Quote:
Originally Posted by via chicago
the thing is, most of these are not offices. in fact, the only office buildings are the Riverside Plaza location and 300 LaSalle (as well as the BCBS expansion). All the rest are residential condominiums/hotels. The fact is, there is a demand for these buildings or they woulndt be getting built. The Arquitectonica tower was just revealed a couple months back and theres already a waiting list several hundred people long. Aqua is practically sold out. Downtown has transformed from a place that was strictly somewhere to work, into a place to live. 10-20 years ago not a single person would say they want to live near the loop. It was a businesss district, period. Now look at the demand to live in the west/south loop, and many other areas. The south loop neighborhood didnt even exist 10 years ago. Same with a lot of River North. It was all industrial wasteland. This is how Chicago has avoided a lot of the other problems that have plagued rust belt cities. Its desireable to live downtown again. Also, many of these buildings are introducing brands for the first time into the US, which are already pretty familiar and highly regarded overseas (Mandarin Oriental, and Shangri-La hotel which will be in Waterview).
Now thats not to say there isnt a glut of luxury buildings being built right now. But most buildings won't go ahead with construction until they have a certain amount of presales (with the exception of Chicago Spire, which is being financed differently and being marketed to a compeltely different level of buyers).
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There are a couple of reasons why there is such a demand on downtown living. It is nice and all downtown, but from what I have read and seen on TV it really has little to do with all the glamor of the downtown address and hub bub going on outside your door.
First off, more and more people now days are choosing to remain single until later in life, thus in turn not having families at such young ages as our parents and grandparents did, so right there a huge difference in lifestyle is obvious from times past to today. Families with kids want good schools, lots of room for their kids to be able to run around and play, playgrounds, a safe environment (ie. not tons of racing cabs and busses to run thier kids over, gangs, bad influences, etc) so all that alone allows a single person without kids to not let things like heavy traffic and lack of playgrounds factor into his/her locating ideology and be able to move into an area where families are currently rather scarce.
Second, and this one is VERY obvious, is the sheer cost to live out further towards the burbs or in the burbs. Fuel costs are outragous now, yet have salaries went up to compensate for this? NO. Auto insurance keeps going up, parking rates are going up, the cost to maintain a vehicle goes up, the vehicles themselves are going up, tolls have gone up, now CTA is going up, yet starting salaries are still pretty much the same as they were in 1995 causing many youngsters coming out of college seeking those white collar jobs to do something people for the past few generations never would have thought of; leave the car behind and rely on their own feet to get around, or take the bus or train (making the burbs an inconvience).
While the cost to live downtown is higher when you look at rents or housing costs, factor in the fact that you will not have a car most likely when living downtown because none is needed and immediately you can wipe out about $600 a month in auto expenses allowing you to put that money into your roof over your head so to say.
Example, you live in lets say Oak Lawn renting a two bedroom apt. for $1000 a month, then add on your utilities and now you're at $1200. Now you haven't gotten to work yet and you work in the loop, so you have a choice; pay for a train ride of which you have to also pay to park in the Metra lot, or pay for a vehicle of which you will have to have anyways because you cannot get around with ease living in the burbs by not having a car. So, add on about another $300 a mo. car payment and $300 a month in gas, next add on the cost for insurance: $100 a mo. and parking fees downtown: $20 a day. Add it all up and your living costs in the burbs are at a minimum of $2300 a mo. Now look at 2 bedroom apts downtown. Surprisingly the rent many times in the high rises will include heat, water, cable, A/C, and in some cases electric for about $2000-$2500 a mo. which to some seems steep at first but look at which way is cheaper or breaks about even. People today are starting to see this and are flocking for the city.
Next and this is a big one, is the sheer time factor involved getting to and from work. Nothing is more aggravating than having to work for 8 hours and then have a 2 hour commute to get home, be it either by being stuck in traffic or on the train of which you will have to walk to, wait in line to get on the thing, wait for it to depart, exit the train, wait in the lot to get out of, and commute home. If you live downtown and work downtown, or if you are really lucky; work in the same building as which you live, you have almost NO commute time of which you are NOT getting paid for anyways giving you between 2-4 hours more free time for you to do whatever you want with.
These three factors are HUGE for people when considering making the move from the burbs back into the city. Ask many of the people that have left suburban life for the urban life as to why they made the move, and in almost all cases, one if not all three of these factors will come up in the conversation. Developers have caught onto this trend and this is the reason you see cranes all over the Loop and South Loop. America way of life is changing.
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09-06-2007, 09:09 PM
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