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Originally Posted by ardecila
Maybe? They have ornate lobbies, but the Loop leaves much to be desired as a place for wealthy individuals to live. There's no green space and no real grocery store. And those older buildings don't have any on-site parking, so it's difficult for residents to head to other neighborhoods for their needs. Generally in Chicago the wealthiest individuals will demand at least one, usually two parking spaces. No, I think the people to pioneer this area will be younger professionals and upper-middle class folks who don't mind putting up with some inconvenience for a short commute to work. In time the amenities will come.
I agree the old BofA building (Field Building) is the big test case. It's mostly empty, it's landmarked so they can't tear it down, and the wedding-cake shape of the building is not a terrible fit for residential uses. If they can get a grocery store to take a big chunk of the 1st floor, then we're off to the races.
FiDi in NYC managed to grow a crop of residential buildings and conversions, I guess... they should study how that happened. Not sure if we can replicate that in Chicago or not.
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I think it depends on what part of the Loop. If you're talking anywhere east of Dearborn, I think young professionals are probably the best demographic to get on board, though it's already been happening to some extent (COVID notwithstanding).
On LaSalle, I think they could market these to North Shore residents who want a pied-à-terre close to Loop offices and maybe cultural amenities like the Art Institute, Broadway in Chicago, etc or businesspeople who need a permanent spot in the city but don't count it as their primary residence. Grocery stores might be less important where they're eating every dinner out in the West Loop, Printers Row, etc. Maybe this is a small niche but I could see developers targeting these demos for the very first projects.
I'd be on the young professional side of this coin and only live a few blocks away from the LaSalle corridor, though I'm not sure I'd want to live there full-time until a few of these developments are in place.