New Partnership to Develop Illinois Medical District

The Illinois Medical District on the Near West Side could see several thousand apartments over the next seven years.

CHICAGO—The apartment surge which has swept the neighborhoods adjacent to downtown will soon hit the Illinois Medical District on Chicago’s Near West Side. Guggenheim Real Estate LLC, has just formed a joint venture partnership with Atlantic Realty Partners and Focus Development Inc. to renovate its Medical District Apartments, a 410-unit rental community located along Ashland Ave. between Polk and Taylor streets. And it’s probably not the last major project that developers will undertake in the area over the next few years.

“There is a rush to develop the Near West Side because of the pent-up demand,” Susan Tjarksen, principal and managing broker at KIG, which arranged the partnership, tells GlobeSt.com. “There has been no new construction there since 1974,” and this is a neighborhood which through its hospitals, medical schools and clinics provides an extraordinary number of highly-paid jobs. “It’s the hottest neighborhood in Chicago right now.”