Condos Swaped for Apartments and Aloft Hotel
In a move that seems to be reflecting the current market trends, developer Roszak/ADC has decided to change the course of a project already well underway on Clark Street and Oak Avenue. In 2004 they began construction on the Sienna, which is a two building project with about 120 condos. Now, instead of finishing the development with the other two buildings that would have contained another 136 condos, Roszak is going to put up an apartment building with 70 units and an Aloft hotel that will house 111 units.
Condo sales have declined over the past year with no sure rebound in sight for the near future. On the other side of the market, apartment rents have seen a steady rise along with demand for hotel suites. According to figures released by developer Roszak, there is only a 4 percent vacancy rate for apartments in Evanston, making the decision to switch from condos to rental units even more tempting. The financing for the new project could be in place soon and ground broken on the site by this coming spring.
The original building design for the once would-be condominium will stay the same, just be contain apartments instead. The option of flipping them to condos for sale at some future point is not out of the question and many other rental towers have done the same thing in the past when the markets have turned. Sales of the now defunct condos hadn’t reached 50 percent and those who had purchased a condo will either be refunded or offered a unit in the second tower of Sienna.
It will be interesting to see if apartment towers and hotel condos gain even more market share from New Home Construction in Chicago.
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