When Kathline King Conway happens to be in her two-bedroom loft in Chicago on Wednesday mornings, she can hear the rumbling sound of plastic pellets being transferred to rail cars from a nearby factory. Most of the time the pellets made in the plant are stored in blue silos that stand several stories high on the factory property near her unit in the Regal Condominiums near Ashland Avenue and Diversey Parkway.
The silos’ looming presence lends a gritty, industrial feel to the neighborhood that Conway, and her husband, Kevin, find compelling.
“I really enjoy walking my dog through the industrial area. I think it is interesting to look at,” she said.
Perhaps because the transfer only lasts about a half an hour once a week, the sound of plastic pellets raining by the thousands into rail cars is not unpleasant to Conway’s ears.
Describing the roar, she said: “For half an hour it’s really noisy. Then it stops. I think it’s really cool.”
A much longer, sustained boom in the housing market in the city of big shoulders means more people like the Conways may be considering purchasing homes that are near industrial uses or which are in neighborhoods making the transition from industrial to residential.
“I see an incredible boom in residential development and many non-residential uses are in the way of residential movement,” said Conway, whose attraction for industrial urban architecture and settings may be explained in part by her employment.
She is a planner for the city of Chicago and lives in a former manufacturing building that was gutted and rehabbed by Chicago-based Enterprise Cos and now has 107 lofts.
The land crunch in Chicago means developers must hunt for places to build new homes and often find them by approaching areas which traditionally were sites for industry.
“As residential development has continued, boundaries have been taken over and the lines (between residential and industrial) have blurred,” said Jim Plunkard, an architect with Hartshorne + Plunkard Architects in Chicago.
“It used to be said that we’d never go west of Halsted Street, then it was we’d never go west of Southport, then it was (west of) Ashland,” added builder Bruce Fogelson. “Now, the largest Near North industrial corridor turning residential is the Paulina Street corridor.”
Fogelson, president of Paramount Homes in Chicago, explained that “the city is experiencing in-fill development. As you encroach on manufacturing (areas) and overtake them, it’s as much an opportunity for the home buyers as it is for the developer.”
Conway agreed that limited open land for development means manufacturing and industrial uses — unless they are in one of the city’s Planned Manufacturing Districts (PMDs) — are prone to disappear.
“There’s such limited real estate within a few miles’ radius of the Loop that nearly everything is fair game,” she said.
Officials from the city of Chicago took notice of the trend toward housing replacing manufacturing a decade or so ago. Since then, officials have sought to limit the loss of these businesses and the jobs and revenue that go along with them.
The city created the PMDs, such as the thriving Goose Island corridor, where construction of housing is prohibited.
“We were trying to stem (the change). When it starts, it’s kind of a domino effect,” said Peter Scales, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Planning and Development.
The corridors where the PMDs have been established “are traditional manufacturing areas that had some history and core strength,” he said.
A hundred and more years ago, it was common for housing to be built near factories, said Michael Carliner, an economist for the National Home Builders Association.
“People didn’t drive. They needed to be convenient to work,” he explained.
The separation between housing and residential districts occurred in the early part of the 20th Century when cities began creating zoning codes.
“Now there’s a reversal of the trend (of separation). We’re seeing housing move back into these (industrial) areas,” said Carliner.
Fogelson’s company, for instance, is constructing Wrightwood Place Park, a small development of 15 single-family homes at 2635-2655 N. Paulina St.
The fact that these luxury homes are across the street from a factory doesn’t mean the houses are inexpensive. They are priced in the million dollar range.
Despite the price tag on these homes, Fogelson said the greatest benefit buyers may realize from buying a new home in or near an area with industrial uses is in a lower price.
“If you want to live on Astor Street, you’re not going to get a discount (in home price). People who take the opportunity are usually compensated by (a lower) price,” he said.
People who buy near manufacturing uses may be counting on the nearby factories to disappear, but the transition often takes time.
Fogelson said he doesn’t expect buyers at Wrightwood Park Place to be deterred by its location across the street from the same plastics factory that is part of Conway’s neighborhood.
“They reconcile where they are buying by knowing that the manufacturer’s day is done and housing is on the rise. They’re riding the crest of a wave,” he said.
People who are considering living near industrial uses,
Conway advised, should “drive by the business during its hours of operation to see what its effects are on the neighborhood.”
Does a factory impact parking or traffic, for instance? How is garbage handled?
One of her complaints against some industrial owners occurs when it snows.
“They may plow their parking lot for their employees, but they won’t do the sidewalks (around the property),” she said.
There are, however, reasons why living near a manufacturing facility may be more acceptable to buyers than ever before.
The emergence of high technology has resulted in industrial uses that are lighter than in the past and which may have fewer impacts — from noise to vibrations or pollution.
The idea that a factory automatically equates with smoke puffing from towering stacks or with glowing blast furnaces is, in many cases, dated. Ron Shipka, principal of Enterprise Cos., said living near an industrial use is not always bad news.
“Everybody goes home at 5 p.m. There’s plenty of parking,” he said.
His company is building One River Place, which will have 107 town homes and 62 lofts in a former Montgomery Wards Merchandise building at 600 W. Chicago Ave.
While living near a factory may — against common perceptions– provide benefits such as low density, Fogelson, Plunkard and others involved in residential development said that buyers should look at developments on a case-by-case basis.
Sandra and Jose Ruiz, for example, recently purchased a three-bedroom home at Bridgeport Village, a $75 million development in Bridgeport on Chicago’s Southwest Side.
It took Tom Snitzer, president of Snitzer Homes Inc. in Arlington Heights, four years to assemble the land for the development that will encompass 30 city blocks.
Most of the less than picturesque elements, such as railroad tracks, broken fencing and weeds, have been removed from the area that straddles both sides of the Chicago River, north and south of 35th Street.
“We were surrounded by vacant industrial land and by land that was used for truck terminals. It wasn’t very attractive,” Snitzer said. “Our way of dealing with it was to buy it all up.”
The Ruizes, who live nearby, were familiar with the dismal state of the land before Snitzer cleared it. A warehouse still remains about a block from where their two-story home is being built.
Although he said he does not expect the warehouse to create traffic or otherwise be intrusive to the residents of Bridgeport Village, Jose Ruiz said he likes the fact that Snitzer Homes has taken measures to buffer the homes from the warehouse.
“They’ve cleaned up the mess that was here (on the property) and they’re putting in a lot of greenery,” Ruiz said.
Snitzer agreed that creating a landscape buffer between the homes and the warehouse is important to creating the secluded, suburban feel he envisions for the development. Snitzer’s company also is building a trail running along the river.
The homes in Bridgeport Village will feature gabled roofs, bay windows, wide front porches and English basements. The base price for a three-bedroom home is $410,00.
Ron Smith, vice president of sales and advertising for Rezmar in Chicago, said his company often must try to mitigate the impact of existing or transitioning industrial or commercial uses.
His company, for instance, constructed St. John’s Park, an 81-unit townhouse development at Ogden Avenue and Fry Street.
Because the development is next to a concrete factory, the rear walls on the townhouses are masonry and don’t have any windows. That way, they have no view of a nearby factory.
“The sides and fronts (of the building) have lots of windows to balance it out and make them light and bright,” he said.
Another Rezmar development is River Walk near Western Avenue and Diversey Streets. Part of development is a loft conversion in a building that had been owned by the Hammond Organ Co.
The newest phase encompasses 59 townhouses tucked between a public storage facility that faces Western Avenue and the Chicago River.
The storage facility, said Smith, “is what it is. There’s no attempt at architecture in these buildings. But they’re quiet and they are a big buffer (between the development and Western Avenue).”
On the six-acre property, Rezmar has constructed landscaped courtyards.
“You can see the warehouse from some of the units, but the courtyards take the focus off of it,” Smith said.
Living next to an industrial use may not be for everyone, said Conway.
“People need to be of the mindset that they want to experience the urban effects (of a neighborhood),” she said.
The rumble of plastic pellets tumbling into rail cars is as soothing to Conway’s ears as the sound of a gentle rain to others.
Buying her home in the heart of an urban neighborhood — even with a factory nearby– was a good move, she said.
“I’ve never looked back and said, `Why didn’t I buy something with a big backyard,'” she added.
