July 25, 2005
Rezmar to start Riverside District in 1st quarter '06
Rezmar Development Group will open residential sales at the Riverside District, a 62-acre mixed-use community planned for the South Loop, during the first quarter of 2006, according to Alexandra Korompilas, director of sales and marketing for the company.

The planned-unit development is far along, but Rezmar continues to work with the city on logistics for what will be a complicated project. The developer also has been trying to plan an optimal sales center that will include space for construction staff, company principals and sales people as well as unit models, probably at the corner of Clark and Roosevelt.

The massive development, formerly called Riverside Park, will include around 4,700 residential units and up to 670,000 square feet of retail space as well as parking, parks, plazas and a landscaped riverwalk on a site bordered by Roosevelt Road on the north, the Chicago River on the west Clark Street on the east and 16th Street on the south

The Riverside District is expected to take 10 years to complete and will include a wide variety of housing types, including highrise and mid-rise condos, townhouses and single-family homes.

The first residential offerings will be 322 townhouses and about 1,000 condominiums in low-rise and mid-rise buildings. Studios will start under $200,000, according to Korompilas, and townhouses will be priced from the high $500s. Planned buildings are being designed so that tiers can be combined easily. While the largest standard units are 1,100 or 1,200 square feet, units of more than 3,000 square feet can be created seamlessly by combining two or three condos at no extra cost.

Commercial components will be developed at the same time as the residential, and the response from retailers so far has been positive, Korompilas said.