New Lincoln Park Townhomes Find Buyers

At the muddy construction site for the Cambridge townhomes in East Lincoln Park, buyers are claiming units for as much as $2 million before the drywall is even primed.

The new development at 2329 North Cambridge Avenue, a collection of 16 townhomes in the historic Mid-North District, has already landed two buyers since it opened for sales last month, said Compass broker Jeff Lowe, who is handling the sales. The homes have yet to hit the full public market, but they’re listed as Compass “Coming Soon” offerings.

Two of the unfinished rowhomes are under contract, Lowe said on Friday, and two more were in negotiation. The rush to secure the unfinished homes underscores the demand for new construction in Lincoln Park, where new inventory is rare and competition for existing stock is high. The last comparable rowhomes built in the neighborhood went up in 2012 about a mile away on Lakewood Avenue, Lowe said.

“Nothing like this has been built in East Lincoln Park for as long as I can remember,” Lowe said.

The Cambridge project is being developed by Ogden Partners and architect firm Booth Hansen, according to Urbanize Chicago. The first phase of sales include eight of the 16 planned units, and the second half will begin selling once the first eight find buyers, Lowe said.

The development sits on a site once owned by the Sisters of the Cenacle, a Catholic religious order, which was sold in 2021 to developers planning new constructions on the land.

Most of the offerings are four-bedroom, four-bathroom layouts across four floors. The townhomes generally have 3 bedrooms on one level, a first-floor guest room, a penthouse office and an attached garage. They’re priced between $1.7 million and $2.2 million, Lowe said.

At that price point in East Lincoln Park, buyers are usually restricted to condos or older single-family homes.

“You can buy a duplex down for about 2 million bucks on the really nice streets, or you can come buy a similar, larger rowhome with an attached garage, in a historic Lincoln Park location,” Lowe said.

He expects the listings to go public in mid-April, after the developers have finished building the major infrastructure and a model unit.

“Half the buyers out there, if they can’t see a kitchen and the bathroom finished, they can’t figure out what’s going on,” Lowe said. “And so we’ve been selling drywall boxes without a model. So we’ll have a model, then we’ll go on the open market and then I think we’ll rifle through the rest of them.”

The Cambridge townhomes fit into a larger neighborhood transformation on the grounds of the former Cenacle Retreat Center. The massive parcel was divided among multiple developers for three distinct residential segments.

To the west of the Cambridge project is Fullerton Pointe, a 16-unit condo development at 513 and 519 West Fullerton Avenue. The condos, developed by P3 Properties, are nearly sold out, Lowe said. To the east of the Cambridge development are lots zoned for single-family homes.

The new projects sit in the historic Mid-North District of Lincoln Park, known for historic 19th-century architecture and rowhomes. The Cambridge townhouses are designed with cobblestone driveways and historic exterior materials to blend into the neighborhood, Lowe said.

“Once they’re finished, they’ll feel like they’ve been in the neighborhood for a long time,” he said.