September 4, 2010 - Yesterday we talked about some of the Chicago real estate projects with condos for rent from either the actual developer or investors who haven’t been able to flip their units. Today we’ll list a few more to give any potential renters a better idea of what’s available.

At Silver Tower, on 303 West Ohio Avenue, unit #2608 is up for rent at $1,700 per month. This condo has one bedroom and one bath plus some upgrades. Finishes include floor-to-ceiling windows, stainless steel appliances, a breakfast bar in the kitchen, granite counter tops, washer and dryer, walk-in closet plus marble bath. The tower has a 24 hour doorman, extra storage space, fitness room and rooftop sun deck. You can also rent a space in the heated garage for an additional $200 per month.

Unit #406 at Lakeside Lofts on 2025 South Indiana Avenue is available for rent for $1,550 per month. An indoor parking space is an additional $175 per month. This condo is a two bedroom, two bath unit with 42 inch cherry kitchen cabinets, undermount sink, stainless steel appliances, granite counter tops and oak hardwood flooring. It also has a washer and dryer, ceramic bath tile, shower and tub plus a balcony. Lakeside Lofts is a five story low-rise with 96 units.

At 440 North Mcclurg Court you can rent unit #604 for $1,550 a month. This condo is a completely renovated one bedroom, one bath with a balcony. The building amenities include a 24 hour doorman, fitness center, sun deck, extra storage and bike room.

Unit #803 at 222 East Pearson Street is a one bedroom, one bath for rent at $1,450 per month. This condo features finishes like cherry kitchen cabinets, Brazilian walnut hardwood flooring, granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances, kitchen island, washer and dryer and stone tile in the bath.

And remember that you can always use the Chicago MLS search to find other Chicago condos for rent.

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September 3, 2010 - With all of the talk lately about how hot the rental market is in Chicago, we thought we’d tell you about a few units that are available in different towers. There are quite a few Chicago real estate developments that have condos both for sale and rent right now. And if you aren’t certain whether or not a specific high-rise has units up for lease, it never hurts to ask. Many developers as well as investors are renting out condos now, and Jameson Realty is listing the ones below.

The Marquee on 1464 South Michigan Avenue has unit #1702 up for rent at $1,800 per month. This condo has two bedrooms, and two baths. The condos at the Marquee come with hardwood flooring, berber carpet in the bedrooms, custom wood cabinets, stone tile in the baths and kitchens with granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances. Building perks include a theater room, fitness toom, bike storage, dog run and green roof. Open house hours are 1pm to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday.

There is a one bedroom, one bath condo up for lease at the Columbian on 1160 South Michigan Avenue. This unit is #2704 and the monthly rental amount is $1,650. For another $50 per month you can have an indoor parking space. Condo finishes include hardwood floors, marble bath, 42″ kitchen cabinets, granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances. Building amenities include a 24 hour doorman, fitness room, sauna, party room and sun deck.

At Catalpa Gardens on 1122 West Catalpa Avenue in Edgewater, unit #901 is up for rent at $1,700 per month. It is a two bedroom, two bath split-floor condo with 10′ ceilings, granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances and kitchen island. It also features a living room fireplace, washer and dryer and large terrace. Common resident amenities include a doorman, rooftop sundeck, dog run, party room, fitness room and extra storage.

Tomorrow we’ll list a few more Chicago condos for rent in new high-rise buildings. There are also plenty of Rent to own condos in Chicago if that is an option for you.

Technorati Tags: The Columbian, Chicago Condos, Chicago Real Estate

September 2, 2010 - The extended sale at Library Tower must be working because according to recent ads for this Chicago real estate developement, there is only one of the one bedroom condos left for sale from Lennar Homes. Lennar is known for their “limited time” sales that tend to extend in some form or fashion past the end date of the sale. In this particular case, the price reductions and incentives at Library Tower started out as a two-day weekend sale in July that got extended to almost the end of the month and then until the end of August. So never be hesitant to ask about whether or not certain prices or deals are still on the table.

A month ago there had been three one bedroom Chicago condos for sale at Library Tower, so if the developer is down to one, some sales have obviously occured since then. Those one bedrooms start at $259,990. There are about two of the two bedroom units left and those are priced from $339,990. There is also a limited number of three bedroom condos and those start at $499,990. This Chicago real estate development is FHA approved, so if you qualify you might be able to lock in a low down payment.

Building amenities for the 18 story high-rise located on 520 South State Street include a 24 hour door person, party room, business meeting room, fitness center, bike storage room, theater room, private resident park and sun deck on the roof.

We’ll keep you posted on any new deals that Lennar rolls out for Library Tower as well as other price reductions on Chicago homes for sale.

Technorati Tags: Library Tower, Chicago Homes, Chicago Real Estate Listings

September 1, 2010 - After a lot of speculation about whether or not the second tower at Walton on the Park would be built, Chicago real estate developers Ronald Shipka Sr. and Richard Stein of Enterprise Companies have stated that they will not build the other high-rise. They are now planning on putting up a small commercial building where the second tower would have stood.

The developers also announced in a Crain’s report that they did lock in an extension for the $129.5 million construction loan. The loan had a payback date of January 2011 but that was revised to March 2011 and may be extended to September of 2012 if needed.

Enterprise Cos. has also revised their property report to state that they may rent any of the unsold condos in the 31 story high-rise. The 201 units have one to four bedrooms and are priced anywhere from the $400,000s to over $1 million. Of those 201 condos in the first and now only tower of Walton on the Park, 81 are under contract and about 22 buyers have closed, according to the article.

Because of the new rental option, two investors are suing Enterprise to get out of their sales contracts on two units. Investors and buyers often believe that a large number of rental units in a high-rise can bring down the value of the other Chicago condos in the building. The lawyer representing the two investors in this case told Crain’s that having almost 100 units in the tower convert to rentals, “Changes the entire character of the property.”

Renters interested in Walton on the Park may want to wait and see what monthly rates may be offered at this development. Or you can check the Chicago real estate listings to see what other options are available.

Technorati Tags: Walton on the Park, Chicago Condos, Chicago Real Estate Listings

August 31, 2010 - It looks as though some Chicago real estate developers still have more confidence in the rental market than in selling market rate Chicago condos. According to a recent Crain’s article, RMK Management Corporation is planning to construct a new 44 story rental tower on 73 East Lake Street. The high-rise will have 321 units and cost around $120 to build. Locking in a construction loan is probably the biggest challenge for the developers, but if they can they expect to start work on the tower next year and finish in 2013.

Tony Rossi, who is president of RMK, is motivated by the success of the River North rental tower his company recently completed. The 21 story Parc Huron with its 221 apartments on 469 West Huron Street started welcoming renters in June and is about 60% leased at this point. According to the article, monthly rental rates at the Parc Huron are up around 5% more than the developers had estimated.

“The leasing pace has been really good,” Mr. Rossi was quoted as saying about the Parc Huron. “I don’t want to uncross my fingers, but we’re pretty happy right now.”

The Parc Huron is the first downtown Chicago rental tower to score a Gold LEED certification. Finishes on the one to three bedroom apartments include hardwood floors, floor-to-ceiling windows, 9.5 foot ceilings, stainless steel appliances, granite kitchen counter tops and bath vanity tops, wood cabinets and private balconies.

Leasing rates as advertised by RMK are listed below. You can also print off a coupon from the development site and get $100 off your first month’s rent.

1BR/1Bath/614 Sq Ft/ $1,840 - $2,295
1BR/1Bath/729 Sq Ft/ $2,130 - $2,585
1BR/1Bath/770 Sq Ft/ $2,235 - $2,690
1BR/1Bath/790 sq ft/ $2,238 - $2,715
1BR/1Bath/825 sq ft/ $2,265 - $2,720
1BR/1Bath/868 sq ft/ $2,370 - $2,825
1BR/1Bath/877 sq ft/ $2,370 - $2,850
2BR/2Bath/1,120 sq ft/ $3,055 - $3,510
2BR/2Bath/1,100 sq ft/ $2,980 - $3,435
2BR/2Bath/1,274 sq ft/ $3,115 - $3,570
2BR/2Bath/1,318 sq ft/ $3,400 - $3,855
3BR/2Bath/1,443 sq ft/ $3,605 - $4,055

If you’re looking to rent instead of buy, there are lots of Chicago Apartments available right now.

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August 30, 2010 - Since we’ve been talking about some of the units still available and prices of Chicago lofts, we thought we’d mention another Chicago real estate development that falls into that category. The Lofts at 1800 is a 91 unit building on West Grace that still has quite a few condos left for sale. Deliveries began late last year and the last figures released by the developer The Kopley Group put the number of sales somewhere between 60% and 70%.

There are one, two and three bedroom units at the Lofts at 1800. One bedroom lofts are priced from $259,900. Two bedroom condo lofts start at $304,500. The remaining unsold duplex lofts are priced from $439,500.

There are more than 40 floorplans with either timber, concrete or duplex lofts. Kitchens come with Bosch stainless steel appliances, granite counter tops and double bowl stianless steel sinks. Baths have granite vanity tops, marble or porcelain tile and surround and Whirlpool tubs. The lofts also have a Whirlpool washer a dryer, floor-to-ceiling-windows, hardwood flooring, ceilings up to 15′ high and a balcony, terrace or patio.

Building amenities include a 24 hour doorman, fitness center and a rooftop sun deck.

The Lofts at 1800 was a runner up for the Best in Class Bruce Abrams award given yearly by the Chicago Association of Realtors this past spring. And you can compare other Chicago lofts with the ones at 1800 to find the best deals.

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August 28, 2010 - For those of you who might be interested in buying one of the remaining unsold Chicago condos at Aqua but haven’t had time to stop at the sales center, you can now check them out via your cell phone. A new marketing campaign for the Chicago real estate development has been launched and prospective buyers can use their smartphone to scan a barcode that is being displayed on a ground level window of the 82 story Lakeshore East high-rise.

The window ad states that you can text the word smartcode to number 313131 to download the application needed to scan the barcode on Aqua’s window if you have a Blackberry, iphone, Andriod or almost any other camera cell phone. Then you can view condo information, amenities, selling points and many other features of Aqua from your phone. It’s sort of like a virtual sales center.

If you are interested in Aqua condos and thought they were nearly sold out, there may be more available than you think. The 264 unit were said by Magellan Development to be about 82% sold, but there have been more condos listed lately from the developer. There are also quite a few investors listing units for sale. Prices on the studio to three bedroom condos are running anywhere from the high $200,000s to almost $2 million.

And remember that while they may not have a barcode to scan, there are lots of other New Chicago Condos for sale.

Technorati Tags: Aqua, New Chicago Condos, Chicago Real Estate