For a lot of renters, apartment living means scrimping on space.
That’s because all too many flats are flat-out stingy when it comes to offering elbowroom.
Therein lies the problem for the growing number of renters who like space and plenty of it.
Just as most homeowners are increasingly gravitating toward larger houses, many apartment dwellers are seeking room to spread out.
And, apartment developers are only starting to respond.
“We’re coming around to larger apartments because properties are catering to the renter by choice, who wants more room,” said Judith Roettig, executive director of the Schiller Park-based Chicagoland Apartment Association.
“People are spending more and more time at work, in a closed-in space. When they get home, they want expansiveness, because they’re so confined during the day.”
Roettig’s citing of “renters by choice,” refers to a growing market of older, more established tenants who might previously have owned a home or who don’t intend to buy.
Area locating services report an increase in customer demand for more square footage. “People have come to us and said, ‘I can’t live in a 750-square-foot one-bedroom apartment, because the things I’ve accumulated require more space,’ ” said Kathryn Romanelli, former director of referral services at Relcon Apartment Finders in Oak Brook. “They have things, and they need the space to put them.” Relcon is owned by Tribune Co.
Now, these kinds of folks are finding that renting doesn’t have to mean a broom closet masquerading as an apartment. Not, that is, if they are willing to shop.
The Chicago-area rental market is sprinkled with one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments that serve heaping helpings of square footage. Whether roomy spreads in the suburbs or commodious lofts in the city, these apartments redefine the phrase “living large.”
How big is big? Consider, for example, a pair of northwest suburban apartment communities that lavish more than 1,350 square feet on one-bedroom renters. Or the two-bedroom city apartments that measure 1,880 square feet, more than twice the size of some two-bedrooms.
By comparison, one-bedrooms in the Chicago area average 700 to 800 square feet, and two-bedrooms, 900 to 1,100 square feet, according to Roettig. Many of the Chicago area’s king-sized apartments are relatively new lofts, whose high ceilings necessitate larger rooms to maintain a sense of scale. But some of the biggest suburban rental units are found in 15- to 25-year-old apartment buildings built before rising land and construction expenses made building larger apartments more difficult and costly, Roettig said.
Larger apartments similarly defy categorization when it comes to amenities. Some of the area’s largest apartments in the non-stratospheric price range were built before such extras as in-unit laundry appliances came into vogue, while others offer in-unit washers and dryers as well as gas fireplaces, hardwood floors and heated indoor parking.
Property managers report that extra-large apartments tend to appeal most to high-income, white-collar professionals with the bucks to afford truly distinctive rental units.
And while they’re almost always more expensive than conventional units, many of these larger apartments actually are bargains when their rent cost is factored in square footage. Moreover, some are managed by companies whose rents lag behind the market, said Alon Yonatan, research services manager with Chicago’s Marcus & Millichap, a national commercial brokerage firm specializing in the sale of investment real estate properties.
“We’ve seen such rapid rent growth in the Chicago market in the last few years that, frankly, some property management companies and smaller landlords are behind the eight-ball,” he said. “Some have just not kept up with rent growth.”
Asking rents for the Chicago area average $842 for one-bedrooms and $1,087 for two-bedrooms, according to Marcus & Millichap.
Some of the largest one-bedroom units in the Chicago area are offered at Bourbon Square Apartments in Palatine, managed by Equity Residential Property Management. Opened 17 years ago, the apartment community has 102 one-bedroom apartments measuring 1,380 square feet and another 461 two-bedroom units at 1,440 square feet.
Not surprisingly, the community’s advertising capitalizes on the apartments’ size. Its long-time tagline, “bigger is better,” will soon give way to billboards proclaiming “size does matter.”
The builders of Bourbon Square set out to create large apartments in a top-of-the-line setting, said property manager James Colletti. “There are other properties built in the area in the early 1990s that are a bit newer,” he said, “but nothing comes close to the square footage.”
The size translates to more bang for the buck. One-bedroom rents at Bourbon Square average $1,175 a month, or about 85 cents per square foot, Colletti said.
That compares to $1.12 to $1.52 a square foot in other area properties, the largest of which offers an 834-square-foot one-bedroom, he said. “We’re not the cheapest apartment community in the [Palatine] market, but we’re the least expensive per square foot,” he said. “You can find a one-bedroom for $900 to $950 a month, but it will be between 700 and 800 square feet.”
The average rent for northwest suburban Cook County, according to the Relcon Rental Pulse survey for mid-December, was $874 for one-bedrooms and $1,019 for two-bedrooms.
When the average renter first gets a look at these rental units, which have eat-in kitchens and formal dining rooms, “the jaw is typically dragging throughout the apartment,” Colletti said. “They’re so big you have a front door and a back door leading out to separate areas of the building.”
The units come with pantries, and the walk-in closets in each bedroom are called “drive-in closets” by the staff. The units also have two coat closets, one at the front and rear doors. Some Bourbon Square renters use their dining rooms as home offices, because the eat-in kitchens are large enough to accommodate dining room tables, Colletti said.
That kind of furnishing flexibility helps ensure that the apartments — particularly one-bedrooms — don’t stay on the market long. Colletti estimates it generally takes seven to 10 days from the time an apartment is listed until it’s leased. It’s rare when the one-bedroom apartments at the community aren’t 100 percent occupied, he said.
“Price is our biggest drawback,” Colletti said, “but for those able to pay, they’re more than willing when they see what they get for the money.”
John and Chris Dunat have rented for 21/2 years at Bourbon Square. “The size is terrific,” said John. “We have a full-size dining room table that seats six, so it’s great for entertaining. And the master bathroom is very large, with a double bowl vanity, which makes it nice when two people are getting ready for work at the same time.”
The builder of Bourbon Square also created The Mansions of Mt. Shire in Mt. Prospect, owned by Chicago-based S37 Management Inc., which offers the same 1,380-square-foot one-bedrooms and 1,440-square-foot two-bedroom units for $975 and $1,125, respectively.
The apartments “rent immediately,” property manager Becky Schultz said. “They sell themselves. They’re just like a home, with full-size dining rooms and kitchens and walk-in closets ? A lot of people make the dining room into their own home office. They’re that spacious.”
While not quite as big as Bourbon Square or The Mansions of Mt. Shire, the units at Darien’s Farmingdale Apartments, managed by Denver-based AIMCO, dwarf many conventional apartments.
The community offers 138 two-bedroom apartments measuring 1,255 to 1,348 square feet, and another 96 three-bedroom units with 1,604 square feet of living space. Rents range from $1,200 to $1,265 for the two-bedrooms, while three-bedrooms fetch $1,445, manager Kathy Macauda said. “As far as comparing [to other apartment properties], we’re pretty unique,” she said. “There aren’t many units in our market area that even come close. And our rents may be even lower than some [properties] that have smaller apartments.”
The Relcon survey pegs DuPage County average rents at $838 for one-bedrooms and $1,019 for two-bedrooms.
The 20-year-old Farmingdale community has proven particularly attractive to the growing ranks of “renters by choice,” many of them former homeowners opting for simpler, maintenance-free lifestyles.
The size of the two- and three-bedroom apartments allows them to move from houses to apartments without having to peddle much of their furniture. And the in-unit washers and dryers and heated underground parking also help ease the transition.
“The look on their faces when they walk into the units is priceless,” Macauda said of prospective renters touring the property. “I enjoy showing the units to everyone who comes in ? I’ve had comments that the three-bedrooms here are bigger than some of the homes they’ve looked at.”
City lovers seeking large rental space should consider the South Loop, where an array of commercial buildings converted to apartments and lofts offer jumbo-sized living.
One of the biggest is Prairie District Lofts at 1727 S. Indiana Ave., built in 1905 for a commercial photography company. Renovated in the early 1990s, its first 15 units went on the rental market in 1993, and all 116 units were completed last year. The property is owned by Sheldon Baskin and Jerry Fiat of Chicago.
They are principal owners of Prairie District Lofts Ltd. Partnership. Baskin is also the owner of Chicago-based Metroplex Inc., which manages the building and dozens of other in the Chicago area and Downstate, as well as in Iowa and Minnesota.
At Prairie District Lofts, one-bedroom duplexes range from 1,002 to 1,406 square feet, while one-bedroom triplexes are 1,623 to 1,909 square feet. Two-bedroom simplex and duplex apartments are 1,009 to 1,882 square feet. Most of the units have washers and dryers.
When property manager Zorica Zekavica takes prospects through the building to view some of the 57 floor plans, the reaction is amazement.
“Everyone’s like, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of space,’ ” she said. “They just love all the space.”
According to Fiat, the residential units were designed large for two reasons: aesthetics and scale. He said that rooms with low ceilings can be small, but that’s not the case when the ceilings are as high as they are at Prairie District Lofts.
“If the room is 20 feet tall and you make it 8-by-15, it looks like a closet,” Fiat noted. “It was not that difficult to justify making the units larger.”
Rents for one-bedrooms of more than 1,000 square feet are $1,408 to $1,857. One-bedroom duplexes are $1,439 to $2,252. Two-bedrooms range from $1,268 to $2,395, while two-bedroom duplexes run $1,680 to $2,729 and two-bedroom triplexes, from $1,947 to $2,615. Three-bedroom duplexes range from $1,910 to $2,834 and four-bedroom triplexes, from $2,608 to $2,613.
The 138-unit Polk Street Station, owned by Chicago-based Rezmar Corp., was designed by architect Henry B. Wheeler for a commercial printing company in 1908. The building, at 732 S. Financial Pl., was renovated in the mid-1990s and welcomed its first residents in 1996.
One-bedroom duplexes range in size from 1,030 to 1,755 square feet, while two-bedroom duplexes offer 1,100 to 1,550 square feet. Rents on all duplexes range from $1,650 to $2,800 a month. The building also offers in-unit washers and driers, hardwood floors and gas fireplaces.
“They’re spectacular,” property manager Leslee Barnett said of the units, adding that the 22-foot-high first-floor ceilings contribute to the feeling of roominess.
Average rents in the city, according to the December Relcon survey were $1,169 for one-bedrooms and $1,624 for two-bedrooms.
Another nearby rental is Printers’ Square Apartments, 700 S. Federal St., which has 354 apartments in a 1912 office building converted to apartments in the early 1980s. The building is owned by Chicago-based Waterton Management Co.
All the apartments “have large kitchens, 9-foot ceilings and what we call ‘too much closet space,’ ” said property manager Penny Hughes. A 1,192-square-foot two-bedroom, for example, comes with nine closets, while a 1,443-square-foot two-bedroom has seven.
A number of one- and two-bedroom plans have closets large enough to accommodate bikes and skis, while some other plans have closets large enough to be made into windowless home offices. Additionally, each residential floor has a storage room with walk-in storage lockers for sporting equipment, seasonal decorations and the like, Hughes said.
One-bedroom models at Printers’ Square go up to 1,259 square feet and cost up to $1,505 monthly. Two-bedrooms range from 1,192 to 1,433 square feet and rent for $1,529 to $1,829.
If you have difficulty picturing 1,433 square feet, visualize the rooms: a 19-by-18-foot-8-inch living room, a dining room that’s 183/4 by 123/4 and a kitchen that measures more than 20 feet by 91/4.The 1,260-square-foot two-bedroom has an eat-in kitchen and separate living and dining rooms. “We can build a wall, and with the use of glassed French doors or pocket doors, that [dining room] can become a den, family room, home office or a library very easily,” Hughes said.
