December 29, 2007 - The road may be getting rocky for Motor Row on 2300 South Michigan Avenue. Sedgwick Properties has filed a lawsuit against Andrius Augunas and seeks to recover over $350,000 in consulting fees on the project. Sedgwick claims Augunas hired them to help gain financing for the Motor Row project with a fee of 1.25 percent from any loan secured to be paid to Sedgwick. The lawsuit also names the IndyMack Bank that provided the Motor Row loan along with Augunas’ development company, Rokas International.

Motor Row is currently under construction despite the controversy. According to an article in Crain’s, an IndyMac spokesman stated that money allotted to pay Sedgwick had already been spent though nobody seemed able to say where. A similar scenario occurred in late October when Augunas headed to court over another suit with Soloventure Incorporated over money they invested in other Augunas projects. Soloventure claims that $1 million that was supposed to go towards the Franklin Point development was instead diverted to other projects, thus prompting Soloventure to back out of funding two other South Loop Augunas projects. That suit was settled out of court, but the Motor Row dispute is just beginning.

Another sticking point is the shifting sales numbers at Motor Row that can’t seem to be pinned down. Appraisal Research Counselors put the number of units sold at 42 back in April. By October ARC cut that number down to 20, which Augunas says is inaccurate. He states that 48 units are sold and insists that the buyers will close and move in by sometime in mid 2008. Unfortunately, the obstacles faced by this development may be typical of what other Condo Builders in Chicago deal with in a slowing market.

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December 28, 2007 - River North will have a new boutique hotel ready for guests by sometime in 2009. The hotel building itself won’t be new, but will actually be a redeveloped Hotel Wacker that currently stands on 111 West Huron Street. Oxford Capital Group has purchased the building for a reported $24 million and plans to cash in on the growing demand for high-end hotel units in the city. The renovated Hotel Wacker could just be another in a rapidly expanding list of hotels that are either currently under construction or set to open soon, but Oxford hopes to stand out from the pack by offering smaller, less costly but no less luxurious rooms to the public. It may be a niche market that not many developers have dipped into yet.

The history of Hotel Wacker dates back to 1926, when the twelve story building was constructed. According to records, the hotel was then designed by Levy and Klein who are credited with the design of some of the area’s more notable theaters. This bit of dramatic flair could work well with the whole boutique hotel theme. In the meantime, you’ll have to be satisfied with watching the progress of some of the much larger hotel condo projects in town like Trump Tower.

If you’re somewhere in between staying at a luxury hotel and buying a luxury condo, you might want to check out the selection of Rent to own condos in Chicago.

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December 27, 2007 - Summer 2008 will bring green grass, green leaves and a completed green Emerald on where else but Green Street in the West Loop. A few posts ago we talked about the incentives being offered there but thought it deserved another look. The project is the result of a trio of companies, namely Harlem Irving, New Frontier and Senco Development. Pappageorge Haymes designed the towers which were planned nearly a decade ago. Because of that, developer Senco says that some more modern eco-friendly features were left out of the design because they simply weren’t available at the time. The building doesn’t have LEED certification as a whole, but according to an article in the Chicago Journal, it did receive enough online votes at the Chicago Agent Magazine to be dubbed the favorite eco-friendly community in the city.

The development’s two buildings, each twelve stories with a total of 106 condos, incorporates many recycled materials and environmentally responsible details. Some of the interior details include low VOC paint and bamboo, eucalyptus or hardwood flooring. Perhaps the signature feature of Emerald is the large 8,000 square foot lobby that is shared by both towers. This common space contains a fitness center with a LEED certified Lonseal Green Vinyl floor which is made from at least 20 percent recycled compounds. The lobby will also showcase the Club Emerald which will have a bar and party or event area for residents to use. Other details include furniture upholstered with fabrics woven from recycled material, quartzitec floors, counter tops with recycled aluminum and energy efficient LED lighting.

With 75 percent of the units at Emerald already sold, it looks like there will be a green harvest by summer for these Chicago New Construction Condos.

Technorati Tags: Emerald, Chicago Condos, Chicago Real Estate