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Buy Condo, Get Walking Papers
Port Clinton Place homeowners will enjoy ready access to restaurants and schools

Illustration: David Walker

Vernon Hills From $243,900 to $564,900

Not far from the intersection of Half Day Road and Milwaukee Avenue, a mix of row houses and mid-rise condo buildings are slated to go up on a partially wooded site within walking distance of restaurants, a bike path, good schools, a library, and two Metra stations.

Plans for the ten-acre development, called Port Clinton Place, call for two condo buildings, each with six residential floors above two levels of parking (one belowground). There will also be nine buildings containing row houses. Prices on the condos start at $243,900; the row houses begin at $427,900. Sales began in October on the first phase, a 66-unit condo building and 20 row houses; at press time, 14 condos and eight row houses had been sold, according to Matt Nix, senior real-estate director for Opus North, the project’s developer.

“Because of the height of the condo buildings, you will get some really neat views on the upper floors,” Nix says. Some eastern views will take in Lincolnshire’s Village Green and stretches of the Half Day Forest Preserve and the Des Plaines River Trail. Occupancy of the row houses is scheduled for later this year, with condos set for 2008.

Block Aid
Overhaul for vintage dwellings

Illustration: Courtesy of Mike Sato

Old Town From $459,900

One of the jewels of Old Town-a block of buildings whose façades are dripping with 1890s detailing-has been converted from apartments to condos. Remodeled by R. P. Fox & Associates of Oak Park, Crilly Court Condominiums sits on the block bounded by St. Paul Avenue, Crilly Court, Eugenie Street, and Wells Street.

“It’s unique to have a vintage condo conversion that combines all the buildings on [one] block,” says Amber Wilson, the Baird & Warner agent listing the units along with Dana DiPasquale. “You get this nice main courtyard that everybody shares.”

At press time, only six of the 90 units remained for sale, all of them along Crilly Court itself-handsome brick and limestone structures built in 1895, with the names of the children of Daniel Crilly, the builder, still engraved over the front doors. These three-bedroom units range in size from 1,340 to 1,461 square feet and start at $459,900. The interiors have deep window wells and tray ceilings in some bedrooms.

Staking the Next Big Claim
MCL Companies targets burgeoning medical district with MetroPlace development

Illustration: Courtesy of MCL Companies

Near West Side From $265,900 to $399,900

The developer of Dearborn Park in the South Loop and Old Town Village in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood, MCL Companies has a reputation for staking claims in areas that are not yet sure things. Now, with an eye on the West Side’s booming Illinois Medical District, the company hopes to lure buyers to MetroPlace, a development slated for Roosevelt Road and Campbell Avenue, just east of the North Lawndale neighborhood.

“It’s an area that has evolved,” says Iris Ade, MCL’s assistant vice president of sales and marketing. “There are so many major employers along here that housing is simply a natural progression.”

On two blocks of formerly commercial and industrial land (with another two blocks available for future development), MCL is building a mix of single-family homes and condos in two- and six-flat configurations. At present, plans call for about 200 units, but there could be as many as 250. “We’re going to let the market dictate that,” says Ade. “If more buyers are coming in for condos, we can provide them.”

MCL broke ground on the first 70 condos in November. They start at $265,900 for a 1,102-square-foot two-bedroom unit and top off at $399,900 for a two-story, 1,593-square-foot three-bedroom unit. The new owners should begin moving in late this year.