Bridgeport Boom Heads West
A southwest side manufacturing district boasts buildings perfect for loft living

“McKinley Park is absolutely poised for growth,” says Nicole Greifenkamp of The Habitat Company, an affiliate of McKinley Park Developers, which is converting an old warehouse in that southwest side neighborhood to loft condos. Situated at 2323 West Pershing Road-across the street from the 103-year-old park that gives the neighborhood its name-McKinley Park Lofts will feature about 85 different floor plans for its 163 units, meaning there will be no cookie-cutter feeling to the place. To update the structure, which should be ready for occupancy in spring 2006, Habitat is adding three new stories to the existing three-story building, which was formerly home to Desks Inc. Prices on the 66 available units run from $159,000 for a 790-square-foot one-bedroom to $365,000 for a 1,540-square-foot two-bedroom with a den.

The building will take its place among a string of handsome loft buildings that remain from McKinley Park’s heyday as a manufacturing district. The area’s renewal is due, in part, to spillover from booming Bridgeport to the east. Only a 15-minute drive from the Loop, the neighborhood boasts the lagoon, field house, and other amenities of the park, which opened in 1902, one year after the assassination of President William McKinley. Nearby there are new Home Depot and Target stores, recently built townhouses, and an indoor soccer arena is under construction.

Sweet Deal
Roselle’s Main Street Station latecomers get early-bird perks

The developers are taking offers on the six units still unsold at Main Street Station, a completed development of 48 condominiums in the center of Roselle. Three of the units will be left unfinished until they sell, which means that those buyers can choose their finishes, just like preconstruction buyers.

The list prices on the six units start at $284,562 for a 1,371-square-foot two-bedroom condo on the third floor and go up to $443,026 for a three-bedroom unit on the fifth floor. That and another fifth-floor unit, listed at $428,445, have large terraces and views of the distant Chicago skyline, says Andrea Ross, the sales assistant on the project for the developers, the Gammonley Group. Included in the purchase price of each unit are an indoor and an outdoor parking space.

The red brick building is in the center of downtown Roselle, with Met-ra tracks on one side and the upscale Lynfred Winery on the other. At pres-ent, it is the only new condominium project in town, although, as is true in many other north and northwest suburbs, more are on the boards.

State of the Art
A South Loop high-rise makes technology a priority

Watch out for people checking their e-mail in the lobby, the laundry room, and the common hallways once they take up residence at Vision on State, a new condo building in the South Loop (at 1255 South State Street). The entire high-rise will be one big wireless zone.

“[WiFi] is where the world is going technology-wise, and something more people are expecting, so we decided to be up-to-date with it,” says Warren Barr, president of Renaissant Development, which is building Vision on State. When completed in late 2006, the 253-unit building will be one of the city’s first new residential structures with wireless Web access throughout.

Barr says that Vision on State will be primarily one-bedroom condos, with only about 30 two-bedroom units. Many of the one-bedroom units will have a den-and with wireless access, the den could become a spare bedroom instead of a dedicated computer room. Of the 94 units remaining for sale, prices range from $184,900 for a 610-square-foot one-bedroom condo to $294,900 for a 1,068-square-foot two-bedroom condo, says Michael Golden, the @properties agent handling sales for the building.