South Loop becoming a true neighborhood

A great new article highlighting what is happening in the South Loop In-fill housing, shops, restaurants, foot traffic... The S. Loop is starting to feel like a neighborhood Trying to keep up with new construction projects in the South Loop is a little like trying to count stars in the night sky, only with each passing year, thereÂ's less and less dark empty space between the bright points south of Van Buren. After years of gradual growth, the South Loop is casting off the last vestiges of a dingy, industrial past and beginning to glow with the light of a diverse, livable neighborhood. The transition has been taking place incrementally for so long that itÂ's hard to say when the South Loop started to feel truly comfortable. The area, bounded roughly by the lake, the river, Van Buren and Cermak, has long had the cityÂ's greatest cultural attractions – the Art Institute, the Museum Campus, the Harold Washington Library, Soldier Field, Grant ParkÂ…But for years, residential development occurred in isolated bursts that seemed like they might never coalesce or take full advantage of that impressive institutional base. Printers Row, centered around the converted printing houses of South Dearborn, was the closest thing to a real neighborhood pocket, with its vertical loft apartment buildings and the foot traffic created by the attendant ground-floor retail. But this was an island, as were Dearborn Park I and II, immediately south, and the early phases of Central Station, an 80-acre project south of Grant Park. Between these and other spheres of development was space – interrupted by old warehouses and storage buildings, a junkyard here and a transient hotel there – that few wanted to traverse on foot. ItÂ's only in the last couple of years that the neighborhood has hit something like critical mass. For some, the watershed was marked by the opening of a Starbucks on Roosevelt Road – the green light for gentrification in the eyes of many – while for others, the neighboring Jewel grocery store signaled the birth of a real neighborhood. Now itÂ's hard to keep up with the commercial development. A new Target has opened at 1154 S. Clark, and State Place, a mixed-use project finishing construction at 11th and State, includes a full-service Walgreens, a 26,000-square-foot Multiplex Clubs health club with spa services and a Charter One Bank – all part of the 65,000-square-foot Shops at State Place. The block-long development also includes 243 condos in a 24-story tower and three mid-rise buildings above the retail. Pointe 1900, another mixed-use project, at 1900 S. State, includes 38,000 square feet ground-floor commercial, including Bank One, Subway Sandwiches, a nail spa, a dry cleaner, Athletico and PalaggiÂ's, an Italian restaurant and café. A number of other new residential developments include at least small retail components, and other commercial ventures are opening in existing space, such as a Potbelly Sandwich Works and a new wine shop, both planned for Printers Row. The new shops finally are starting to provide the goods and services taken for granted in most city neighborhoods, but just as important, theyÂ're building foot traffic and friendly facades and street life – the milieu of a neighborhood and not that of an ersatz collection of bunker-like townhouse and condo developments. The lack of restaurants in the South Loop used to rank just behind the absence of a grocery store as the biggest complaint among even the neighborhood faithful who extolled the virtues of a quiet, uncongested spot so close to Loop offices. Now, enough restaurants have opened that the South Loop actually is becoming a destination for diners from other parts. The stock of Printers Row establishments – HackneyÂ's, SRO, Bar Louie, Trattoria Caterina and others – has been steadily augmented by spots throughout the neighborhood. The Chicago Firehouse Restaurant, built in a renovated firehouse at 1401 S. Michigan, has gained neighborhood fans with its steaks, seafood and charm. Owner Matt OÂ'Malley recently opened Grace OÂ'MalleyÂ's, a cozy spot serving pub food, at 1416 S. Michigan, and the Wabash Tap, an informal restaurant and bar with live music on weekends, at 1152 S. Wabash. Restaurateur Jerry Kleiner is starting to do for the urban mystique of South Wabash what he and partner Howard Davis did for the former packing and produce houses of West Randolph. In addition to Gioco, a regional Italian restaurant at 1312 S. Wabash, he has opened Opera, a modern Chinese restaurant with Â"the color and feelÂ" of the Chinese opera, and Saiko, which serves sushi, steaks and other Japanese dishes with French and American twists – all on the same block. The dark superstructure of the el and the aging facades of Wabash used to make the street slightly forbidding, but on this block at least, a new patina – and new patrons – have transformed a slice of Old Chicago from obsolescent to romantic overnight. Other new restaurants include South City Tavern, 1530 S. State; Orange on Harrison, 75 W. Harrison; Room 12, 1152 S. Wabash; the ButcherÂ's Dog, 649 S. Clark; and Oysy, 888 S. Michigan. Like new retail, the restaurants are building foot traffic and giving pedestrians something to look at besides blank walls, fast food joints and surface parking lots. But the main ingredient in foot traffic is feet, which is why the most important development in the South Loop continues to be residential. Nearly every block these days hosts a construction crane, a sign touting new homes for sale or a condo building that didnÂ't exist last year. At press time, New Homes counted more than 30 new residential developments underway, totaling more than 4,500 housing units marketed or under construction in the neighborhood, and many more are on the drawing board. The cityÂ's Central Area Plan projects that 70 percent of residential growth downtown between now and 2020 will occur in the greater South Loop. Too much density is a problem in many city neighborhoods, especially downtown, but for years, the South Loop suffered from too little. Early residential projects there often were low-density developments of townhouses and single-family homes, which did little to liven up the areaÂ's sparse streets. However, as property values and comfort levels have grown, developers increasingly have turned to highrise construction, which is bringing enough population to support new amenities. The pace of building is dizzying in ChicagoÂ's fastest growing neighborhood. At press time, New West Realty had just 22 of 78 units left at WOWÂ's 15th Street Lofts, priced from $199,000 to $350,000, and the company sold 70 condos in less than a month at Lakeside Tower, a 19-story highrise with 143 units at 16th and Indiana, where homes are priced from the $200s. Other condo towers that had not yet been officially announced at press time include an 18-story highrise planned by Winthrop Properties for 733 S. Wells and a second highrise by Russland Capital Group similar to its successful Michigan Avenue Tower project, a 29-story condo building at 13th and Michigan. Co-developers Bruce Fogelson and Shai Lothan are planning a 16-story condominium highrise at 776 S. Dearborn and a 12-story tower at 777 S. Dearborn. Sales, at least at many projects, appear to be moving at a brisk pace. More than 500 potential home buyers showed up recently at a grand opening for the Columbian, a 46-story tower with 220 condos priced from the mid-$200s to $1.5 million and marketed by Equity Marketing Services, at Michigan and Roosevelt. Equity also hit a homerun with Metropolitan Tower, taking 100 deposits in the projectÂ's first weekend. Buyers have flocked like moths to the famous blue light atop the former Britannica Center office building as Metropolitan Properties converts the classic art deco structure into 245 condos at 310 S. Michigan. Neighborhood boosters can say with all seriousness, if you havenÂ't been to the South Loop in six months, you havenÂ't been to the South Loop. And the biggest is yet to come. Rezmar Development Group is getting ready to launch Riverside Park, a 62-acre mixed-use project on the site bordered by Roosevelt Road, Clark Street, the Chicago River and 16th that will take 10 years to build. When completed, the massive development will include more than 4,000 residential units, a landscaped riverwalk, up to 670,000 square feet of retail space and parks, plazas and parking (see sidebar). Â"This will give South Loop residents a place to shop in the city, so that people can stay in their own neighborhood,Â" says Judi Fishman, vice president of Rezmar. Â"IÂ've been to all the community groups – they want the retail, the restaurants and recreation for older children.Â" A diverse community So, who are all these people snapping up new homes in the South Loop? The question may seem simple, but itÂ's not an easy one to answer. The South Loop is the best place to be if youÂ're young and single, the young singles say, because if itÂ's not where the action is, itÂ's close and comparatively affordable. Young parents think itÂ's a great place to start a family, and empty nesters tell you itÂ's the place to go after youÂ've raised one. Students and stockbrokers, stay-at-home moms and retirees. Straight, gay, married, single. African American, Asian American, white. Among the neighborhood faithful, wildly different people all seem to feel that the South Loop was tailor made for them, and in a sense, theyÂ're all right. Diversity is important to the highly diverse crowd that lives in the South Loop, though few mention it without prompting. Heterogeneity is a fact of life here perhaps more than anywhere else in Chicago, and the mostly middle-class residents are as unselfconscious about it as they are appreciative. This is literally a new neighborhood. Not an old one rediscovered, but carved whole cloth from industrial loft buildings, old railroad land, junkyards and parking lots. Starting from scratch wasnÂ't easy, but it has allowed the city to plan for growth and put a solid new infrastructure in place. In the same way, an unusual social infrastructure has emerged, one that is solidly middle-class, diverse and down to earth. The South LoopÂ's status as a Â"new neighborhood,Â" careful attention from the city and a location that allows the South Loop to identify with both the South Side and downtown have combined to create a place unlike any other in the city. Dorothy Strojana moved from the suburbs to the South LoopÂ's River City, the serpentine concrete complex along the river that has its own grocery store, health club, shuttle bus, clubhouse and private year-round marina. Â"I love the building, itÂ's like a city within the city,Â" says Strojana, a 34-year-old Polish immigrant who came to the U.S. more than a decade ago. Â"And I consider it very safe. IÂ'm not afraid to walk on the street. I walk everywhere.Â" Except to work. Unlike many South Loop residents who move to the neighborhood so they can walk to Loop offices, Strojana makes a reverse commute to Northbrook, where she sells cars. Â"There are a lot of things going on in the city,Â" Strojana says. Â"The suburbs are boring. IÂ'm single, so thereÂ's more happening here. ItÂ's close to the action.Â" Close but not too close. Her studio at River City was $182,000 at a time when even small condos under $200,000 are becoming hard to find at developments in downtown neighborhoods. Prices have been rising in the South Loop, but the neighborhood still offers some comparatively affordable units as well as a stock of larger homes that attracts families. June Gin grew up in Chinatown, which these days, is considered just outside the South Loop. Her husband, Bruce, is from Elk Grove Village and after they married 18 years ago, they lived first in Chinatown and then for more than a dozen years, in the Near Southwest neighborhood of Bridgeport. When two sons came along – one now four and a half and the other nearly three – their 1,600-square-foot house suddenly felt cramped. Â"We were looking for a bigger house,Â" says Gin, 42. Â"We had children late in life, so when we had our first son, the house started to seem too small. We knew we wanted to stay in the city, and my preference was for the South Side because thatÂ's where I grew up.Â" South Siders as a rule are suspicious of the North Side, and North Siders attach as much reality to the South Side as they do to Mandalay. Somehow both can feel comfortable in the South Loop: North Siders perhaps because they consider it a quiet corner of downtown, and South Siders because they see it as an extension of the South Side, a spot with some of the Near North SideÂ's advantages and none of its snobbery. Â"First we looked in the West Loop, but I wasnÂ't as comfortable there,Â" Gin says. Â"The West Loop was too yuppie, a lot of young couples and not as many families. Bridgeport is very family-oriented, and I like that.Â" She and her husband, a programmer for IBM, settled on a four-bedroom townhouse at Kensington Park, a development by Belgravia Group, at 18th and Indiana, where units in the first phase were priced from the $550s. In some ways, Gin is surprised to find herself in the city with two children. She always thought sheÂ'd raise her family in the suburbs. But she says, the public schools have improved (she likes the new teaching academy on Cermak, which includes a working grade school, a pre-school, daycare and a community center) and there are private schools nearby. Â"I grew up in the city, so I can appreciate the benefits of having a diverse neighborhood and for my kids to have friends who are diverse,Â" Gin says, noting that there should be plenty of children for them to play with. Â"There are always a ton of mothers with strollers when you walk down Indiana.Â" The neighborhood also is home to plenty of couples who packed away their strollers years ago. Vince Hartigan and his wife, Kitty, moved to the South Loop after their youngest daughter went off to college. TheyÂ'd raised a family in Lake Forest and were ready for a change. Â"In the Â'80s a lot of yuppies started to move into Lake Forest,Â" says Hartigan, a retail stockbroker with Salomon Smith Barney. Â"There was a lot of wealth and all the toys, and we decided to move.Â" The Hartigans have been in the South Loop for about a decade, in a townhouse in Dearborn Park I. It sits in a pleasant row of red brick homes with terraces that overlook a grassy courtyard, but the community shows best once youÂ're inside it. From State Street, most of Dearborn Park I turns a blank wall with small sporadic windows to the neighborhood. When it was built, there was little to face, and itÂ's a measure of neighborhood progress that the Chicago Homes, in Dearborn Park II, turn traditional porches onto State. Â"I had to move my car just now and saw two young women with their children and dogs,Â" Hartigan says from his Dearborn Park home. Â"ItÂ's interesting. I think there are a lot of young families here who didnÂ't want to move out to the suburbs and two-career families who want to save on the commute, as well as people like us who cashed in and moved down.Â" Diversity was key for Steve Scott and his partner as well. Scott, 52, is an associate producer at the Goodman Theatre, and his partner works as an actor and teaches at Roosevelt University. Â"We decided we wanted to be closer to downtown and have more of an urban lifestyle,Â" says Scott, who lives in Folio Square, a loft conversion in Printers Row. Â"We both moved to Chicago because we wanted to be in the city. We found the South Loop to be interesting and varied and very convenient, and at that point, very affordable.Â" TheyÂ'd lived in Lakeview too, but he likes the fact that this is a new neighborhood. The South Loop, he says, has grown naturally into a diverse community, a fact on which few residents dwell. Â"ThatÂ's one thing that really appealed to us,Â" Scott says. Â"In terms of race, age, ethnicity, a fairly sizable gay community interspersed, it seemed in many ways the perfect city community: very heterogeneous and diverse in the right way, unselfconsciously.Â">