COUNTRYSIDE
FROM $445,000
TO $700,000

When the downturn in the real-estate market threatened to halt the Conneely Group’s plans for a six-building condominium complex in west suburban Countryside, the family-run company devised a way to buy time. Or, more to the point, rent it.

The condos in the single completed 18-unit building are being rented out, but tenants have the option of directing half of their monthly rent toward an eventual purchase of the unit. Ron Rydin, the development’s sales and rental agent, says that only four units remain in the first building but that the investors in the project—dubbed Clocktower Pointe (it’s at 10765 Clocktower Drive)—are “planning to go forward” with the construction of subsequent buildings this summer.

The four remaining condos in the existing building are two-bedroom units. A penthouse condo with an enormous terrace and extra-large rooms is priced to sell at $700,000 but rents for $3,500 a month. Two units are for sale at $459,000 and one for $445,000; all three rent for $2,000 a month. (Rydin expects the homes in the new buildings to be priced roughly the same.) The sale price includes an indoor parking space.

Photograph: Dennis Rodkin