A luxury urban experience in the suburbs is the goal of two developers building a combined 488 high-end apartments in Deerfield.
Two projects adjacent to the Tri-State Tollway, one near Lake Cook Road and another by Deerfield Road, have been under construction for nearly a year and plan to start leasing in early 2015. This marks the village’s first major multifamily development in years.
“We’re offering downtown-style amenities like a resort style swimming pool and a health club quality fitness center,” said Greg Moyer, a principal of Ravine Park Partners which is developing the 248-unit Woodview Apartments near Deerfield Road.
The second project, the 240-unit AMLI Deerfield complex at Lake Cook Road near the tollway, has comparable features and is targeting similar tenants, according to AMLI Executive Vice President of Development Stephen Ross.
“We’re catering to the corporate employees who work in the headquarter office parks,” Ross said. Walgreens corporate campus with approximately 5,000 workers is visible from the AMLI construction site. “We will also be after empty nesters and active seniors.”
Moyer plans to market to the thousands of corporate employees working in Deerfield as well as well as older residents ready to leave their single family home. He also sees recently divorced persons as potential tenants.
“We expect pesky whipper-snappers between 25 and 35 who working in the 17,000 jobs [places like] at Walgreens, Baxter, Takeda, Underwriters Labs and Mondelez,” Moyer said.
Ross believes people currently living in Chicago and commuting to jobs in Deerfield and other nearby towns will be eager to move into the new living spaces his company is offering.
“Just look at the Highland Park or Braeside train stations at 5 p.m.,” Ross said. “Busloads of people are getting off to get on trains. They’re either on Pace buses or their company’s busses. They commute 90 minutes each way right now.”
With easy access to the toll road, Ross thinks it will be a quick commute for people to head to nearby business headquarters like Allstate in Northbrook or Abbott in North Chicago as well.
Both companies see a community like Deerfield with Fortune 500 headquarters which include Baxter, Mondelez and Takeda along with Walgreens as ideal for residential growth. That does not include Discover next door in Riverwoods or Underwriters Laboratories in Northbrook which is walking distance from AMLI.
More people work in Deerfield than live there, according to Deerfield Bannockburn Riverwoods Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Vickie Street.
Both Moyer and Ross will give persuasive arguments why their projects are superior but both said there is plenty of room in Deerfield for both developments.
Woodview, which broke ground late last year just before AMLI Deerfield, plans to start leasing units in January and expects people to start moving in during April, according to Moyer. He anticipates the project will be complete by October.
The property will contain 55 percent one-bedroom apartments, 45 percent two-bedroom units and “a few” which have three bedrooms, according to Moyer. The average size will be approximately 975 square feet with rents ranging from $1,650 to $2,700.
People will not have to wait much longer to start renting at AMLI Deerfield. Leasing should start in February at an office located somewhere in Deerfield, according to Ross. He expects his first tenants in July and hopes to be fully leased by the third quarter of 2016.
AMLI Deerfield will contain 23 studios between 527 and 620-square feet. There will be 128 one-bedroom or one-bedroom with den apartments between 722 and 966 square feet as well as 89 two-bedroom spaces — some with dens — with sizes from 1,147 to 1,365 square feet. No rent has been set yet.