Like it or not, Mayor Richard Daley soon will be living in a construction zone.
His home is right down the block from what could be Chicago’s largest new residential project.
Seven years ago, the mayor moved into a townhouse at Central Station, the mega development located south of Grant Park and west of Lake Shore Drive and Soldier Field.
Now the pace of construction is about to pick up at the prime piece of real estate on the city’s Near South Side. As many as 4,500 housing units could be built there in the next four to six years.
The first of those is called Museum Park because it is within walking distance of both the Museum Campus and Grant Park. It is planned for a mix of high-rise condos, townhouses, two small parks and a community building. The 785 units will be built on 7.5 acres by Enterprise Development Co.
Groundbreaking could be held late this month at the site, which includes vacant land on both sides of Indiana Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets.
Because of its location, sales and marketing agents predict that Central Station promises to attract a diverse group of buyers–museum buffs, lakefront joggers and cyclists, Grant Park music festival fans and anyone who wants to be at the heart of the urban scene.
The attractiveness of the site for residences will only increase with the closing of nearby Meigs Field in 2002, according to Timothy Desmond, president of Central Station Development Corp. The airfield is scheduled to be converted into a park.
Central Station was launched 11 years ago with grandiose expectations. But speedy development was stalled by the downturn in the economy.
Back then, Central Station was estimated as a $1 billion project. That total undoubtedly will escalate with all the new features of the master plan, which has grown from the original 69 acres to 80 acres.
While he acknowledged that Central Station would be a hub of residential development in the South Loop, Desmond stressed that the 80 acres are zoned for a variety of uses and that the demand in the marketplace will determine what is built.
For example, at the south end of Central Station are 25 acres of land and air rights that could be developed with residential and commercial projects, including e-commerce and biotechnology uses.
Other developments that could come later at the Roosevelt Road end of the property include senior housing, rental apartments, an office building and stores.
“The population of the South Loop will continue to grow by tens of thousands of people who will move into projects of all types,” said Gerald Fogelson, co-chairman of Central Station, which is a joint venture of Chicago-based Fogelson Properties Inc. and Forest City Enterprises Inc. of Cleveland.
“Central Station will be the largest condo development in America,” boasted Fogelson at a recent Near South Planning Board meeting.
He added that the gentrification of the area already has begun, including the opening of new restaurants and a new art gallery planned for the site of the former Continental Trailways bus station.
“The Near South is rising. It’s undergoing a resurrection, a renaissance,” said Chicago architect Laurence Booth, also a speaker at the Near South Planning Board meeting.
Booth pointed out that 100 years ago the South Side–especially the Prairie Avenue neighborhood–was “the fancy part of town.” The movers and shakers of the era, including Marshall Field, Philip Armour and George Pullman, lived there.
Now Museum Park will try to continue that tradition, joining a number of other new housing developments that are transforming the South Loop into one of the city’s hottest neighborhoods.
Though prices start at $196,500, Museum Park seems primarily targeted at upscale buyers. Top-end residences go up to $750,000.
Even so, buyers in the Near South enjoy a locational advantage. “Housing across the board, both condos and townhouses, are about $40,000 less on the Near South Side compared to the Near North Side,” said real estate analyst Tracy Cross.
He noted that the new residences at Central Station have been priced under similar products on the Near North.
Ronald Shipka Sr., president of Enterprise Development, said his firm will start construction at Museum Park with the 59 four-story townhouses on the west side of Indiana Avenue. Completion is expected next spring.
With two to four bedrooms and 2,000 to 3,300 square feet, these units are priced from $430,000 to $699,500.
In November, ground will be broken for a 19-story condo tower and 40 townhouses on the east side of Indiana Avenue. The townhouses will be finished in 11 months, but the tower will not open until the spring or summer of 2002, Shipka said.
The townhouses, with 2,300 to 3,600 square feet, are priced from $550,000 to $750,000. The tower condos range from 804 to 1,339 square feet and are priced from $196,500 to $435,000.
Three condo towers are planned for Museum Park. Their locations will be staggered to offer the best views of the lake and the Loop skyline.
Ralph Oliva, director of sales for Central Station, said that 70 percent of the 305 units in Phase 1 already are under contract.
Two small parks will be part of the project–oval-shaped Daniel Webster Park at 14th Street and Indiana Avenue and a linear park on air rights over the railroad tracks paralleling Lake Shore Drive.
The community center for Museum Park will have meeting rooms, a kitchen, a fitness center and swimmming pool.
Because of Museum Park’s overall plan, Shipka believes it will develop into a neighborhood of its own, rather than just a grouping of separate residential buildings.
The architectural appearance of Museum Park was chosen to blend in with the 300 existing townhouses built by MCL Companies, one of the first developers to recognize the residential potential of the South Loop.
“When we started at Central Station 10 years ago, there was nothing there. It was bleak, it looked like a rail yard. You had to have vision back then,” said Daniel McLean, president of MCL.
“The original plan in the late ’80s envisioned almost all office construction and very little residential,” said McLean. “But like so many big developments, it evolved as it went along. There was no demand for offices, so it’s destined to be primarily residential.”
Another new residential project at Central Station is Prairie House, a 14-story condo to be built at the northeast corner of 15th Street and Prairie Avenue.
Sales are slated to open next month at the Bejco Development Corp. building that is planned for 185 units priced from $160,000 to $700,000-plus. The one- to three-bedroom residences will offer from 800 to 3,000 square feet.
The design of the structure will feature stepped terraces facing north from the 4th through the 14th floor. The development also will include six four-story townhouses in the mid-$800,000 range.
The prospect of being near a construction zone for several years did not deter two new buyers at MCL’s existing Prairie Place townhouses at Central Station.
“It’s going to be more congested, but that’s progress,” said Frank Griffin. He and his wife, Carol Coughlin, were attracted to Central Station because they both work in the Loop and it is close to the lake.
“Though there are few services in the area now, it’s going to be a great community, and in five years it will be comparable to the Gold Coast,” Griffin predicted.
As for security, he noted: “It doesn’t hurt that the mayor lives nearby.”
Not only that, but the newly constructed Central District Police Headquarters has opened at 1718 S. State St.
“Fifteen years ago nobody wanted to go to the South Loop,” said Nicholas Helmer, chairman of Inland Great Lakes (IGL) Real Estate, based in Oak Brook.
“There was nothing residential there before. Now it is filling up,” said Helmer, whose firm is doing Ravinia Lofts, the conversion of a seven-story industrial building at 2024 S. Wabash into 42 condos that are priced from $139,900 to $289,900.
IGL also is building a new upscale restaurant at Wabash and 20th Streets.
Helmer predicts that residential development will continue to expand southward beyond 22nd Street and into the Bronnzeville neighborhood, perhaps as far as 40th Street.
Why the lure of the Near South?
“It’s close to the Loop. People are moving here from the suburbs because they enjoy the vibrancy of the city. They are tired of cutting grass and want to walk to the lake and go to the museums.”
Helmer believes the South Loop is not more than two years away from becoming a real neighborhood. “The missing link before was the lack of shopping.”
But that is coming. A new Jewel grocery store is planned for Roosevelt Road between State and Wabash Streets.
New restaurants are cropping up. Gioco recently opened at 1312 S. Wabash, and the Chicago Firehouse Restaurant has taken the place of a former fire station at 1401 S. Michigan Ave.
Matthew O’Malley of the Chicago Firehouse Restaurant believes that a South Side restaurant row could develop if three more restaurants open in the area.
The new art gallery complex proposed for the former Continental Trailways depot at 1147 S. Wabash Ave. is called Gallery Park Place. In addition, the development is planned for a 39-story condo tower and a 9-story parking garage on the site of the vacant Avenue Motel on the northwest corner of Roosevelt Road and Michigan Avenue.
“These conveniences are what make a neighborhood,” said Keith Giles of Frankel & Giles Real Estate, the co-developer of Dearborn Tower, an 11-story condominium now being developed at 1030 S. State St. One of the area’s largest projects with 317 units, it is expected to be completed by the summer of 2001.
Barbara Lynne, executive director of the Near South Planning Board, said the area is adding 500 to 1,000 new residential units a year. “The new developments have created an excitement. People come here and feel they are discovering something new.”
Townhouse and condo sales in the city’s Near South Side have increased steadily, according to real estate analyst Cross. He said there were 366 sales in 1997, 451 in 1998 and 670 in 1999.
And sales prices reflect the surge in demand. At the end of 1999, the median price in the neighborhood was $208,250, about a 12 percent increase from the year earlier, according to figures from the Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois.
The Near South is bounded by Lake Michigan, the Chicago River, Roosevelt Road and 26th Street.
Mell Monroe, president of the Greater South Loop Association, describes himself as “passionate about the area.” Monroe pointed out the diversity of the neighborhood, and said that residents recognize the need for density in housing, which means high-rise construction. But an increase in population will encourage more retailers and restaurants to come to the neighborhood.
“Parking and traffic could be problem issues in the future,” he said.
In five years, Monroe believes the area will develop as a friendly community with great restaurants and clubs.
Other new residential projects in the South Loop include:
– Burnham Station, 15th and Clark Streets. Featuring a unique design with stepped sides by noted Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman, this development is planned for 222 units, with both condos and townhouses.
– Central Park Townhomes, 14th Place and Wabash Avenue. This Bentel Development Co. project is planned for 28 units.
– Commonwealth on Prairie Avenue, 1918 S. Prairie Ave. A mix of townhouses, duplexes and flats are being built by Rezmar Development Group.
– The Gammonley Group, based in LaGrange, is planning a 34-story tower with 244 condos at 1111 S. Wabash Ave.
