Tuesday, November 14, 2017

November 14, 1964 -- First Condominium High-Rise in City Fills Up



November 14, 1964 – The Chicago Tribune reports that the city’s first “skyscraper condominium,” [Chicago Tribune, November 14, 1964] at 339 Barry Avenue is nearly 50 percent sold out.  Jack Hoffman, the president of F & S Construction Company, the developer of the property, says, “Thirty condo homes of the 67 in the building have been sold to date, with families moving in at the rate of two a week.”  The $2.5 million reinforced concrete building’s 26 stories overlook Lincoln Park and Lake Michigan and lists units from less than $25,000 for a one-bedroom, one-bath apartment on the third floor to $58,000 for a four-bedroom three-bath unit on the twenty-fifth floor.  Hoffman says, “We find that about half of the owners are fairly young families who previously rented but who now want to build an equity through ownership while the other half are former home owners who want ownership without the bother of keeping up a house.”  That twenty-fifth floor today?  A three-bedroom unit on the floor sold on April 13, 2017 for $715,000.


November 14, 1978 – Architect Harry Weese introduces his $90 million plan for Wolf Point Landings, a development that will fill “a strategic gap in the development of the city.”  [Chicago Tribune, November 15, 1978]  The center of the project will be the renovation of the North American Cold Storage Building with the addition of two new residential structures on a six-acre site just to the north with amenities that include a 40-boat marina, a riverside boardwalk, and a public park.  The plans call for 776 owner-owned residential units in the three buildings with a total of 1,771,000 square feet of living space.  Projected prices for units in the renovated cold storage building are expected to run from $55,000 to $110,000 with a completion date of 1980.  Completion of the two towers, Kinzie Terrace and Wolf Tower, is expected sometime during 1981.  Weese says of the project, “Wolf Point Landings is designed to fill a void, a place where you can walk to work and enjoy the environment.”  Fulton House, as it is known today, is shown in the above photo as it looked in 1976 when it was the North American Cold Storage Warehouse. 

No comments:

Post a Comment