Chicago Real Estate News & Neighborhood Notes

More possible large-scale development could be coming to River North, and this time it involves both commercial and residential real estate. First brought to our attention by our friends from Curbed Chicago, the new plan, which involves an 8-story office building and a 22-story residential tower, will be presented later this month during a public meeting by its would-be developers, Centrum Partners.

If approved, the new project would take the place of a parking lot that currently occupies 215 W. Hubbard, but unlike many new developments going on around downtown Chicago, this one poses some unique challenges.

If you refer to the renderings, you’ll see that elevated L tracks curve directly through the northwest corner of the lot, and as a result, the

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Although the dyeing of the Chicago River green and many of downtown’s annual St. Patrick’s Day festivities took place this past weekend, there's still plenty of celebrating left to do in case you happened to miss out. Here's a list of St. Patrick's Day related events happening all throughout March 17th, or better known as St Patrick's Day 2015!

St. Patrick’s Day Celebration at Irish American Heritage Center

Taking place from 12 noon all the way up until 10 PM,  there’s no better way to experience authentic St. Patrick’s Day celebration than to make your way over to the Irish-American Heritage Center for their annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Life music, Irish dancers, and colorful face-painting make this event fun for the whole family.

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The Loop’s last original station house at Washington & Wabash, which first opened all the way back on November 8, 1896, is finally set to close in order to make way for the new Loop Superstation that was first announced in 2013.

According to DNAinfo’s original report, the new station will be expected to serve nearly 13,400 daily entries when completed, making it the 5th busiest CTA station in all of Chicago during the week. The new modern design of the Washington-Wabash station is a pretty sharp contrast to the current station, which has long been outdated to say the least.

The current century-old station, although charming, can simply no longer handle the needs of today’s public transit, and continuing to improve the city’s infrastructure, especially

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Chicago’s 110-story Willis Tower is up for sale and despite early reports saying the purchase price could exceed $1.5 billion, the Chicago Tribune now claims there might already be a buyer.  

The current owners—New York investors Joseph Chetrit and Joseph Moinian and Skokie-based American Landmark Properties—most recently tried to sell the 4.6 million square foot building back in 2011, but failed to get the offer they were seeking, most likely because it was just too early in the overall economic recovery.

Since then however, the marketplace has drastically improved, the demand for commercial property in Chicago has skyrocketed, and new high-profile leases at Willis Tower all combine to make the country’s second tallest skyscraper a unique and

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Whether you’ve been paying attention or not, smaller, more efficient living spaces are becoming increasingly significant around the United States, especially in larger, more expensive markets like New York, San Francisco, and even in parts of downtown Chicago.

You might have first become aware of this new U.S. housing trend from cable network FYI’s popular reality series Tiny House Nation, but since the show’s first episode aired back in the summer of last year, it seems more and more homebuyers are considering the option of having more financial freedom by limiting how much they spend of what’s usually the most costly expense to living—housing.

In areas that are more urban, like Chicago for example, building a “tiny house” really isn’t feasible due to a

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In a market as large as downtown Chicago, luxury home and condos fill out a large portion of the real estate landscape, regardless of which part of town you happen to be searching. But when it comes to buying a new place to call home, the term “luxury”  can have a pretty broad definition, especially when it comes to price.

Luxury condos with only 500 or 600 ft.² might be in the range of $400,000-$500,000, while significantly larger units with three-, four-, or even five-bedrooms are of course priced accordingly. Furthermore, certain condo buildings with a certain status, or certain amenities might also be at a premium, ultimately driving up the cost of what you might pay to own at such locations.

When it comes to the ultra-elite properties in Chicago

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Winter in Chicago is a hassle. The snow, the parking struggles, and the bitter cold weather all help combine to make our lives relatively miserable during a 4-month span each year, and this year is certainly no different.

But if there’s one thing winter can’t do, it’s hide the unparalleled beauty that our great city displays, no matter what month or season it is, winter included. Last month, a video from photographer Colin Hinkle was uploaded to YouTube that offers a unique, bird’s eye view of some familiar landscapes around town, and it’s some footage that truly will make you think twice about how torturous winter can be.

According to Hinkle, the temperature never exceeded 10 degrees throughout the entire filming process, and although many of us can

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Back in 2011, Chicago Billionaire Sam Zell purchased 11 E. Walton, what was then known as the Elysian, for $95 million—a record setting per-room price at the time of $505k. Now fast forward roughly 5 years and Zell is looking to sell the 188 room hotel, now known as Waldorf-Astoria Chicago, and is expected to see a very strong return.

In New York, Hilton Holdings is in the midst of selling the Waldorf-Astoria at 301 Park Ave. to Chinese insurance conglomerate Anbang for a reported $1.95 billion, or about $1.4 million per room, and although Chicago real estate prices are nowhere near New York City’s, it’s a clear sign of just how much hotel values have risen in major markets like Manhattan and downtown Chicago.

Because the sale of Chicago’s Waldorf

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Now that 2015 is well under way and the Super Bowl has come and gone, Chicago is now starting to enter the very beginning of what’s traditionally a very busy time of the year for the real estate industry. Although it may not seem like it right now with all the snow on the ground, the spring season is rapidly approaching, which usually means lots of home buying and renting activity all over town.

There’s no doubt Chicago’s rental market is still as hot as ever, but as we start to enter the busy spring market for home buyers, we wondered what downtown Chicago neighborhoods are plush with inventory, and after a quick glance at what each area has to offer, here is what we found:

Downtown Inventory By Neighborhood | Crear infográficos

 

Given

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With the Super Bowl now just a couple days away, many are still scrambling to put together last minute plans for either hosting a watch party at home, or at one of the many sports bars, taverns, or local watering holes around Chicago.

If you’re not one who likes to entertain or perhaps just prefer to spend Super Bowl Sunday out and about, there’s of course plenty of great spots to choose from in neighborhoods all over the city. In fact, every year around this time we try to feature some of the best places in Chicago to watch the Super Bowl, but this year, we’re going to try something new.

Instead of featuring some of the same old places year in and year out, we thought it might be fun to list some great spots to catch the big game that are a little

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