If you like the idea of having a Gold Coast address right across the street from Lake Michigan, but don’t want to live someplace someone else has, your opportunity is here. Pre-leasing has begun for 61 Banks Street, so you can pre-live there until the building opens.

The eight-story building at 61 East Banks Street replaces a surface parking lot on the last empty Lake Shore Drive parcel between Ogden Slip and North Avenue. The first of the building’s 58 apartments should be available for move-in by May.
The building was designed by the West Loop’s Booth Hansen for Draper and Kramer and features all of the usual accoutrements you’d expect from this voting precinct, plus proper underground parking, bay windows for panoramic views, and a glassed-in rooftop lounge with library.
Back at ground level, seven two-story townhouses line the Lake Shore Drive facade and wrap around to Banks Street. Rent for one of the townhouses starts at $8,100/month. The average 2,400-square-foot apartments go for a more modest $7,200/month.

Location: 61 Banks Street, Gold Coast