Connecting the Dots to Find Out More About Chicago Real Estate Projects

As a kid I was a voracious reader. Starting with comic books at the dinner table and moving on to reading newspapers cover to cover to learning to love reading books under the tutelage of my third grade teacher Miss Bruch.

As I read today's Chicago Tribune I mused about an old-school journalist I used to love to read - Sydney J. Harris. One of the hallmarks of his well written columns was a section he called "Things I learned en route to looking up other things."

The unspooling of an informational ribbon, especially as I rapidly connect the dots using google, never ceases to amaze me.

The one thing that stuck in my mind from today's Tribune was a reference to the anticipated use of the Esquire Theater on Chicago's Oak Street. Hmm, I thought to myself, the decision by the developer to not seek a boutique hotel on the site but instead to create a two to three story luxury mall with the likes of Jimmy Choo, Prada, Barneys, Harry Winston and Hermes might interest my well-groomed and better mannered readers.

So I tapped in instructions to my wonderfully versatile laptop to tell me about Oak Street, learning that after the Chicago fire in 1871 this brief stretch of Chicago real estate was favored by the favored class who brought in European trained architects to reach three or four stories to the clouds and create monied mansions.

Of course, not so many of these homesteads still stand, leaving instead shops, boutiques and salons that cater to those who have arrived (and perhaps those who wish to).

More information I sought (a la Sydney J.) was whether this stretch at 1000 north fell within the geography of Chicago's Gold Coast. Alas, one set of rules indicate that this lovely quadrant commences two blocks north at Division (and falls between Lake Michigan on the east and LaSalle on the west).

For my money, though, Oak Street belongs more to the Gold Coast than it does to Rush Street or Streeterville. Maybe I am swayed by the street's affluent businesses intermingling this with the fact that the Gold Coast is considered Chicago's wealthiest area (falling only only behind Manhattan's Upper East Side). As I continued my occasional sleuthing later in the day (bear in mind that in the morning I met with clients to see two single family homes in Hinsdale, making an offer on one, next showed a listing in Chicago's East Village at 1934 Thomas, proceeded to pick up our newest family member, Lulu, from my wife in Lincoln Park, then went to show my Lakeview listing at 726 Addison (leaving Lulu in the running car with a/c), and now sit in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood at my favorite coffee purveyor, Metropolis, telling you of this next interesting nugget).

Anyway, if you've heard this one, stop me...

For riders of Chicago's el, the big empty space between Montrose and Wilson just east of the train and along Broadway is something of a mystery.

Well, wonder no more (if Crain's Chicago Business has its sources correct). Retail giant Target says further word of their talks to place a store on the site will be released later this month. If things work out Target's ubiquitous red and white sign will grace Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, sharing the site with a 382-car parking garage and 178 units of affordable housing.

Also possibly coming to this northside neighborhood that would love to reclaim some of its past glory could be a nine- or 10-screen movie theater, a 500-car parking garage and 85,000 square feet of retail space. Also in the works and awaiting approval is a possible 21-story condominium tower at 4738-50 N. Winthrop Ave., just south of the proposed retail/parking building. The condo tower would have 131 condominiums, four levels of parking and a swimming pool.

At any rate, having unearthed all of these possibilities leaves me feeling pretty good about myself. And has me paying a bit of homage to a man I never met in an era long before computers (let alone wireless laptops). Hats off to Sydney J. Harris whose regular article and its "Things I learned en route to looking up other things" has been something of a mantra my entire life.

By the way, if you are out and about (or if you know of somebody looking for a home in Chicago) come by my open house Sunday from noon-3p at 726 W Addison. I won't be providing anything buy air conditioned air and the prospect of finding a top notch condo with an attractive price tag.

Until the next time!