WEST LOOP — The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t stopped developers from breaking ground on a new eight-story condo building at the southwest corner of Jackson Boulevard and Racine Avenue in the West Loop.
Called CA6, the project from Chicago-based Belgravia Group offers 72 for-sale residences with large, family-friendly layouts. Prices start around $835,000 for a three-bedroom condo and top-out at $1.6 million for four-bedroom duplexes on the building’s upper floors.
“We launched pre-sales roughly a year ago and sold 12 units within the first 30 days, and we have sold 31 out of 72 condos to date,” said Jon McCulloch, co-CEO of Belgravia Group. “With or without COVID, that would be a success story for us.”
The developer said the enthusiasm for the project is a product of its “great location” and pent-up demand for bigger, multi-bedroom condos in the West Loop. According to McCulloch, nearly half of the buyers already live within the 60607 zip code.
“We’ve seen family-oriented buyers as well as a nice mix of single people and empty-nesters looking to downsize,” he said.
Designed by Sullivan Goulette & Wilson, the building’s exterior will have a brick facade with distinctive arched-shaped entryways. Inside, each residence includes its own outdoor space and a dedicated office area — a feature that McCulloch said was included in the original plans but has become increasingly desirable in the work-from-home era.
The building also contains 75 parking spaces, a fitness room, and multiple lobbies that serve individual elevator vestibules. The layout eliminates the need for central corridors on residenital floors and provides greater privacy, McCulloch said.
The CA6 development replaces the demolished Hubbard Street Dance Center. In 2016, the world-renowned dance studio announced plans to cash out its West Loop property after 18 years in the neighborhood. Hubbard Street Dance is now looking for a new location, representatives said in an email.
Although the vast majority of recent residential developments in the West Loop have opted for rentals, CA6 is one of a handful of projects focusing on for-sale condos.
The Chicago City Council approved plans for a 15-story building with 58 condos at 19 N. May St. last fall. This month, developers presented plans for 80 high-end residences in a 19-story tower slated for 23 S. Sangamon St.
The first batch of residents will move into CA6 in the summer of 2022, and construction is expected to wrap up later that year.
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