CHICAGO | Highrise Projects & Construction, v7

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

speaking of Ogden/Fulton area, does anyone know whats happening with the La Luce building? i remember there was the impending demolition a couple years ago, and the auction of its contents, and then nothing happened. im hoping its been saved somehow (or the non-existent "plan" of the new owner fell through), but curious what the deal is.

I spoke to the owner about it. He doesn't want to see it demolished because his dad and him renovated the whole thing themselves. But he has an unrealistic idea of what the land is worth and actually vacated the street in front of the building so essentially it's in the middle of the site where the only way you could build something would be to tear it down. Very stupid situation, I offered to buy it but he thinks it's worth like $8 million or something which is absurd.

One of those situations that's so fucked up that there is a low chance of it actually being demolished. There are still tenants upstairs so its safe from that persepctive for now.

[harryc]

Dec 7



Dec 12

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

I spoke to the owner about it. He doesn't want to see it demolished because his dad and him renovated the whole thing themselves. But he has an unrealistic idea of what the land is worth and actually vacated the street in front of the building so essentially it's in the middle of the site where the only way you could build something would be to tear it down. Very stupid situation, I offered to buy it but he thinks it's worth like $8 million or something which is absurd.

One of those situations that's so fucked up that there is a low chance of it actually being demolished. There are still tenants upstairs so its safe from that persepctive for now.

curious what you mean by they vacated the street in front. are you implying theres a narrow perimeter to the property they no longer own?

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

curious what you mean by they vacated the street in front. are you implying theres a narrow perimeter to the property they no longer own?

Vacating a street or alley means you own all the land around it and can petition the city to sell the right of way to you. For example, Cinespace just did this to all of Rockwell, 15th Street, 15th Place, and 16th Street within their complex so they can build a true Backlot sound stage on them:

https://www-timeout-com.cdn.ampproject.o...-studio-backlot-in-north-lawndale-042018

There is a half block fragment of Loomis in front of La Luce between the building and the triangle parking lot on Ogden. They apparently vacated that street and own the land under the road now meaning they can literally rip it out and tear down the building to create a lot for a much larger structure fronting ogden.

Also worth noting that Bad Axe axe throwing opened behind La Luce which is another good sign that they are renting it out to paying tenants for now instead of planning demo.

[BonoboZill4]

The Mill:



Gr333n:

[The Lurker]

Wow. The Mill is flying

[Zapatan]

WPE glass is just awesome

This may seem like a silly question but what tactic do developers use to measure market demand (residential primarily, but office too)? Are they just recording sales numbers of other projects?

What exactly determines a cycle finishing?

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

WPE glass is just awesome

This may seem like a silly question but what tactic do developers use to measure market demand (residential primarily, but office too)? Are they just recording sales numbers of other projects?

What exactly determines a cycle finishing?

Developers use whatever public and non-public information they can gather. A lot of it is intuitive and being connected enough to hear rumblings of impending doom or potential boom before everyone else. Real Estate is the most information sensitive business there is. It's the only market in which insider trading is not only legal, but encouraged, actually core to the business. I make money by knowing what deals are available and or closing and for what prices before anyone else does.

I am hearing a lot of pain from the SFH and flipper markets in particular. I know of at least a few guys who are just sitting on unsold inventory despite dropping prices. No major reports of softening demand for multifamily yet. We will see next year when all the supply coming online downtown dumps on the market what happens there. Ironically I think rising interest rates and home prices have created an even tighter multifamily market as more and more tenants who might otherwise become homeowners in this strong economy are unable to afford or unwilling to shell out for these prices at these rates.

[Leveled]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Developers use whatever public and non-public information they can gather. A lot of it is intuitive and being connected enough to hear rumblings of impending doom or potential boom before everyone else. Real Estate is the most information sensitive business there is. It's the only market in which insider trading is not only legal, but encouraged, actually core to the business. I make money by knowing what deals are available and or closing and for what prices before anyone else does.

I am hearing a lot of pain from the SFH and flipper markets in particular. I know of at least a few guys who are just sitting on unsold inventory despite dropping prices. No major reports of softening demand for multifamily yet. We will see next year when all the supply coming online downtown dumps on the market what happens there. Ironically I think rising interest rates and home prices have created an even tighter multifamily market as more and more tenants who might otherwise become homeowners in this strong economy are unable to afford or unwilling to shell out for these prices at these rates.

Insider trading in real estate should be illegal.

[10023]

Originally Posted by Leveled

Insider trading in real estate should be illegal.

Why? Or rather how?

It’s not a liquid asset and it takes a long time for transactions can be consummated. As a result, everyone in the market is aware of what assets are for sale and at what price. It’s just like the market for buying and selling businesses.

Even if you somehow didn’t allow private sales and forced disclosure of the price at which every real estate transaction completed, you couldn’t force disclosure of price expectations or unaccepted bids. So people who are in the flow will always know more than anyone else.

[emathias]

This is a couple years old, but I don't remember ever seeing it posted here. It's a master electrician showing one of the full-floor condos in 4 E Elm from somewhere around the 20th floor or so - man it has some awesome views!

• Video Link

[PittsburghPA]

I drove past 845 W Madison and wow...they wasted ZERO time. That is an extremely busy site and cured concrete columns are already visible from the street.

I wish I could have gotten a few pictures but didn't have a chance to stop.

[kolchak]

Today:

[OhioGuy]

^ Has there been any word yet which commercial entity (entities?) will be taking over the ground floor retail space? The renderings had shown a market, which left me hoping for a Trader Joe’s to finally open this far north (current closest being the TJ’s on Lincoln Ave just north of Addison).

[Busy Bee]

^More of this, a little bit taller and a little less bulky is what Chicago needs spread all over the place.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by Leveled

Insider trading in real estate should be illegal.

Lol, this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. If I'm a big business moving into an area why on earth would I want to disclose that and cause speculators to drive up prices before I can acquire the other properties I need? Real Estate is not stocks, there is no group of shareholders reliant on me to disclose things in a uniform and fair manner. If I go to a factory owner and want to buy his building and he wants to sell it to me, why should anyone else be involved? Why would we want anyone else to be involved?

The biggest issue with this is that it's impossible for there not to be insider trading. And by this I mean there is wayyyyy too much unique information on each property to ever uniformly disseminate it. A stock is a piece of paper, it has the same rights and value as every other share. One of the defining features of real estate is that literally every parcel is slightly different in terms of location, improvements, size, shape, grade, etc etc. How would you ever possibly capture and quantify all that data? For example I just did a deal on a 100,000 SF old 🞵🞵🞵 warehouse, the amount of data I needed to gather just to get that sale closed was immense and took 6+ months. I needed two rounds of environmental reports (one was 500+ pages, the other 800+ pages), surveys which showed encroachments and easements, had to have leases in hand with tenants, had to get contractor bids, had to examine structural damage from roof leaks, needed to meet with the local politicians to make sure they were OK with my proposed use, had to check local zoning laws, needed to check the taxes, had to get architects involved, etc etc.

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Developers use whatever public and non-public information they can gather. A lot of it is intuitive and being connected enough to hear rumblings of impending doom or potential boom before everyone else. Real Estate is the most information sensitive business there is. It's the only market in which insider trading is not only legal, but encouraged, actually core to the business. I make money by knowing what deals are available and or closing and for what prices before anyone else does.

I am hearing a lot of pain from the SFH and flipper markets in particular. I know of at least a few guys who are just sitting on unsold inventory despite dropping prices. No major reports of softening demand for multifamily yet. We will see next year when all the supply coming online downtown dumps on the market what happens there. Ironically I think rising interest rates and home prices have created an even tighter multifamily market as more and more tenants who might otherwise become homeowners in this strong economy are unable to afford or unwilling to shell out for these prices at these rates.

I had no idea insider trading was legal in this real estate business. Not sure how I feel about that honestly. But it sounds like the means to measure real estate demand could be vastly improved though.

When you say multifamily I assume you mean houses and not condos. Some of Chicago's most exciting upcoming projects are condos but I worry they'll never see the light of day if the market has been oversaturated. This cycle has still been good though, no doubt

[killaviews]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

^More of this, a little bit taller and a little less bulky is what Chicago needs spread all over the place.

More of this PERIOD.

This is a redevelopment of an existing underutilized office build.
https://www.uptownupdate.com/2018/03/cedar-streets-redevelopment-of-5050-n.html

I don’t think they announced any retail tenants yet.

[k1052]

Originally Posted by The Lurker

Wow. The Mill is flying

It's already getting glass now too. Didn't have time to take a pic.

[Skyguy_7]

^I noticed the glass yesterday, which was very nice looking. Also, the portion going up now is curtain wall, I believe.