Earlier this year, Lincoln Park renters Colby Heckendorn and his girlfriend Erin Stiffelman went condominium shopping in their neighborhood and nearby Lakeview. But they soon found that the places they could afford didn’t meet their standards.
Then their real estate agent suggested they look at a condo in a new 3300 W. Irving Park Rd. development on Chicago’s Northwest Side.
“We were reluctant at first,” Heckendorn recalled. “But we went up there and we fell in love with it. It’s a great location, with definitely a lot of families, and there’s construction going on every place. When we talked to people on the street, they described [the area] as very diverse.”
Heckendorn and Stiffelman decided on a two-bedroom, two-bath condominium of a size they never would have been able to afford nearer the lake.
“We got much more bang for our buck,” Heckendorn said.
Single-family houses, townhouses and condos are sprouting in numerous Northwest Side neighborhoods that had not seen large-scale development for years. And buyers like Heckendorn and Stiffelman are snapping up new places to live.
What’s bringing them northwest? Real estate experts agree a number of lures–from lower prices to transportation amenities and less-congested communities–are a big part of the draw, especially for folks priced out of gridlocked lakefront wards.
“First of all, it’s pricing,” said Richard Murawski, managing broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in the Edgebrook neighborhood. His office handles sales in Edgebrook, Sauganash, Portage Park, Jefferson Park, Norwood Park and Edison Park.
While new construction housing in Lincoln Park or Wrigleyville typically costs close to $400 a square foot, many Northwest Side developments cost less by an average of $100 a square foot. And many of the new units include upgraded amenities, from in-unit washers and dryers to fireplaces, hardwood floors, granite countertops and decks.
“When you can get all that for less than $300 a square foot, it’s hard to say no,” Murawski said. “It’s a bargain. … We’re selling to younger buyers in their 30s, who have shopped in other markets, and know what a bargain it is here.”
Thaddeus Wong, co-founder of Chicago residential real estate brokerage @properties, says that buyers priced out of Lincoln Park years ago eventually went to places like Roscoe Village, West Lakeview, Wicker Park and the West Loop. But even those areas are now too expensive for many buyers.
“They’re saying, ‘I can get a very small two-bedroom, two-bath in those areas, or I can go out to Avondale, Sheridan Park or Jefferson Park and get a much larger two-bedroom, two-bath, or even a three-bedroom unit, for the same price,” Wong said.
Another major inducement for going northwest is the ready access to transportation, particularly Metra and CTA trains and the Kennedy Expressway.
For instance, two architecturally striking new developments along Northwest Highway between Nagle and Devon Avenues benefit from proximity to the Norwood Park and Edison Park Metra stations. And for those who drive, the exit and entrance ramps of the Kennedy Expressway beckon.
Similarly, a long string of new developments stretching from east of California Avenue to just west of Kostner Avenue puts home buyers close to multiple Metra stations, the Irving Park stop on the CTA Blue Line, and the Kennedy Expressway.
There also is less traffic congestion, and greater availability of street parking, compared with areas farther east. The latter is reflected in prices buyers pay for parking, said Barry Paoli, president of Norwood Park’s Century 21 McMullen, and developer of Tuscany Terrace, a 45-unit condominium building nearing completion at Northwest Highway and Harlem Avenue.
In the Loop, he said, the average parking space costs about $50,000, while in Norwood Park it is $15,000 to $20,000.
The Northwest Side also attracts buyers simply looking for pleasant, stable neighborhoods.
“It seems there’s a strong sense of community here,” said Lynn Weekley, broker-consultant with @properties, who represents River Park North, a development near the corner of Irving Park Road and California Avenue.
“A lot of people who grew up here want to live in the neighborhood, but they want something newer and more efficient,” she said.
Those who lived in Lincoln Park and Lakeview and grew accustomed to bike trails on the lakefront don’t miss them in such areas as Edgebrook and Sauganash.
“We’re bordered with forest preserves, and the bike trails that go all the way up to the Botanical Gardens,” said Murawski.
“Some of the people buying here actually grew up in these neighborhoods, went downtown to live after college, and now, 10 years later, are coming back. They’re coming for the value and less congestion.”
Still, folks in the habit of ambling to an array of great eateries, bookshops and boutiques right outside their front doors may experience a bit of culture shock when they relocate to a home on the Northwest Side. These niceties are found in nowhere near the profusion of areas such as Lincoln Park, Lakeview and the South Loop.
Realtor Barbara O’Connor heard all about that as she sold units in the Residences of Old Irving Park, 4000 N. Kolmar Ave., near Six Corners. She said some of the buyers, former North Siders, said they felt like pioneers breaking new ground.
The development of single-family houses and townhouses is being built in three phases.
In the first phase, O’Connor said, many buyers came from nearby neighborhoods.
“Phase II buyers came from Lakeview, the South and West Loop, and the suburbs,” she said. “It has been young professionals from closer to downtown, a totally different buyer.”
She said potential buyers “come back several times before committing. Their first question is, `Where are the restaurants?’ It takes them awhile before they realize it’s not `roll out of bed and there’s the restaurant.’
“But it is roll out of bed and there are the trains downtown and to the airport.”
Notable hotbeds of development are found along Irving Park Road, Northwest Highway and Elston Avenue.
One of the new developments is River Park North at 2727 W. Irving Park Rd., along the western bank of the Chicago River’s north branch.
River Park North offers 10 town homes ranging from 2,572 to 2,795 square feet, with three to four stories, two to four bedrooms and 2 1/2 to three bathrooms, said Weekley. The four-story units have a penthouse level that provides buyers the option of installing a rooftop deck for entertaining and viewing the city’s skyline. Prices range from $599,000 to $740,000.
The area “doesn’t even feel like you’re in the city, because you’re in between two parks,” Weekley said. “There’s an asphalt path along the riverfront right behind your back yard. And it’s a tree-lined riverfront at that spot.”
Nearby is the Residences of Old Irving Park, where a number of four- and five-bedroom, 3 1/2-bath single-family homes remain for sale for $729,900 to $869,900, O’Connor said. Each home comes with a two-car garage, two fireplaces, granite countertops and hardwood floors.
In Norwood Park, two of the Northwest Side’s more eye-catching new developments stand within a few blocks of one another. The Gardens of Norwood Park is a community of stately three-bedroom, 4 1/2-bath townhouses at 5870 to 5930 N. Northwest Hwy. The 3,000-square-foot homes feature fireplaces, two-car garages, private terraces and prices that begin in the mid-$500s.
A bit farther west, Tuscany Terrace, 6400 N. Northwest Hwy., has a stunningly curvilinear facade that rivets the attention of passing motorists.
“There is no building like this anywhere in this neighborhood,” Paoli said, adding that he drew the inspiration for the building from his family’s native Tuscany, where many of the structures feature curving rather than right-angled corners, and rotundas are common.
The building’s 42 one- and two-bedroom condominiums, ranging from 950 to 1,850 square feet, feature two baths and have base prices from $230,000 to the $420,000s. The building houses parking for 80 cars underground, and another 81 on the roof.
“We’re near some great restaurants [in nearby Edison Park], and if you want to go down to the Loop, you’re there in 12 minutes on an open expressway,” Paoli said.
One of the most tightly packed clusters of new homes on the Northwest Side is near the 3400 to 3700 blocks of North Elston Avenue.
Historically a thoroughfare of industrial buildings and taverns that slaked the thirst of factory workers, Elston Avenue has grown increasingly residential in recent years.
And in this short stretch of Elston, at least a half-dozen new condominium and townhouse buildings have units for sale.
Two notable buildings are Roscoe Flats and Riverview Station, both in the 3400 block. The former features two-bedroom, two-bath units with private terraces, a rooftop garden and indoor parking, while the latter offers 1,850-square-foot, two-bathroom condos with 10-foot ceilings. Prices in both start in the $300,000s.
