If They Build It, You Will Buy It: A 6-Flat At 1510 W. Cortez In West Town
The north side neighborhoods aren’t the only place where new construction is going up.
This contemporary 6-flat at 1510 W. Cortez in West Town came on the market in November 2012.
Half the units have already sold. Here are the units:
- #1E: 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 1 car parking, listed at $499,900
- #1W: 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 1 car parking, sold in November 2012 for $499,900
- #2E: 2/2 sold in November 2012 for $408,000
- #2W: 2/2 sold in November 2012 for $419,900
- #3E: 4 bedroms, 3 baths, penthouse with rooftop deck, 2 car parking, under contract listed at $699,900
- #3W: 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, penthouse with rooftop deck, 2 car parking, listed at $699,900
The units have floor to ceilings windows and modern finishes.
The kitchens are white and dark wood Euro-style with Italian cabinets and quartz counter tops. The bathrooms are porcelain.
With half the units already having sold or under contract, is that a sign that demand has returned at this price point in West Town?
Beata Gaska at Sergio & Banks has the listings.
See some of the pictures here.
Dude, Sweet Brah! I can walk to Porn & Fried Chicken at Evil Olive every week from this location…
This is actually a nice little pocket of town with nice homes and condos pretty much everywhere, only problem for families is the school situation, but other than that its a pretty nice area, so no surprise some new modern construction there is selling.
I have a strong distaste for winder treads (photo 3), especially in new construction. From photos 12 and 14, I don’t see any reason why they were necessary.
When the pictures are computer drawn images, why don’t they add furniture? wouldn’t that make the place look better?
” From photos 12 and 14, I don’t see any reason why they were necessary.”
(assuming all pix of the same unit) Looks like the front door is just to the left of the bottom of the stairs.
Nice place, great big spaces, good location, spectacular rooftop views… its easy to see why they are selling quickly.
GROSS AND IMPERSONAL SPACE> I HATE THESE.
these type of buildings — high-ish end, no doorman, not terrible neighborhood but not the best — i think of as any smart criminals’ bread and butter.
tiny bit of surveillance and they’ll know when you’re home and when you’re normally gone for hours on end.
they can quite easily get off the sidewalk and into the building, whether it be by a lazy neighbor who buzzes someone up, or just following someone in, talking their way in.
then, quite likely, they’re free to take their crowbar out and jimmy the door open in complete privacy.
jmho…always the first thing i think of when i see these nice X-flat type places — crime…particularly theft.
Well there’s likely 5+ more more witnesses here than with a single family home, not to mention most of these places put security cameras in the front foyer area for a relatively low cost. I’d feel a lot safer here in a 6 flat than in a SFH on the same block
Nothing says you’ve made it in Chicago more than a Cortez Street address…
“these type of buildings — high-ish end, no doorman, not terrible neighborhood but not the best — i think of as any smart criminals’ bread and butter.”
Yeah, the Everyblock chatter for these East Village/UkrV hoods isn’t that pretty. One would be better off in River West on the east side of the Kennedy, lots less crime. Who is responsible for the petty theft and burglary work in East Village? Is it the hispanics or the blacks in the projects along the east side of Milwaukee north of Augusta? It’s sure not the Polish Roman Catholic Union types doing the crime.
This isn’t too far from that place near Ashland and Chicago Ave. that everyone was ripping on not too long ago. There is zilch to walk to from the subject location, and if you’re commute is from the Blue Line at the Division/Ashland/Milwaukee intersection, that’s just downright depressing. I’ve said it before….not going to say it all again, about the pigeon dung, bums, etc. I dislike that intersection even more than Nelson Algren did.
sonies, i don’t think you’re thinking this through…there’s not 5+ more witnesses. there’s 5 other witnesses who’d all have their door shut and have no clue someone was even in the building. and again, with a bit of homework, you’d know when half or more of the building would be gone. so, even less potential witnesses.
then once you’re past the front buzz-door, and your intention is to break in to someone’s house, well if someone is in the hallway — you don’t break in…you come back another day.
whereas if you’re breaking into a SFH you have no way of definitively knowing if someone is watching you or not. cops could be called before you even get the door open. i’m just saying…with a 4 flat type building you can just about eliminate that risk.
as for cameras….don’t get me started. especially ones that aren’t even monitored in real time. cameras aren’t going to stop anything. you’ll hand the video to the cop and that will be the last you’ll ever hear of it.
should they all have alarm systems? Why wouldn’t the yuppie use it when they leave for work or running errands?
I think it’s the garages that are sitting ducks in East Village.
“There is zilch to walk to from the subject location, and if you’re commute is from the Blue Line at the Division/Ashland/Milwaukee intersection, that’s just downright depressing.”
Ummm… have you heard of division street? businesses have been moving further east over the years… carriage house? bangers and lace? anthem?
also, milwaukee is a little sketchy but has been improving… frontier, kin, lovely bake shop… i wouldn’t call that zilch…
old_hickory, I know for a fact that exactly what you described used to occur on this very block. 2 blocks, really, since it stretches from Ashland to a cul de sac at Milwaukee (at Noble) without a break. There used to always be trouble on the street if you wanted it. Break-ins were not uncommon, and nobody hanging out ever saw or heard a thing (alarms included.) This was definitely a gentrification battleground. I haven’t been over there for a while, so I don’t know if the inevitable defeat of the locals has been completed yet.
This street has been very unsafe recently. I have a friend who walked away from a house on this same block after several break ins and and rampant vandalism. The final straw was his security camera catching two men walking down the sidewalk with bandannas over there faces and guns in their hands around midnight, mid week.
Sonies – you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. The schools are a problem but the crime is worse. I live on the 1500 block of Cortez and we have been suffering from a rash of gang shootings, drug dealing in the last year, and probably aren’t far away from the blue camera. There are a number of problem houses as well as the local street drunks who roam Cortez and our surrounding alleys. Ask any 13th district copper about this area and they’ll laugh. So to say this is a nice pocket is an overstatement and I’d recommend nobody buy on Cortez. Too late for me and others but there’s a long history (google and you’ll find it) on this block.
These new construction 3rd floor walk-ups always amaze me that they ever find a buyer. Seems like the bulk of the prospective buyers are married couples. The wife always knixes the deal because there’s no elevator for the baby & kid related stuff that needs to be carried up and down.
I could eat @ Podhalanka every night! SOLD!
I know of 2 people who lived in the immediate area of this place (within 2 blocks of here) who had break-ins and moved out soon after as a result. It’s better to live further west on the other side of Ashland for sure.
I may have been confusing this area with the nice area on paulina between chicago and division and west of there, also I had some friends who lived south of chicago around 1500w and it was ok, not horrid, so apparently this is a problem block and I retract my statement
“The final straw was his security camera catching two men walking down the sidewalk with bandannas over there faces and guns in their hands around midnight, mid week.”
i’m sure more laws and cameras could prevent this.
If you take a look at the crime map… no major crimes have happened on that block in the last month:
http://crime.chicagotribune.com/chicago/community/west-town
Ashok – yes, no major crimes. Great.
It was only a fall and summer full of shootings in broad day light along Cortez and the alleys running east/west on the north and south sides of the street. The police BBQ (titled Smoke Out) that was held in the middle of the street with gang bangers video taping the crowd tells you enough.
“no major crimes have happened on that block in the last month”
Not sure what you’re looking at, but zoom in and I see about 4-5 Property Crimes and a few Violent Crimes all within Cortez and the Blue Line stop/areas you’d probably be walking around if you lived there.
Those 2/2 prices are much higher than I would have expected. With a garage space included, I would have guessed $375K. Am I off my rocker here or are these buyers insane?
“Not sure what you’re looking at, but zoom in and I see about 4-5 Property Crimes and a few Violent Crimes all within Cortez and the Blue Line stop/areas you’d probably be walking around if you lived there.”
It’s not bad for a month… A lot of that was criminal damage to cars parked on Ashland. Who knows what that was (hit and run, side swipe?)… and there were some thefts around division… but most were really late at night… doesn’t this happen in lincoln park as well?
@oldhickory
You seem very down on this neighborhood, vehemently so, is there a reason? I can see why you would say, I don’t want to live here, you shouldn’t, but just wondering why you so strongly feel against it? I live in the hood (and am not selling my place anytime soon) and agree that there were some issues with a certain house on Cortez, some of the issues you mention are ancient and some are new.
Oh but wait, who said, at the smoke out, the gangbangers were filming? Please elaborate on this claim.
It’s not exactly a gentrification experiment these days, Frontier and Butcher & Larder, and the prices the new construction (and some older condos here) are getting, uptick.
It’s just another Chicago neighborhood where people are getting along.
[Jeff] “These new construction 3rd floor walk-ups always amaze me that they ever find a buyer. Seems like the bulk of the prospective buyers are married couples. The wife always knixes the deal because there’s no elevator for the baby & kid related stuff that needs to be carried up and down.”
Because two flights of stairs is such a pain in the ass.
If you hit the “historic trends” tab from Ashok’s link, looks like West Town crime is trending down. Of course, it started out really high. My neighbors on Huron told me there used to be three crack houses across the street where now there are 800-900K homes.
http://crime.chicagotribune.com/chicago/community/west-town
Valbie, I agree – I think it’s fine to talk about crime but let’s not do fearmongering.
Qwerty and Ahsok, were you at the Smoke Out?
“Because two flights of stairs is such a pain in the ass.”
It is when you have a 30 pound toddler squirming in your arms. It is when you’re bringing groceries home. It is when you have to leave the stroller in the foyer because there’s no way you’re bringing it up and down those stairs every time (the ones I love are when the stroller is actually left OUTSIDE because there aren’t big enough foyers. Hilarious.)
In Manhattan, units in brownstones actually sell for less than doormen buildings because people don’t want to walk up the stairs.
“It is when you have a 30 pound toddler squirming in your arms. It is when you’re bringing groceries home.”
sorry i have to disagree with you.
Our friends in jeff park live in a third floor walk up with a kid. never a complaint from them, i have seen my wife lug our kid and their kid up thier stairs and a bag full of apples without a problem. (i know what your thinking, i was unavailable to help as i was lugging an armoire up those stairs right behind her.
this is the reason there are so many fat azz lazy people in this country, cause the thought of going up and down stairs is a horrible activity thrust upon them for all they have done wrong in a previous life.
i’m vehemently against the neighborhood? someone else thinks i’m fear mongering? based on what statements?
this is a place for conversation. opinions. i stated one about 4/6 flats, not about this particular neighborhood. i didn’t say “I’d never live here! Crime is outrageous!!”
my main point was just pointing out a security problem with 4/6 flat buildings that only have a buzzer on the door. that’s it.
i never said i wouldn’t live in a place like this. however, if i did, i would take on the extra expense of a reinforced front/back door.
“Qwerty and Ahsok, were you at the Smoke Out?”
Why is a smoke out another name for a BBQ, but a steak out has nothing to do with food?
*ponder*
Yes I know I didn’t spell stake properly
“Ummm… have you heard of division street? businesses have been moving further east over the years… carriage house? bangers and lace? anthem?
also, milwaukee is a little sketchy but has been improving… frontier, kin, lovely bake shop… i wouldn’t call that zilch…”
How about Planned Parenthood, next to a liquor & cigs store that caters to the blacks across the street, and the Occult bookstore, don’t forget that tattoo parlor with a sign that says: “Tattoo and Tatoo removal”. How can every just dismiss the massive housing project on the east side of Milwaukee? crap area. The old Polish Broadway on Division Street, west of Ashland is too far away from the subject location to be considered in the same context. How about that hipster bar “Moonshine” that kitty-corner to a grade school? A bunch of drunk, oblivious hipsters….they don’t even notice the school is there. I know a guy who pulled all the old wiring out of the conduit from Corosh when it closed (before Frontier rehab) and he said all the conduit was filled with dead roaches. Hate to say that, but that’s what he told me, I have no reason to make that up, and I’m not. Plus that stretch of Ashland just west of Cortez used to have a stretch of perverted massage parlors, that got closed down by the cops.
http://www.naughtyreviews.com/massage-parlors/rose-spa-chicago
http://www.rubmaps.com/chicago-massage-parlors-il
Yes I was at the 13th district “smoke out?” Are you asking to learn more or hoping to discredit? I was there from start to finish with our beat officers from days and nights. As for my initial statement the individuals from one of the problems houses stood in their front porch w a video camera and taped those who came to meet with the police. They later moved the camera, on tripod, to a 2nd floor window. This was purely an intimidation attempt.
Listen – the gun violence on Cortez has been very bad in the last 6 months. If you live there, on the block, you know this. Do I think it’s a bad place to live? No. I live here and enjoy it; however, it’s not what I would call a “quiet” street. And it’s not about gentrification as if it was I’d probably be viewed as someone who would be moving rather than staying. If you have other questions show up at a CAPS meeting or join the neighborhood block group. In the interim stop being naive – you’re a developers dream.
“Plus that stretch of Ashland just west of Cortez used to have a stretch of perverted massage parlors, that got closed down by the cops.”
helmethofer seems to have a deep knowledge of these massage parlors.. you must have been super bummed when they got shut down… anyway, for the record the place to the east is not a project. it’s a co-op…
@Qwerty, just looking for information. I was looking out the window at the beginning of the “smoke out” and was sorry I had an engagement and couldn’t attend. I hadn’t heard about the video taping.
more fear mongering?
http://www.suntimes.com/news/17333079-418/chicago-closes-2012-with-506-homicides-three-fatal-shootings-so-far-this-year.html
“Octavius Dontrell Lamb, 20, was shot in the throat in the 700 block of North Noble around 3:45 a.m. Tuesday. Lamb was pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital at 4:16 a.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.”
this was, apparently, a kid walking home from his late night restaurant job.
shot in the throat. in the middle of West Town.
crime is down!
I live on this block, have for the past 3 years.
I never got the impression that it was sketchy until last October or so. I started hearing gun shots, heard about the Frontier shooting, saw the gang logos appearing and I’ve seen/heard sketchy people on the block at night for sure. The other week I was coming home from Five Star and, thankfully, had actually driven there and back. My boyfriend, his friend and I had just parked the car and were walking to my apartment when we hear these guys excitedly talking about calling the cops. Apparently they had almost been mugged by these 2 guys who had threatened to shoot them in the face. The guys decided to not take it and call the cops and the thugs took off.
Listen, I live right across from the building in this article. Its beautiful. And I feel ABSOLUTELY terrible for the people who bought it. I’ve seen some of them and it appears that at least one of the families has kids. They should have found a place elsewhere. The muggings, shots being fired and gang activity are terrible and why I am moving out.