Chicago Cheat Sheet: West Town sees biggest rent increases…& more

These neighborhoods had biggest rent increases

Rents in West Town have increased more than in any other Chicago neighborhood in the past year, according to a new report. A Rent.com analysis of one-bedroom rents put the Near Northwest Side neighborhood at the top, followed by Streeterville, Lakeview, Hyde Park and Douglas. The average one-bedroom rent citywide is $1,944. In West Town it’s $2,395, an increase of 18 percent from May 2018 to May 2019. The average in Streeterville is $3,041, a nearly 14 percent increase. [Chicago Tribune]

Lightfoot neighbor selling home

The home next door to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s house in Bucktown is back on the market. The four-bedroom home at 3428 West Wrightwood Avenue first listed at nearly $1.4 million in October before the price was reduced $40,000. It was taken off the market for a few months but listed again this week for under $1.2 million. Lightfoot and her wife moved into their house in 2004, and it’s guarded at all times by a police detail. [Block Club]

Spec building boom happening in Elgin

Scannell Properties plans a $32 million spec industrial complex on Elgin’s west side. The Indianapolis-based firm plans a 325,000-square-foot building in the 2400 block of Bath Road and an 80,400-square-foot building in the 1700 block of Britannia Drive. The complex will join recently announced plans by Crow Holdings to build a 576,000-square-foot spec industrial park not far away. The industrial vacancy rate in the area is just 4 percent. [Courier-News]

Aldermen grill new Housing Department boss on affordability

Marisa Novara made her first appearance before the City Council on Thursday as Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s choice to be the new Housing Department commissioner, and aldermen used the hearing to lay out demands for more affordable housing. Among them were mandating more family units through the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance and strengthening the law to eliminate provisions that allow developers to buy their way out of building affordable units. The aldermen also want Novara to help stop the replacement of two-flats and three-flats with single-family homes and to promote the use of basements, attics and coach houses as living spaces. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Drug recovery company taking big industrial space in Libertyville

PharmaLogistics is building a new facility in the Libertyville Corporate Center. Work is starting on the nearly 127,000-square-foot complex at Butterfield Road and Illinois 137. Founded in 1996 by Libertyville resident Michael Zaccaro, the company recovers non-dispensed and expired drugs from pharmacies and hospitals and returns them to the manufacturers. The new building will allow the company to consolidate an office at 1795 Butterfield Road and a processing center in Mundelein, officials said. [Daily Herald]