EVANSTON CONDO EXPLOSION - Old-School Suburb Grows by Reshaping it's Downtown!
SUBURB ALONG CHICAGO'S NORTHERN BOUNDARY HAS ADDED 1,584 CONDOS SINCE 2003!
If you ask many in real estate about a continuing condo success story, they will point to the extensive redevelopment happening in Downtown Evanston. Others may say the glut and congestion is beginning to get on their nerves!
This old-line Chicago suburb of roughly 100,000 residents, in many ways a miniature Chicago, offers vintage housing, quaint downtown shopping, historic mansions, and beautiful lake front on Lake Michigan. Housing choices range from multi-million dollar mansions close to the lake and near Northwestern University, headquartered here, to downtrodden older homes on the suburb's west side.
Now, Downtown Evanston is bustling with hundreds of luxury condos, fine restaurants (including one of our Team's faves - the older, much more homey Dave's Italian Kitchen - itself relocated east because of the condo boom here), a few quiet clubs, several theatre venues, and great public transportation to Downtown Chicago and The Loop, 13 miles to the south.
Indeed, Evanston has come a long way from its early claim to fame as the dry home of the Women's Christian Temperence Union, and a stalwart against the drink going back to Chicago's raucous Roaring 1920's, and before.
Under construction right now is the 15-story Winthrop Club, on the 1500 Block of Maple Street downtown. To be completed in 2009, the project will add another 98 luxury condo units right downtown. The Sienna, right downtown, and Grand Bend, just west of downtown Evanston along Green Bay Road, will add an addtional 400 new condo untis beginning later this year.
Many other older Chicago suburbs have grown as well in recent years - including the Northwest Suburbs of Des Plaines, Mt. Prospect, and Arlington Heights, but no suburb has come close to matching Evanston for number of new condo units added in its downtown area.
With the dense, high-rise construction however comes added traffic congestion, tighter parking, and noise, along with the vibrancy. "We should be looking closely at how much more development we can take," said Anna Renee Ross, co-chairman of the city's 5th Ward Community Development Committee. "Is it logical for there to be so much building in downtown? Do they have to keep building there? It's already one of the most congested areas on earth."
Ross, and others, propose expanding new development more widely across the suburb, focusing more on affordable housing in the city's less-prosperous west side. Most of the units in downtown Evanston are high-end - ranging from the low $300,000 for one-bedroom condos, to upwards of $1.5 Million for the more luxurious larger units.
Evanston Historic Preservation Coordinator Carlos Ruiz has voiced concern that many vintage buildings, though not designated as historically significant, have been or will be lost along with condo growth.
"There are buildings that maintain the character of our downtown but are not necessarily landmark buildings," Ruiz said. "As we review the buildings downtown, we do hear from people who want to preserve some of these buildings that aren't currently landmarked."
Evanston's Downtown Planning Committee, established two years ago, is in charge of policing construction to make sure it is in character with the scale of downtown. Members of the Historic Preservation Commission have suggested developer incentives to developers if they preserve the certain older buildings here.
As testimony to the suburb's desirablilty, convenience, culture, and amenities many of those purchasing in the brand new condo developments are long-time Evanston residents, whose children have grown, and now seek more of a low-maintenance lifestyle, without sacrificing area amenities or near-Chicago convenience.
For more information, read Dan Rafter's article in last Sunday's edition of The Chicago Tribune Real Estate Section.
DEAN MOSS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
