The project already is about a year in the works, Bletnitsky tells GlobeSt.com. "The location is great, and we're already 70% pre-sold," he adds.

The project is at the northwest corner of Michigan Avenue and 13th Street, in the shadow of the Central Station project, which eventually will include 2,300 residential units, and one block south of Grant Park.

On a smaller scale, plan commission members have green-lighted Legacy Development Group IV's 18-unit townhouse development at 2001 S. Prairie Ave. in Central Station. Also, plan commission members last month recommended approval for another condominium tower, a 46-story, 225-unit proposed building at 1146 S. Michigan Ave. to be built by Neighborhood Rejuvenation Partners LP.

Units will sell from $180,000 to $1.5 million, Vaisman tells GlobeSt.com. The building includes first-floor retail with 31 parking spaces behind the storefronts, with another 272 spaces on the next three floors. The fifth floor includes a city concept that has spread to suburbs such as Evanston – a landscaped rooftop, this one with a dog run.

Meanwhile, condominium development has not stopped on the Near North Side despite evidence of overbuilding. Developer James D. Letchinger won a favorable recommendation for a 23-unit building with 4,000 sf of first-floor retail space at the southeast corner of Dearborn and Maple streets.

Letchinger bought the property from Blake-Lamb funeral home. Financing is in place, he says, and construction will begin after some pre-sales.