Charles Chen used to travel an hour each day to get to his dental practice The Radiant Smile, 1632 Maple Ave. But in March, Chen, Weinberg ’97, moved from Chicago to a condominium in Optima Horizons, 850 Elgin Road — just blocks away from his Evanston office.
“If you live in a condo, you’re closer to downtown,” he said, “whereas if you buy a house, it’s further away.”
The appearance of condominiums is affecting more than the skyline — it is changing the contents of the storefronts and the character of the streets.
With interest rates near a 44-year low, Evanston’s condo developers find that many of their downtown buildings are sold out before they even open. Condos on the lower floors of Sherman Plaza, at the corner of Sherman Avenue and Church Street, will open next spring but are already 75 percent sold, said Steve Precht, a sales associate for the building’s developer.
New residential units have swollen the figures of downtown housing in the last few years, said Dennis Marino, assistant director of Evanston’s Planning Division.
In the past five years, 1,200 units have been under construction, approved, completed or occupied.
“Condo owners are driving the retail,” said Evanston real estate agent Jim Nash, who owns property downtown. “It makes property values increase.”
Development company Optima, Inc. has built three condo complexes in downtown Evanston since 2002: Optima Towers, 1580 Sherman Ave.; Optima Views, 1720 Maple Ave.; and Optima Horizons, completed this year. In 2004, development company Roszak/ADC opened a seven-story building at 1572 Maple Ave.
“(Condos are) attractive to older empty nesters or to young professionals who want to build equity,” said Ronald Kysiak, president of nonprofit economic development corporation Evanston Inventure. “People want an urban environment, but they don’t want to live in downtown Chicago, or they can’t afford it.”
These new high-rises, built along transit lines and filled with luxury amenities, are creating a pedestrian-friendly city where people live, work and shop, said Renee Finucane, the broker manager of Prudential Preferred Properties, 1600 Orrington Ave.
“You can live in a community, you can walk to the library, you can walk to the recreation — like the beach or the gym,” she said. “You can walk to the grocery store, you can walk to the train station and then hop on.”
The low interest rates make it easier to buy property, said Donald Powell, a real estate agent at Coldwell Banker, 2929 Central St. A condo buyer today with good credit could get a mortgage with a monthly payment of what an apartment’s monthly rent might cost.
“In rental, what you pay for rent is lost,” Powell said. “In a condo, what you pay is not.”
Even Northwestern students, or at least their parents, are riding the condo boom.
Weinberg junior Sara Rubin moved into Optima Horizons in October. Rubin said the brand-new condo — with a washer, dryer, oven, stove, and a common gym and pool — is a step up from standard off-campus life.
“I’m really anal about spilling things because it’s so new,” she said.
For some Evanston residents, the growth is a turn-off. Mark Horstmann, 25, rents an apartment in Evanston and works on Maple Avenue. He said he is unsure if he likes the feel of Evanston’s downtown development.
“(Evanston) is close enough to the city, but it still has a bit of quaintness to it,” he said, but lately, “it seems over-constructed and overpopulated.”
But the explosion in residential properties is hardly confined to Evanston. In Naperville, Ill., developers are laying ground for a seven-story condo building, said City Planner Rod Zinner. Another 21-unit building will go up soon, and many apartments in the downtown have been converted into condominiums.
In Skokie, the Optima Old Orchard Woods complex will bring nearly 700 new condos near the shopping center, Planning Supervisor Steve Marciani said.
The next step in Evanston may be an 18-story condo building at 1881 Oak Ave. Carroll Properties proposed the building Wednesday at a Site Plan and Appearance Review Committee meeting.
Perhaps the best explanation behind Evanston’s condo boom is geography.
“We don’t have any place to grow sideways,” said Ald. Cheryl Wollin (1st). “We are a landlocked community. We don’t have open land to develop.”
The Daily’s Lee S. Ettleman contributed to this report.
Reach Daniella Cheslow at [email protected].