It’s no secret that where roads go, development will follow. And where major roads cross, development likely will beat a path in force.
It is a unique relationship: the geography of the roads joining with the enterprise that is real estate to shape the urban and suburban environments in which we live, work and shop.
These hot corners are populated by intriguing people and dominated by interesting ventures. The intersections may have evolved over the years and had their ups and downs with the neighborhoods around them, but today, for the most part, they still pave the way for economic activity.
Almost all of the Chicago area’s most recognizable intersections share this trait of being commercial traffic generators. And yet each intersection has developed a unique blend of real estate uses, either through personal vision, municipal planning or historical accident.
Our thoroughfares and throughways, then, provide more than a convenient route of travel. They also give us a line along which we can trace the past, present and future of the commercial real estate industry itself.
