Stepping into stretch limos, taxis and buses, 20,000 out-of-towners will embark on a trek to their Democratic National Convention headquarters next month through Chicago’s back yard–the Near West Side.
Like a lot of back yards, this one is not picture perfect. Far from the Magnificent Mile, it’s a part of the city that’s not likely to impress the delegates or the national news media.
The Near West Side is blue-collar country, an aging industrial enclave, a former urban battleground, still scarred with many vacant lots created by the demolition of abandoned buildings.
But, from Aug. 26-29, the conventioneers will be heading west on Madison Street, passing the Chicago River, leaving the high-rise canyons of the Loop behind, crossing the Kennedy Expressway and, two miles later, arriving at the massive United Center–an island rising out of a vast sea of parking lots.
Along the way, the conventioneers probably won’t spend much time looking out the windows, because, as out-of-towners, they won’t be aware of the changes–major changes–that have taken place since the Democrats were last here in 1968.
Madison’s Street’s infamous Skid Row is long gone, and a new residential boom is under way.
“The Near West Side has gone through a whole series of cycles, and in the latest one there’s a strong demand for residential,” said Robert Wiggs, executive director of the West Central Association.
“Now there’s a movement toward rehabbing old lofts for residential, and building new residences on vacant land that’s no longer in demand for industrial or commercial uses,” Wiggs said.
Just last week three new townhouse projects–each of about 20 units in the $180,000 to $350,000 price range–were announced, he said.
Terry Teele, executive assistant to Mayor Richard M. Daley, said that more than 5,300 loft residences have been built in the last three years in the area.
“We believe this is just the beginning of a wave,” Teele said.
Has the coming political convention helped to spur the growth?
“No,” said Greg Longhini, a spokesman for Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development. “The convention was not a catalyst for redevelopment, but the United Center was. We wanted the new stadium to have a positive effect on the surrounding neighbhorhood. The city’s objective was to preserve the existing community during the process of development.”
Wiggs, though, believes the convention has had a lot to do with the city’s urgency to complete infrastructure projects that are currently sprucing up the Near West Side. The facelift already includes planters in the median strip of Madison, new sidewalks, curbs, lighting and more.
“Suddenly, the city found the money and impetus to do these jobs,” said Wiggs. “The city that works is really working now. There should be a convention every year.”
He noted that the bill for streetscaping along Madison–including that part to be most heavily traveled by conventioneers–was $6.6 million, paid for with a combination of city and state funding.
“As more people move here, there will be more voters and it will be harder for the city to forget about this area,” Wiggs predicted.
One real estate entrepreneur contends that the residential rebirth of the Near West Side began long before the announcement of the Democratic convention or even the construction of the United Center in 1994.
New housing development came to a screeching halt after the 1968 riots sparked by the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King. But in 1987 Lewis Kostiner and his wife, Annie, saw an opportunity in residential real estate in the still-devastated area, founding Annie Properties.
Kostiner said he asked the city to clean up the area, which was blighted by vacant lots littered with trash and abandoned cars.
“Potential residents would come here and say, `Great lofts, but look at the area.’ “
In 1992, Daley launched the $2 million Strategic Neighborhood Action Pilot Program to stimulate development in the economically depressed areas of the Near West Side.
Now that improvements are under way, Daley wants the private sector to carry the ball.
“It’s best to leave the future to private developers,” he said.
That appears to be happening.
“Now we have 13 buildings with over 1 million square feet of loft rentals in the area,” said Kostiner. “People are realizing that this is a viable place to live. A little city is rising here.”
Kostiner plans to convert three of his rental buildings, with a total of 112 units, into loft condos. Prices will average $275,000 to $280,000.
Also, he is considering developing 36 luxury condos in the 112,000-square-foot building at 844 W. Adams St. All the residences would be 2,000 square feet or larger.
“This wasn’t gentrification because no residents were displaced,” Kostiner stressed. “All the lofts were built in commercial buildings that once were used by companies that have moved away or gone out of business.”
Two of the largest recent loft conversions are Haberdasher Square, 710 W. Jackson St., with 234 units priced from $104,000 to $399,000; and 1000 West Washington St., with 184 units priced from $117,900 to $429,900.
Built in two former Nabisco baking plants, 1000 West Washington is across the street from Harpo Studios, home of the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Another developer with a long-term stake in the Near West Side is Bill Lavicka, who describes himself as both a historic preservationist and a capitalist.
He faults the city for demolishing more buildings than necessary.
“The city’s policy is urban removal, rather than urban renewal,” he said. “Many of the old buildings have walls 1 1/2-feet thick and are still structurally sound. Old buildings have a sense of place; they should remain.”
But he praised the city for infrastructure improvements, including the planting of some 3,000 to 4,000 trees in the last year. “The convention certainly was a stimulous,” he said.
Lavicka’s latest project is Old Chicago Lofts at 1338-40 Madison St., where he is rehabbing a 100-year-old building for six residential lofts that will have 1,500 square feet and be priced from $160,000 to $200,000. The project will include two commercial lofts downstairs that may become a restaurant, he said.
Lavicka said he began rehabbing along Madison 10 years ago, long before the current boom: “Now’s the time to get in. The prices are right. There are still a lot of beautiful facades. There’s a lot of fixing up going on now and some speculation, too.”
Lavicka hopes the convention will put the Near West Side in a positive focus, and “maybe even open the eyes of Chicagoans that this might be a nice place to live.”
His company, Historic Boulevard Services, restored a 4,500-square-foot mansion after moving the structure from Ashland Avenue to 1505 W. Adams. The residence, on the National Register of Historic Places, is priced at $650,000.
Edwin Mills, professor of real estate and finance at the Kellogg School at Northwestern University, noted that a lot of residential rehab and new construction is taking place all over the inner city.
“There’s a surge of interest among developers in poorer areas,” Mills said.
Several of those developers participated in last year’s City Parade of Homes, sponsored by the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago on the 2700 block of West Washington.
One of them was Jim Raymond, president of Lansing-based Raymond Development Corp. His firm built one of the eight show homes.
Raymond, who is currently president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago, parlayed contacts from the event into the sale of six more homes, which are under construction. His single-family homes and two-flats are in the $138,000 to $220,000 range.
“The Parade of Homes on the West Side was more successful than anybody envisioned,” said William Maybrook, who was president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago last year.
“The area may look like a disaster zone, but there are a lot of solid residents there who want to stay in the neighborhood and live in new homes,” he said.
Kostiner believes the residential surge will begin to dwindle, because the supply of buildings for conversion is limited. But with the opening of the United Center, developers have seemed more willing to push the boundaries of West Side living.
“After completion of the United Center, residential and commercial pushed west toward Western Avenue,” said Ted Mazola, former First Ward alderman and president of New West Associates, a real estate firm.
At the northwest corner of Madison and Western, Wolverine Investments owns an eight-story building with 53,000 square feet of space. Dating from 1913, the former Midwest Bank building has been boarded up for three years.
Keith Giles, Wolverine president, wants to develop the property with 60 residential units on the upper six floors, with commercial uses below.
At the low-cost end of the new housing spectrum is a development by Uptown Habitat for Humanity that is just getting under way in the 2200 block of Warren Avenue, a block north of Madison.
The first half of the 24-unit condominium project should be completed by October on land obtained for $1 from the city, said John Mitchell, executive director of Uptown Habitat for Humanity.
Designed for low-income families, the three-bedroom, one-bath units will have 1,000 to 1,100 square feet and be priced from $55,000 to $65,000, with zero-interest mortgages.
“We hope some conventioneers will come over and look at the construction site,” said Mitchell. He added that the most famous Habitat for Humanity volunteer, former President Jimmy Carter, has been invited to the project.
“The Near West Side is going to be an extremely vibrant community in a few years. In addition to new construction, there’s a lot of good housing stock and it’s slowly being rehabbed,” said Mitchell.
Dan McLean, president of MCL Development, said his firm will assist in the Habitat project by providing help in design, hiring of subcontractors and supervision of construction.
MCL, in partnership with the Near West Side Development Corp., was awarded the first contract for replacement housing for residents of the huge Henry Horner Homes public housing project on the Near West Side.
Last fall MCL built three of the eight houses at the Showcase of Homes on the 2200 block of West Jackson.
MCL’s new projects in the area include five two-flats for the New Homes for Chicago program, which got under way last week, and the first phase of the Horner replacement housing, 14 two-flats, which will start in late July.
An upper-end market already appears to have been established. Twelve of 14 luxury rowhouses have been sold at One Historic Boulevard, a Victorian-style development on Jackson at Ashland.
Priced at $399,000, the units can be built as 3,890-square-foot single-family residences or as a 2,300-square-foot duplex with a 1,150-square-foot garden apartment, according to Gus Mauro of J.A. Partnership, the developer.
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Next Sunday: The controversial Presidential Towers story ends well
