University Village opens 219-unit phase

If you haven't been to the Near West Side lately, as the saying goes, you haven't been to the Near West Side. The change is perhaps most dramatic driving down Halsted south of Roosevelt Road, where the University Village development has brought new stores, condos, townhouses dormitories and more to a vintage streetscape that hadn't changed much in the previous 50 years.

The $600 million mixed-use project has just opened its newest phase, University Village East, planned for the east side of Halsted, across the street from earlier phases that are virtually sold out.

The new phase includes 36 single-family homes, 31 townhouses and 152 condominiums in three-story walk-up buildings, according to Larry D. Justice, project manager for the South Campus Development Team. The project is a joint venture of Mesirow Stein Real Estate, the Harlem Irving Companies and New Frontier Companies.

At press time, fewer than half a dozen of the 661 units in the planned community's first phases remained for sale, priced from about the $360s to the $470s. The first phases proved popular with buyers, according to sales director Kathy Ryan, of New West Realty, exclusive sales agent for the development, partly because of the central location and competitive pricing. The latest phase, however, offers something not present so far in the community: detached single-family homes.

"The single-family homes are new to the mix, and they've been very successful," says University Village sales director Kathy Ryan, of New West Realty, exclusive sales agent for the development. "We started selling 89 units total in the first phase of University Village East, and of the 12 single-family homes offered, we sold eight in the first week. Most of those buyers were people who live here and want to stay. It's going to be very nice, with a private rose garden, a playground, a dog park. There's a lot of green space."

The single-families have four to six bedrooms and 3.5 baths, priced from from $1.1 million to $1.3 million. Townhouses at University Village East have two or three bedrooms and two or three baths, priced from the $580s to the $760s. Condos and duplex condos have one to three bedrooms and one or two baths, priced from the $210s to the $590s.

Like the first phase, University Village East will include a variety of open spaces and retail, according to Ted Mazola, a partner in New West Realty.

"University Village's first two phases are dotted with pocket parks and an interconnecting green necklace of useable greenways, similar to a mini Burnham Plan," Mazola said. "This greenery also will wind through the new University Village East neighborhood, filling it with leafy trees and parks."

In addition to these amenities, University Village has a retail component that already includes Quizno's, Cingular, Mid-America Bank, Barbara's Bookstore, Jamba Juice and Cold Stone Creamery. Several restaurants and additional stores also are coming.

A sales center for University Village is open at 1440 S. Halsted.