A Breath of Fresh Air
Townhouses and condominiums will transform centrally located industrial area

A formerly light-industrial parcel of land just two blocks from Forest Park’s burgeoning Madison Street shopping corridor will become the parklike setting for 200 new condominiums and townhouses. “This spot has huge positives-access to public transportation [including the Chicago Transit Authority’s Blue Line] and an urban lifestyle,” says Tim Anderson, the president of Focus Development, the company behind the project, called The Residences at the Grove. “The village saw that it’s an appropriate time to transform it into residential, and we think so, too.”

The two condo buildings in the development will both be four stories tall. Condos will run from $181,990 for a 689-square-foot unit with one bedroom to $442,990 for a 1,760-square-foot unit with three bedrooms and a den. Prices on the townhouses, also four stories high, will go from $356,990 for a 1,708-foot two-bedroom with a den to $440,990 for a 1,962-foot three-bedroom with a den. Construction is under way now, and the first condos will be ready for occupancy late this summer. At press time, 39 of 70 condos in the first phase-and 14 of 30 townhouses-had been sold. Sales for the second phase of the project will begin later this year.

Small Time
New homes for empty nesters

Downtown Flossmoor will soon up its appeal with a batch of new housing aimed at empty nesters. The four-story Flossmoor Square, planned for a site just west of the town’s Metra station, will offer three floors of condominiums above street-level stores and offices.

“You have a lot of empty nesters in Flossmoor hanging on to their big houses because there’s nothing available for them downtown, where they want to be,” says Chuck Bruti, whose Frankfort-based Bruti Associates will build Flossmoor Square.

He says virtually all of the people who have shown interest in buying units in the building fit that profile.

Flossmoor Square will have 12 condos, each one a two-bedroom, two-bath unit with 1,863 feet of space, nine-foot ceilings, and windows facing both north and south, where each unit will have a balcony. Each unit runs about $350,000, and the new owners should begin moving in sometime in late 2007.

Couple Espouses a “Sexy” Modernism
Successful husband-and-wife development team unveils an elegant minimalist tower

Karen Ranquist knows the exact word to describe the edifice that she and her husband, Bob, are developing at 156 West Superior Street. She’s just not sure it’s allowed. “Can I use the word ‘sexy’ for a building?” she wonders.

In this instance, it’s probably best to defer to the Ranquists. The husband-and-wife team had already completed several neo-modernist single-family homes and condo buildings in the Wicker Park, East Village, and Lincoln Park neighborhoods when they enlisted the architect David Miller (of Seattle’s award-winning Miller/Hull Partnership) to design 156 West Superior. Miller’s design for the minimalist, nine-story building uses steel beams, X-braces, and floor-to-ceiling windows on the street-side exterior, and an open floor plan inside.

At press time, 6 of the 11 units had already been sold. The smallest still available was a 900-square-foot condo priced at $379,800. The largest-a 2,630-square-foot condo that occupies all of the eighth floor-carried a $1,530,800 price tag. Occupancy was scheduled to begin in March.