What’s weak this week…
- It turns out that apartments are good for the economy. A study from the National Multi Housing Council shows that apartment buildings in the Chicago area generated six billion dollars for the local economy and employed 53,000 people. There’s a companion web site at www.weareapartments.org. “Apartment buildings are good” won’t come as a surprise to people in Chicago. But there are a lot of American cities, large (I’m looking at you, Houston) and small where apartment buildings are thought of as scary places, and the only people who don’t live in a giant McMansion with a huge lawn and tall fence are drug addicts, child molesters, and CHUDs. Seriously, there really are people who actually fear apartment buildings.
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- Remember the wonderful, yet disused, Three Arts Building in the city’s Gold Coast? The one that has been empty for a very long time, and was most recently thought of as maybe a good place for people to store the ashes of their deceased loved ones? Well, Crain’s Chicago Business reports that there’s a new plan — The Restoration Hardware people want to open a showroom and cafe at the location. As always, the number one concern from people in the area is traffic, which is why the dead people storage got such serious consideration.
- Also from Crain’s… Nordstom Rack is going to open in The Maxwell, the mixed-use development at West Roosevelt Road and South Canal Street in the South Loop.
