New Construction in Albany Park is Reduced 25%: 3201 W. Leland
The listing for this new construction 2/2 in Leland Crossing at 3201 W. Leland in Albany Park says it has been reduced 25% from its original price.
The building was built a few years ago but the listing came on the market in February 2010.
First listed for $289,900 it has been reduced to $249,900.
The listing says 40% of the building is sold.
It is an elevator building with 45 units.
If you have to commute on the El, the location is top notch as it is literally right next to the El stop on Kedzie.
The units have 10 foot concrete ceilings and are “soft lofts”- meaning there is exposed ductwork.
The kitchens are what you would expect in new construction with stainless steel appliances and stone counter tops.
There is central air, washer/dryer in the unit and garage parking is available for $7500.
Is this a better deal than renting?
Deborah Hess at Conlon has the developer’s listings. See the pictures here.
Also, check out this YouTube video for more here.
Unit #203: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, no square footage listed (but I saw 1200 sq. ft. on another listing)
- Originally listed in February 2010 for $289,900
- Reduced several times
- Currently listed at $249,900 (plus $7500 for parking)
- Assessments of $226 a month
- Taxes are “new”
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- Bedroom #1: 13×11
- Bedroom #2: 13×10
Does it really need three different (and all ugly) exterior colors? My 8-year-old builds nicer looking buildings with his Legos.
yeah for 249 one could buy a two bedroom house in Albany park. why would one purposely get stuck in a 2/2 in a non popular area with gangs boundaries crossing?
can a “real” investor chime in here? i dont think rents in this area will cover carrying costs, why invest in it at this price?
This development has a bit of controversy surrounding it. Apparently a gym was supposed to open in it, but instead merely took people’s deposits and skipped out. Take a gander
http://chicago.everyblock.com/announcements/jun30-leland-crossing-information-4067086/
Am I the only person who is too dumb to navigate that website? I couldn’t find a photo gallery – just the one big picture. Anyway, I’ve actually always really liked this area- at least the area right to the east of here. However, this seems to be a troubled development and there is no way I would touch it at this price. Look how many developer units are still available.
empty units + empty storefront = new construction fail
If you’re going to live way out in Albany Park, you might as well get a SFH for similar money.
Also, I would avoid Albany Park. It’s one of those neighborhoods that I’ve always heard is on its way up, but never really gets better. I know people who live in the neighborhood and it’s been a bad experience.
On Conlon’s website, they have a GREAT map of the different areas in chicago (and you can click on each neighborhood and see what is on sale). I wish every agency would do this
Albany Park, like Roger’s Park, has a lot of low quality and high density rental units. there are decent pockets like mayfair, ravenswood, etc, but for the most part the area attracts a lot of lower income residents into rental housing. Some areas are just blocks and blocks of 80 year old four unit (3 upper, 1 basemetn) unit apartments packed onto 25 foot lots. Schools sucks, gangs are ever present. It may gentrify in time; and I think it eventually will, but its goign to be a slow process, and take a lot longer than many will choose to wait. I said it before, Albany Park has it’s fair share of homicides – but you know, naive morons on this site just dismiss homicides a few blocks away as City Livin’ ™!
It’s difficult to imagine that 40% of this building is sold when single family homes in this area go for the same price. Plus, people can buy a 2/2 in any (nicer) neighborhood in this city for about the same price with the same features. I don’t see the draw of Albany Park when just a few blocks north you can live in a nice/safe area in a single family home…. or go further south and live in a trendy area with lots of shops.
I understand that Albany Park can get dicey but this location is really right on the edge. Two blocks east of here and the houses are anything but low quality.Two blocks west, totally different story.
My point is just that the area isn’t all bad. I’ll agree that the price definitely does not reflect its “cuspy” nature however.
This is nuts. I can’t imagine these selling for anywhere near $200,000.
“40% of the building is sold”
Building is just asking for an underfunded condo reserve balance, contentious condo meetings and board/officers, etc. Who needs the headache? What’s better a 50 unit building or a 3 unit building? I’d take the smaller sized one and hope the Cheslers don’t move in.
I agree with Andy – just head a couple blocks east and a couple blocks south and the neighborhood is really lovely. Too bad they couldn’t build it next to the Francisco stop instead.
I do not understand the market for these units. Families won’t want them. Young professionals do not want to live that far out. Once you buy the unit you are going to be ‘stuck’ with it, since crazy double digit increases in value are no longer the norm.
This building seems doomed to be a rental.
I’ve driven past this building on many occasions wondering who would buy these units at those prices and am shocked that they haven’t gone rental yet.
This building looks like its straight out of Schaumburg
“This development has a bit of controversy surrounding it. Apparently a gym was supposed to open in it, but instead merely took people’s deposits and skipped out. Take a gander
http://chicago.everyblock.com/announcements/jun30-leland-crossing-information-4067086/”
There’s some other potentially relevant info on the everyblock discussion. (Also, good job keeping up with the blogging Icarus.)
Well, you ARE across the street from Noon y Kabob, one of the better Middle-Eastern restaurants on the North Side…
Ms. Hess and her husband used to own New Chicago Realty, whose specialty was finding “up and coming” neighborhoods and building trendy condo projects or single-family homes at prices that would attract affluent young buyers who were willing to take a chance on “getting in on the ground floor” of neighborhoods that would become more attractive to their peer group in a few years. By then the original buyers would have already benefited from “gentrification” and seen significant upswings in the appraisal values of their properties. This worked very well in parts of Rogers Park and Wicker Park/Bucktown; unfortunately not so well here. This building was readied for occupancy on the wrong side of the bubble even though I believe it had the added “bonus” of being nominated for a Chicago Board of Realtors Good Neighbor Award.
Remember, a decade ago it was assumed that “improvement” would keep edging westerly towards Albany Park because families would want to establish residency in time for their kids to qualify for the “magnet” high school on North Kedzie (with Von Steuben as the “fall-back” option). So don’t fault the developers/realtors for following what seemed at the time to be a rational course of action.
Thanks DZ, i’m trying to keep up with new content for my 2-3 readers. 🙂
@ChiTownGal, Roosevelt is the neighborhood default high school. Von Stueben was magnet when I went there and I think it is still so today. Which goes to show that CPS HS do follow trends. When I went there it was a very good high school, but every adult I ran into remembered how bad its rep was in the 70s. After I left it slowly deteriorated but according to some teacher friends, it has reclaimed it’s academic excellence.
I’ll hang up now and wait for Chris M to provide his teacher-wife’s input on that one.
“I’ll hang up now and wait for Chris M to provide his teacher-wife’s input on that one.”
Hah–don’t know too much about Von Steuben. Word is that it’s decent but nowhere near as desirable as the elite 4 or Lane Tech.
“Von Stueben was magnet when I went there and I think it is still so today.”
hahaaha i went there also for two years small world
“Some areas are just blocks and blocks of 80 year old four unit (3 upper, 1 basemetn) unit apartments packed onto 25 foot lots.”
In Chicago we call those “3 flats”. And neighborhoods full of them are hardly remarkable, many of us grew up in them. In any event I think that neighborhood is OK. That it’s unattractive to dipsticks is a virtue.
Oldman, you moreso than anyone else on this board, should be aware of the changes that have occurred in these high density low income neighborhoods in the 50 years since you lived there.
Yes, they are three flats, with garden units, some of them have been illegally converted into 7 or eight unit buildings.