ULI's Road to Recovery

It's going to get better, but it won't be as good as it was. Good news, bad news from ULI's speakers at Friday's monthly breakfast at the Union League Club.

Tracy Cross and Associates' Tracy Cross says that 301 different residential projects in the Chicago area are now on hold or owned by the bank. So, no new high rise condos in the foreseeable future, but the $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers has created a sense of urgency which may help the market. Tracy's hoping that benefits the Spire site, which he says is currently "a great swimming pool for the lemmings." (It's a giant circular hole, if you haven't been on the Drive lately.)

Connaught Real Estate Finance's Jim Dunne, Leopardo's Geno Mattioda and McShane Development Co.'s David Mazurek said there's not a lot going on, but they're chasing the deals that are out there. David specializes in industrial and land deals, but as of late, it's too hard to get financing to buy land or do spec building, so he's running after the few build-to-suit deals in the market.

Even the suburbs showed up with Berwyn Development Corp's Kurtis Pozgay and Evan Summers flanking PriceWaterhouseCoopers John Amman  and Andrew Alperstein. With the Wayne's World car kabob now removed from downtown Berwyn, the suburb is trying to re-create areas around Cermak Avenue with transit-oriented development. Evan, who is from Indiana, says everyone seems to know someone from Berwyn, so he's hoping to keep the town's kitsch factor alive even with new development.