The Vista Tower is moving right along and will one day change the face of Chicago, and especially the New Eastside.
Last weekend, workers on the site poured the concrete mat that will one day form the lowest point in the supertall skyscraper.
Read more here at Curbed Chicago.
Plans for a large West Loop apartment development have broken cover and it could bring hundreds of new residents to the booming neighborhood.
The plan, proposed by the John Buck Company Lendlease, and from GREC Architects, would bring 586 new residences, 14 of which would be townhouses, and 10,000 square feet of retail space to the former site of the H20 Plus Company building at 845 W. Madison.
This proposal was changed from a previous version by eliminating 41 units and it's been tweaked to decrease its visual impact from the nearby Mary Bartelme Park.
Read more on the project at Curbed Chicago here.
After a joint venture fell apart last year, it looks like a buyer has emerged that plans to build what amounts to an entire new neighborhood on the south lakefront.
US Steel is selling their former South Works site (the plant closed in 1992), a 430 acre piece of vacant land on the far South Side. A joint venture between Barcelona Housing Systems and WELink is buying the site and plans to build up to 12,000 new homes there.
Read more about the latest plan at Curbed Chicago here.
Real estate investors shouldn't necessarily hold their breath, but they should watch carefully to see how the new administration in Washington handles the popular tax deferral program known as the 1031 exchange.
Named after a section in the tax code, a 1031 exchange allows real estate investors to defer the tax on capital gains for real estate investments when they swap on asset for a "like kind" investment. That means, for example, selling a two-flat and buying a six-flat, or even purchasing a commercial property.
In such an exchange, the seller/buyer can realize the gains from a sale and roll it over into a purchase without paying taxes that would otherwise be due. It's an important program for many investors large and small and could mean a major change in real estate investing if Congress eliminates the exemption.
Read more on this issue at the Chicago Tribune here.
The South Side neighborhood of Woodlawn is starting to receive a lot of attention.
The long-overlooked community won the 2016 Curbed Cup for Chicago, a reader poll that pits neighborhoods against each other in terms of popularity and development, and now a real estate developer is preparing to break ground on a series of single family homes.
Greenline Development is planning an $8.8 million project that would construct seven green single family homes on land that was owned by the city at the intersection of Marquette Road and Dorchester Avenue. When completed, they're expected to list for $389,900. They're fairly unique in the city, as they'll be closer to the city's median home price than much of what we're seeing in development, which is primarily geared toward the higher-end buyer.
Read more on the development at DNAinfo Chicago here.