Entire new neighborhoods have sprung up, and more are on the way. One River Place and Domain, two loft conversions, are the first residential components in Kingsbury Park, at Chicago and the river. Plans call for five rental towers totaling 2,300 apartments, and 2,350 condos in seven highrises, as well as 200 townhouses. At press time, the full council was expected to vote on the plan in April. The central city, which people have fled for decades, is suddenly teeming with life as construction cranes and new buildings rise on virtually every block.
Downtown is suddenly the place to live.
And the very people who shunned the city for the burbs are driving the renaissance. People like Sari Klein, who even 10 years ago, would have found the idea of living in downtown Chicago preposterous. Every neighborhood you look at is being revitalized. They settled on a loft in the River North neighborhood. Now Klein and her husband, who are in their 50s, split their time between the art galleries and restaurants of River North and the trees and wide lawns of north suburban Riverwoods.