January 31, 2008 – One of the first buildings granted landmark status in 2008 could be the IBM building, but the distinction comes with a condition. Even though the City Council Landmarks Committee approved the tower’s status, Alderman and Landmarks Chairman Anthony Beale vowed to hold up the final designation in committee unless developer John Rutledge agrees to unionize the proposed hotel portion.

The fate, or at least facade, of the 52 story tower on 330 North Wabash hangs in the balance of Rutledge’s decision. According to a Sun Times article the tower, constructed in 1972, is currently 30 percent vacant and could use some renovations especially now that new neighbor Trump is open for business.

Rutledge had planned to build a luxury hotel with 335 rooms on floor 2 through 14 of IBM. Being granted landmark status would qualify the project for substantial tax breaks. The battle at the Congress Hotel on South Michigan is a prime example of what all parties want to avoid. That hotel has been entangled with striking union workers for four years and beset with complaints of poor service. A recent request to expand the hotel was knocked down by the Plan Commission.

Right now Rutledge isn’t saying yes or no to the stipulation, only pointing out the obvious that the project would benefit the city by adding construction jobs, long term hotel jobs and millions in taxes. It could end up being a battle of wills, but if neither side can come to an agreement the end loser is both the IBM building and Chicago. Condo Builders in Chicago rarely get to take advantage of landmark status for a project, and it seems a fair trade for restoring a historic building.

[tags]IBM Building, Chicago Condos, Chicago Real Estate[/tags]

January 30, 2008 – Construction may be in full swing on the 60th floor, but 125 of the 339 hotel rooms on four of the levels 14 through 27 are open for business at Trump Tower Chicago. The starting price for the Trump experience is $325, which is less than the regular rates of $425 to $2,300 per night, depending on the suite size. Discounted rates will be in effect for the first year.

The $325 per night rate gets you a 600 square foot room furnished with a king sized bed and kitchen, according to Crain’s and the Tribune. The 600 square foot room is actually the smallest unit available. $1,425 rates a two bedroom, three bath unit measuring 2,140 square feet with a dining room and furnished kitchen.

The interior finishes are what you’d expect from Trump. Imported Italian limestone, zebra wood, custom Italian cabinets, French china, large soaking tubs and flat screen televisions in the bath mirrors are just a few of the luxury signature touches.

The restaurant Sixteen, with its curved windows and 19,000 crystal chandelier, is already serving breakfast and will expand its meals to include dinner soon. A wine rack with 900 bottle capacity will hold a selection for virtually every preference. And if you’re in the mood to dine in, you can request that a meal be prepared in your own room.

The entire hotel portion is expected to have a grand opening on March 17th, with Donald Trump in attendance. At that time the rest of the hotel units, along with the spa, lounge and health club will be fully functional. Construction on the 92 story, $800 million high-rise should be complete by April of 2009, ushering in a new selection of Chicago Luxury Condos.

[tags]Trump Tower, Chicago Condos, Chicago Real Estate[/tags]

January 29, 2008 – A proposed 50 story high-rise on 150 East Ontario Street that has been in the planning stage for some time may finally get off the ground later this year and become home to a new Marriott Hotel brand. Monaco Development LLC first intended for the building to primarily house condos, but company president Neil Gehani was quoted in both the Chicago Tribune and Crain’s as saying current market conditions caused the change.

The project is estimated to cost roughly $240 million and will still contain around 20 luxury condos. But the main focus of the development will be the 250 room boutique hotel, dubbed Edition. Hotel developers Ian Schrager and Marriott International have plans to eventually open 100 Edition hotels in countries all over the world, including Madrid, Costa Rica and Paris. Chicago is among the first nationally, with other locations in Miami, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Scottsdale to follow.

Financing for the tower still has to be secured, but the stellar location close to Michigan Avenue and the increased demand for boutique hotels are a definite plus for the project. The City Planning Commission has already approved the tower, but a zoning change must still be made to accommodate the hotel rooms. If all goes well, the tower is expected to be complete in 2011.

The recent influx of hotel projects has certainly been above the norm, but it remains to be seen if developers continue to favor building hotels and apartments over new Downtown Chicago Condos.

[tags]150 E Ontario, Chicago Condos, Chicago Real Estate[/tags]

January 28, 2008 – It seems that Solstice on the Park is taking a page from Hollywood movie marketing; create buzz about the project before it becomes live. Literally, they took out a full page ad in the Chicago Tribune a couple of weekends ago announcing the low end of the price tag for the condos. $500,000 and up is what you’ll pay for 1,200 to 3,500 square feet and two to three bedrooms. There are no one bedroom condos, and right now they’re just fielding offers of interest, not actually pre-selling. The real push is expected to begin in March with construction following this summer.

If you missed the back story, the 26 story, 145 unit high-rise gets its name from the angle of the glass windows on the building’s south side. Jeanne Gang, who won fans with her design of Aqua, tilted the windows to 71 degrees. That is the angle of the sun in Chicago at the summer solstice and will create less glare and heating in summer and more light in winter. An additional benefit is that is creates less of an optical illusion for birds and should reduce flight impacts. The building will seek LEED certification.

The voids in the east and west walls, which increase in number as the floors rise, were placed strategically in low load bearing areas. ArchitectureChicago Plus pointed out this little fact.

Antheus Capital, based in New Jersey, has been investing heavily in Hyde Park real estate. They also own the nearby Windmere House. Antheus has agreed to keep rents at Windmere affordable. Residents can earn up to 60 percent of the median area income and still get the lock on rent rates at these Chicago Apartments.

[tags]Solstice on the Park, Chicago Condos, Chicago Real Estate[/tags]

January 26, 2008 – The troubles began for WMC Development IV and Ashton Lofts months ago when construction lagged behind schedule, pushing back delivery dates and prompting some buyers to default on their contracts. Then in October of last year the development’s lender, LaSalle Bank, began foreclosure proceedings to collect the $5.3 million loan that was past due. Now, according to an article in Chicago Real Estate Daily, WMC has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on the 1610 West Fullerton Avenue development.

Construction on Ashton Lofts is complete, and stats from December showed that 19 of the 39 units had either been sold or were under contract. For those who purchased a condo at Ashton Lofts in Lincoln Park and actually did close, the bankruptcy will have no effect. A spokesperson for WMC said the number of buyers who had backed out of contracts had been high enough that the developer wouldn’t be able to repay the loan to LaSalle. The original maturity date of the loan was June 1, 2007. WMC managed to renegotiate for a September deadline but wasn’t able to meet that either. Add in the weight of a market slump and a struggling development can easily crumble.

Foresight Analytics states that defaults on construction loans in Chicago were up to 3.3% in the third quarter compared to 1.8% in the same quarter of 2006. Predictions are for more foreclosures as developers find it more difficult to sell new Pre Construction Condos in Chicago.

[tags]Ashton Lofts, Chicago Condos, Chicago Real Estate[/tags]

January 25, 2008 – A proposed development next to Wrigley Field doesn’t have many fans among neighbors and patrons of the ballpark. Crain’s reported that a presentation was made last Wednesday night by Jack George, a lawyer specializing in zoning, and John Lahey, an architect with Solomon Cordwell Buenz and Associates. The project would be a mixed-use one consisting of two towers reaching nine stories. The entire complex would include 150 rental apartments, a Hyatt Place Hotel with 137 rooms, health club and nearly 100,000 square feet of retail space. The developer of this proposal is Steve Schultz of Preferred Properties, along with Anthony Rossi. Rossi has considerable previous experience developing apartment projects.

Opposition has been stiff so far. The area is already congested due to crowds and traffic during home games. The development’s height is another sticking point. At the planned 105 feet, it would more than exceed the current restriction of 55 feet for that zone. Finally, property values and current rental rates for the area came into question. If built, the new apartments would rent at around $1,800 per month. Residents expressed concern about their rents going up and whether or not they would be able to afford to live there in the future.

Tom Tunney is the alderman for that ward and assured residents that the project wouldn’t proceed until all concerns had been addressed and satisfied. We’ll have to stay tuned to this one and see if it gets on the score board or grounds out. Other proposed developments such as X/O and Evanston’s high-rise have faced opposition and managed to gain approval. There has been an increasing demand for Chicago Apartments, and more developers are probably going to try to cash in on the trend.

[tags]Wrigley Field, Chicago Condos, Chicago Real Estate[/tags]

January 24, 2008 – VB1224 has been on the market for a while now and they are still rolling out a variety of incentives to move the last units in the building. The previous and most widely advertised one, though not big, was a free 42 inch plasma television. Before that, buyers had a choice of about $25,000 in either free assessments, upgrades, or free closing costs and eight months of mortgage payments. Since none of those are no longer in effect, VB1224 is now sweetening the deal a little with two new promotional offers for prospective buyers.

Probably the most attractive to anyone seriously interested in purchasing there is a discounted price on the one bedroom and one bath plus den lofts. The square feet of living space in these lofts runs at about 900. You can pack up and move in for $249,000.

The other incentive is a free parking space worth an estimated $35,000. Unfortunately, they are not packaging the deal and you can’t combine the reduced price with a free space. The free parking only applies to purchases of condos other than the one bedrooms.

VB1224 was billed as one of the last true concrete loft conversions in the West Loop. There are 27 units per floor for a total of 189 condos in this former warehouse. Interiors feature 12 to 14 foot ceilings and exposed ductwork, typical of true loft design. Building amenities include a theater room, doorman, fitness center and conference room. So if you’re shopping for Chicago Condo Lofts, you might want to take advantage of the current incentives at VB1224.

[tags]VB1224, Chicago Condos, Chicago Real Estate[/tags]

January 23, 2008 – A few weeks ago we mentioned that Rokas International was facing difficulties with their Motor Row project. Now it seems that Franklin Point, a venture Rokas had initially partnered with Frankel & Giles to develop, isn’t going to materialize. A Crain’s article states that Rokas has failed to secure financing for the project and is unable to close on the land purchase. The project would have been a sprawling mixed-use development with as many as eight buildings and 3,000 units on the eight acre Franklin Point site. Besides the residential units, Rokas intended to build a marina, retail space and hotel.

Rokas had secured the contract rights to Giles’ portion of the land and had entered into an agreement with D2 Realty and CSX Corporation to buy the parcel for $55 million. Franklin Point has been vacant for over three decades. Grand Central Station last occupied the spot, and despite the prime location on the Chicago River and close to the Sears Tower, it has been difficult to develop. The Rokas plan totaled nearly 3.5 million square feet, which would have necessitated a zoning change because it exceeded current restrictions by a million square feet. Another highlight of the complex design, which was to be created by Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill Architecture, was a tower that would surpass eighty stories.

D2 Realty has put its portion of the property back on the market. There is no confirmation yet as to what CSX will do with their part. Even though the 3,000 residential units in Rokas’ now defunct Franklin Point project would have been developed in phases, that still would have been a large number of condos to add to the inventory of current Downtown Chicago Condos

[tags]Franklin Point, Chicago Condos, Chicago Real Estate[/tags]

January 22, 2008 – A proposed development from Highland Park’s Pickus Co. consisting of two eight story towers with 318 units has come up against quite a bit of opposition from neighbors of the 1260 W. Madison West Loop building site. The protest has prompted the formation of The West Loop Concerned Citizens group to formally challenge the developer’s plans.

According to a Sun Times report, the main points of contention seem to be centered around the design and size of the project. Back in April of 2007, Pickus agreed to shorten the height of the two buildings to 115 feet, down from the original 155. The two condos would sit on a common base. But the citizens group cites concerns that Pickus isn’t making an effort to communicate and that the development is roughly 34% more dense than a nearby project called the Skybridge.

Another sticking point is that according to the citizens group, Pickus had assured the community that there would be a certain number of what he termed affordable condos in one of the towers. But the developer also stated that for that tower and those particular units the design standard would be lower than those in the other tower. This concession raised concerns of creating a substandard project that would ultimately lower the value of both it and surrounding properties.

It seems that Pickus, who is probably best known for the 6 story brick Atelier in the Bryn Mawr Historic District, has a long way to go before moving ahead with this project. As some developers have found out, long-time residents of Chicago Neighborhoods can have a major impact on the future of a project.

[tags]Pickus Company, Chicago Condos, Chicago Real Estate[/tags]

January 21, 2008 – The Park Kingsbury Residences in River North have been getting some attention lately. This project from developer Cataldo Marovitz Group will renovate a former florist warehouse on 660 North Kingsbury Avenue into a collection of what is being marketed as modern urban lofts. The forty units will have the traditional exposed timber construction but differ from most loft conversions by making what would normally be considered upgraded interior finishes standard for every loft. Cataldo Interiors Group takes credit for the mixture of European and Italian design theme of the units.

FitzGerald Associates Architects designed the Residences, which will come in 23 individual floor plans. With only 40 lofts total, that gives buyers an above average selection of layouts from which to chose. The idea behind equipping these homes with top of the line finishes from the start was to present potential buyers with a spacious, high-end loft that would serve as a luxury home or place to entertain business guests, if needed. Add in the trendy River North neighborhood with its excellent restaurants, well-known clubs and eclectic mix of arts and entertainment and Park Kingsbury may have a recipe for success.

The lofts range in price from the low $400,000s for a one bedroom unit to over $1.4 million for a three bedroom units with a den. The lofts are scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2009, making them one of the first Chicago Lofts projects to deliver next year.

[tags]Park Kingsbury Residences, Chicago Condos, Chicago Real Estate[/tags]