According to a press release related to the sale, the chief investment officer for BDT Capital Partners, Byron D Trott, said this about the sale:

“The Wrigley Building is an iconic Chicago asset in a premier Chicago location on Michigan Avenue and is a meaningful symbol of the city’s rich history and growth. We are committed to the success and re-development of this architectural treasure to ensure that it remains a vital part of Chicago’s future economic progress. Consistent with the business model of BDT Capital Partners, we are partnering with other family business and entrepreneurial leaders to preserve the long-term legacy of the Wrigley Building.”

And Reuben Gamoran, the Chief Financial Officer of the Wrigley Building, expressed a similar sentiment:

“It has been our commitment to secure new ownership for the Wrigley Building that will ensure its best possible future use and protect the building’s historic legacy. We are confident that we have found a new owner who shares that commitment and will ensure the Wrigley Building remains a dynamic part of Michigan Avenue while preserving its unique architecture and historic name.”

Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell also seem intent on maintaining the integrity of the historic building. The Groupon execs hope to see the building granted landmark status in the coming months, and they intend to remodel it without altering its historical character.

To learn more about similar real estate developments in Chicago, enter your information into the box on your right and an amazing Chicago real estate agent will contact you and answer any and all of your Chicago real estate questions.

Image credits: gothereguide.com

According to The Chicago Tribune, “Mayor Rahm Emanuel is down to two candidates for the top post at the Chicago Housing Authority, a job whose chief concern will be dealing with a stubbornly anemic real estate market that has hampered efforts to create vibrant mixed-income developments where crime-ridden high-rises once stood.”

“Those developments are the linchpin in the CHA’s $1.6 billion Plan for Transformation, launched in 1999 and now expected to be completed by 2015, five years past the original target date.”

Earlier this year, the former Chicago Housing Authority, Chief Lewis Jordan was forced to resign when a controversy arose over his use of his agency credit card. Shortly afterward, Emanuel offered Chicagoans a list of four potential replacements, and that list has since dwindled to two exceptionally qualified candidates (though he refuses to acknowledge who those candidates are).

Regardless of who Emanuel ultimately selects to helm the Chicago Housing Authority, we can safely assume that the next chief will do his or her best to help encouraged real estate growth in Chicago.

In the past, the Chicago Housing Authority has been particularly interested in improving mixed-income developments, and in all likelihood, the Authority will continue its endeavors to improve the quality of life in these mixed income neighborhoods.

The Authority has also focused on attracting middle-class couples and families to Chicago’s various neighborhoods, and it will likely continue to focus on this crucial demographic in the future.

According to the Chicago Housing Authority Chairman, “One of the big issues in public housing has always been that it’s just a concentration of poor folks, and what kind of models are the young people seeing? As they’re in (the mixed-income developments) and they see people getting up and going to work and they see people pursuing a career, they see people pursuing goals, that’s a vision that sticks and stays with them.”

We can only hope that the next Housing Authority chief will be more successful than his predecessor!

To find out more about real estate developments in Chicago, check out posts like this one and make sure to enter your information into the box on your right so that a rock star real estate agent can tell you everything there is to know about buying a home in Chicago.

The other differentating factor between this Frank Lloyd Wright home and the other five on the market throughout Chicagoland? It may still have Wright’s trademark octagonal spaces, but it has been recently renovated, unlike other Wright properties, by investors who have owned the property since 2004.

The Thomas Gale Home is referred to as a bootleg home, because Wright designed it even though he was forbidden to do outside work by his then employer Adler and Sullivan. Wright’s other moon-lighting gigs can be seen around Oak Park and the surrounding area, but this is the only one currently on the market.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Thomas Gale Home is currently listed at just over $1 million. Save thousands when you buy through us. Interested? Contact CondoDomain at 877-852-6636 today at to schedule a viewing and tour.

Photo: Zak Knebel

According to the data, the NAR reports that every single-family home sale generates $28,581 for the state. This is because buying a home is about more than just buying a home. Other expenses related to home buying and selling factor in too, including making repairs and improvements before listing a property as well as the buyer remodeling and furnishing their new home. Then there’s the fact that most buyers hire real estate attorneys as well as home inspectors and appraisers.

Would a housing tax incentive help the Illinois economy more than a casino?

The report also cites the bump the housing market received when the federal government provided a tax credit incentive to home buyers. A casino in Chicago may boost revenues by as much as $1 million, but providing a real estate incentive will be worthwhile for the Congress to look at too – for a short term lift and long term benefits.

With rents on the rise in Chicago this year, it’s never been a better time to buy.

But the news that people considering renting or buying should pay the most attention to? While the rental market is hot, hot, hot right now, it’s only hot for the landlords. All over the city, landlords are attempting to raise rents at exorbitant rates. After all, as more and more people start renting, they’re competing for space. With demand so high, landlords feel as if they can raise the rent with little complaint.

Throughout the country, rents are expected to increase five percent in 2011. This means, as much as in any time in recent memory, the people of Chicago are considering home ownership.

Groupon also announced that this IPO will likely be worth about $30 bullion. And, if that estimate is correct—as most financial experts believe it to be—then Groupon’s three co-founders and major shareholders will soon become some of the richest men in Chicago.

The first of these co-founders, Groupon chairman Eric Lefkofsky’s stock would be worth roughly $6.48 billion immediately after the IPO, and he would become the richest man in Chicago. Groupon founder and CEO Andrew Mason’s stock would be worth $2.31 billion. And Groupon co-founder Brad Keywell’s stock would be worth $2.07 billion.

This means that these three men could quickly become richer than any Wrigley, Pritzker or Crown still living in Chicago. They’d be richer than Oprah, too. And it remains to be seen what, exactly, they’d do with all that money.

Many financial experts seem to think that, as young, tech savvy professionals, they would invest the money in new, exciting tech ventures.

And many real estate experts believe that they would choose to invest at least some portion of their considerable income in real estate. They believe, specifically, that these young entrepreneurs will begin to buy up property in and around the Chicago area.

Many people also believe that these three men would donate a large portion of their incoming income to charities and non-profits. This belief seems particularly likely, as the co-founders have long had a history of charitable giving.

As of now, it’s impossible to know what Lefkofsky, Mason, and Keywell will do with their windfall income. Chicagoans can only hope that they will continue to invest their capital in Chicago, and that they will continue to donate some of their income to Chicago charities and non-profits.

For more information about Chicago’s wealthiest and most powerful players, check out this CondoDomain article.

Lincoln Park 2520 is just one of many new constructions in Chicago in 2011.

Chicago new construction contracts on the rise in 2011

[Chicago Real Estate Daily]

While the housing market is still slowly recovering, there is one market segment that is seeing an improvement so far in 2011. The number of local construction contracts for both residential and commercial buildings have been on the rise in the Chicago area during the four months of the year. From January through April, the cost of new contracts totaled $1.45 billion, representing a 14% increase over last year at this time.

These numbers bode well for the industry, but experts warn that the market is still recovering and that it needs more momentum before the housing market is truly out of the woods.

Other Top News:

Trend: Number of short sales on the market continues to rise [Benzinga]

General Growth Properties considers a street-level mall [Reuters]

Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry features the dream green home [Inman]

Announcement: Auction of 22 Chicago condominiums [PR Newswire]

Glut of foreclosures offer opportunity for buyers

[Chicago Now, Home Buying Institute,  Foreclosure News]

Nearly half of all mortgages in Chicago are underwater, according to Zillow. Chicago is also number five in the U.S. for the fastest falling home prices. These trends are all due to the rising amount of foreclosures on the market.

While this news isn’t the best for sellers, as it decreases overall real estate value, it is good for buyers, because it means that Illinois consumers can often get homes for 40% below the usual asking price, one of the highest discounts in the U.S. Many buyers and investors are recognizing this trend; after all, foreclosed homes made up 29% of all home sales in Illinois in the first quarter.

As a part of this, the number of foreclosures filed has definitely increased as well, rising to 150,000 filed in 2010, compared to 45,182 in 2009. Still, the amount of foreclosures is only expected to rise, because there are quite a few homes with a first lien and have been delinquent for 90-days. When this glut of foreclosed homes gets processed, there will be even more foreclosures on the market.

How have these foreclosures affected prices? Condominiums have seen the biggest drop in price, but single family homes have also decreased in price. Single-family homes are now at 2002 home value levels.

Other Top News:

Prices for Chicago condos, not single-family homes, fall to 2000 levels [Chicago Now]

Case-Shiller index points to double dip drop in home values [Chicago Tribune]

David Roeder suggests four different locations for the new Chicago casino [Chicago Sun Times]

Abandoned construction site at 434 W. Melrose [Curbed Chicago]

Chicago real estate similar to stock market: it’s a gamble [PRLog]

Demand for retail real estate on the rise [Biz Journals]

The EDRA conference was already in full swing when I arrived Thursday afternoon. Dozens of design professionals stood near the entrance of the Palmer House, laughing and talking about industry issues. Many more sat in the lobby, flipping through the various leaflets, pamphlets and scheduling booklets they’d been given—struggling to decide which presentation to visit next.

And what a struggle it was! There were no less than 47 group presentation sessions at the conference this year. There were also 23 symposium sessions, nine intensive sessions, two plenary sessions, several awards receptions, and one formal banquet—to top it all off.

Armed only with an EDRA scheduling book and a makeshift map of the hotel, I attempted to find my way, somewhat successfully, from session to session.

I wandered first into a presentation entitled “The Residential Experience of Rural Immigrants,” by Yushu Zhu. A native of China, Zhu was able to provide a firsthand account of life in a rural Chinese community. Her perspective was refreshing, and I enjoyed listening to her take on the rural immigrant experience.

Next, I made my way over to another floor of the hotel, where I caught two presentations about community gardens. One, by Rutgers professor Seiko Goto, was entitled “The Effects of Garden Design on Quality of Life.” The other, by PhD candidate Melissa Surratt, was entitled “Approaching the Community Garden: How Physical Characteristics Effect Impression.” Both presenters were well-spoken and well-researched. Both also seemed to stress the importance of aesthetics in urban planning.

Later in the afternoon, I ventured into a wing of the hotel that had been made into an impromptu poster display center. Titles like “Aesthetic Evaluations of Public Transport Shelters” and “Ethnography as a Design Tool: Reconsidering the Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club” caught my eye, but the posters were all engaging, and I learned a considerable amount about urban planning while reading them.

After studying a few dozen posters, however, I was a little fatigued. So I took a minute to drain a cup of coffee and devour a sugar cookie before I ventured into the last presentation I would attend that day, a symposium lecture entitled “Environmental Design Research: Bodies, Cities, and the Buildings in Between.” The symposium lecture was led by two professors: Professor Eleftherios Pavlides, of Roger Williams University; and Galen Cranz, of U.C. Berkeley. Pavlides and Cranz spoke to those assembled around them about the importance of environmentalism in design education.

Pavlides and Cranz wrapped up their presentation around 6:30 pm, and when I left them to make my way back home, I was exhausted but still engaged. I had learned more about environmental design and city planning in six hours than I would have thought possible. I was tired, yes. But I had also enjoyed every minute of my EDRA experience, and I would love to go back again.

“As the Pritzkers and so many others here can attest, if you love architecture there are few better places to live than in my hometown of Chicago. It is the birthplace of the skyscraper—a city filled with buildings and public spaces designed by architects like Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry, who is here tonight.

“In fact, the headquarters of our last campaign was in a building based on a design by Mies van der Rohe. And for two years, we crammed it full of hundreds of people working around the clock and surviving on nothing but pizza. I’m not sure if that’s what Mies had in mind, but it worked out pretty well for us.

“And that’s what architecture is all about. It’s about creating buildings and spaces that inspire us, that help us do our jobs, that bring us together, and that become, at their best, works of art that we can move through and live in. And in the end, that’s why architecture can be considered the most democratic of art forms.”

Obama went on to talk about the recipient of this year’s Pritzker Architecture Prize, Eduardo Souto de Moura. He also continued to talk about architecture in Chicago, going so far as to refer to the stadium Eduardo Souto de Moura designed in Braga, Portugal as a “Portugal’s version of Wrigley Field.”

A full copy of Obama’s speech can be found here. And more information about Chicago’s unique architectural landscape can be found here.