical or affordable. So you trade a busy bustling streetscape for less trafficked roads that allow for not only street parking for guests but for a nicer, newer condo in lieu of a crappy run down rental unit. I love the fact that I can walk out of my unit, into my heated garage and into my car and drive to S. Loop to go to Target, Whole Foods, Home Depot, etc. without stepping a foot outside.
Take the retail and traffic South Loop. Us West Loopers will come visit only when we need stuff and keep our quiet peaceful streets.
Well, I live less than a block from Orange, so that’s not an issue. I see your point, but for me, living in the heart of one of the biggest cities in the world is not about driving a car a lot, especially for a Sunday brunch.
The attitude of preferring a heated garage to drive to another heated garage is what is making new development in this city so crummy. People want to live a suburban lifestyle in the heart of a city. So we get sky-high condo towers with 2 parking spaces per unit, and new ‘neighborhoods’ that are little more than these towers with attached bank branches and dry cleaners. No reason to have a neighborhood where you live when you can just drive to another neighborhood, I guess. As long as it has easy parking.
No wonder the city is looking more and more like Schaumburg full of high-rises every year.
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