A Schaumburg developer plans to build a 405-unit high-end apartment complex near O’Hare International Airport, the first new rental housing development in the area in decades.
JCF Real Estate expects to submit its plans for the seven-story, 500,000-square-foot project to the Chicago City Council next week after holding two meetings in recent months with a neighborhood advisory board. Given the lack of new apartments in the area, JCF President John Fitzmaurice believes the project will attract tenants willing to pay higher rents for its modern units and high-end amenities.
“The tenants are there,” he says. “They just don’t have the product to move into.”
JCF is among a herd of developers rolling out plans for new apartment projects amid a strong rental housing market. The suburban apartment occupancy rate rose to 94.7 percent in the first quarter, up from 93.3 percent a year earlier, and rents hit an all-time high of $1.17 a square foot, according to Chicago-based consulting firm Appraisal Research Counselors.
