[Link N. Parker]

Back to the conversation about the new tower at Ashland and Division...I have more information.

A buddy of mine rented a unit there on Friday. He is the 18th person to sign a lease. So the building is approx. 20% rented after only being open for one week...not bad. I do think the building will lease quickly. He is paying $2000/mth for a 6th floor "2 bedroom" unit; not bad. One thing not mentioned on their website, is that they have a fixed-rate "bundled utility package" which covers electricity, heat/cooling, cable, water, gas, sewage etc. ALL utilities are covered in the fixed-rate price, which by the way is paid directly to the landlord along with the rent (which is a great perk, because now you dont have to pay individual utility bills to different vendors every month - you just make one easy payment along with the rent, to the landlord and they handle the rest). Also, like I mentioned, its a FIXED rate for the life of the lease...his utility cost is $130/month fixed, meaning he can heat/cool his unit on demand without worrying about the bill the next month. That is fantastic. I guess some of the newer buildings are going with this setup.

Also - based on what he told me, he does think that the average renters are people who are late 20's thru late 40's...people with established careers who want to live and work in the city. Loop-based IT workers, finance workers, etc. Recall the "bike psycho" we talked about...when I think of a bike psycho, I think of 23 year olds with tattoos who participate in Critical Mass. I think that the idea was this building was going to be marketed to that segment, and I love that group of people (I love bicycling myself) but I am not sure that demographic can afford this building. It is a fantastic project, but the units are somewhat pricey. There are only a handful of units that are under $1900 a month. The vast majority of the units are $2000 and up, and most of the 2-bedrooms are not truly 2-beds, they are "1 bed+den" type arrangements; the second bedroom does not have a door or a window. I am not sure how they are legally able to market those as 2-bedrooms. So this eliminates the ability to have a roomate in those floor plans (who wants to be a roomate in a scenario where you cant shut a door, get any privacy, or have a window?). The only true 2-bedom plan in the building, are the best units in the building, face the Northeast corner (fantastic view of Polish Triangle, I must admit) and most of those units are going for north of $3000 a month, and there are only 10 of those units available.