Before the sales office for the $123-million South Loop project near the site of the former Chicago Police Department headquarters opened Thursday, deposits have been placed on 26% of the units.

"We weren't certain what to expect," says Richard A. Stein, senior managing director of Mesirow Stein Development Services, Inc. "We were confident that we had a unique development in a great location -- we had everything going for us. But with the recent events and economic uncertainty, we weren't sure how it was going to play."

Construction begins this fall on the project that will cover the entire 1100 block of S. State Street between 11th Street and Roosevelt Road with a 21-story condominium tower and three low-rise buildings. Meanwhile, sales continue at other new multifamily developments around the Central Business District, including:

* Museum Park, more than 800 condominiums, townhomes and lofts being development by The Enterprise Companies, of Fogelson Properties, Inc.'s and Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises Inc.'s $500-million Central Station project, on former railroad property along the lakefront from Roosevelt Road to McCormick Place.

* Prairie House, Prairie District Homes and Prairie Place, 320 units of condominium and townhome units being built by Bejco Development Corp., Legacy Development Group and MCL Companies, all of which are part of the Central Station project. "Central Station is the fastest-selling mixed-use development in Chicago with more than 600 townhomes and condominiums sold in the past 12 months," says Gerald W. Fogelson, co-chairman of Central Station Development Corp.

* More than 65% of the 220 units at Legacy Development's 41 E. 8th St. 35-story condominium tower, three blocks north of State Place, have been sold.

* A new-construction condominium loft building at 1000 W. Adams St., where only one unit remains. However, 180 units are under construction at its "sister building" across the intersection at 933 W. Van Buren St. Both projects are being developed by Palatine, IL-based Concord Homes.

* Concord City Centre, a gut rehab and condominium conversion of the 74-year-old Morton Building at 208 W. Washington Ave. in the West Loop. Concord Homes is doing the rehab project.

Thomas Kearns, sales director of State Place marketing agent Frankel & Giles, says fewer investors than usual are checking out the State Street Associates redevelopment project but home buyers are coming in larger numbers.

"Typically when a new development starts, you have a huge surge of investors," Kearns says. "While we have that, we also have a large percentage of people who have the intention of living here. It's a very diversified group of residents."

Instant Insights /

Downtown Multifamily Market Holding Up

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