Homes facing Wicker Park are just a stone's throw from shopping and dining, as well as schools and the Blue Line. If you are the right kind of shopper, this is your paradise.
Wicker Park’s commercial district, centered around the well known “Six Corners” intersection of Damen, Milwaukee and North avenues, is a candy store for those artistic and offbeat types who prefer their merchandise eclectic, funky, or “gently used.”
Kay Severinsen / Sun-Times Media
Kay Severinsen / Sun-Times Media
Wicker Park/Bucktown
More than two-thirds of the housing in this neighborhood is attached, in the form of condos, flats and townhomes. Not all of the homes, single-family or attached, are original to the neighborhood. There is some new construction and some lots available for build-to-suit homes.
Condos start in the low $300,000s; homes start around $500,000. Homes priced over $1 million are easy to find.
You can find a large selection of properties in this neighborhood, which Realtors often list as being in West Town, at www.searchchicago.com/homes. Here is a sampling:
1614 Wolcott St. $1,595,000. Architecturally significant modern three bedroom, three bath home designed by Birinstool & Lynch. Subzero fridge, exposed masonry, skylight, huge windows.
1533 N. Western Ave. $329,900. Extra-wide and on the top floor; this two-bedroom, two-bath unit has hardwood floors, a woodburning fireplace and maple kitchen cabinets.
1227 Paulina St. $624,900. A 3,000-square-foot duplex that lives like a single family home. Four bedrooms, three baths, two fireplaces, two outdoor spaces.
It also is increasingly becoming a mecca for fashionistas seeking high-end clothing and dining experiences.
It might seem to be an odd juxtaposition, but just a quick glance around the busy intersection gives you a good snapshot of the schizoid synergy of Wicker Park/Bucktown.
On one corner is the middle-aged Flash Tacos - its bright red sign makes it easy to find after a long night at the bars - right next door to a Starbuck’s, the quintessential symbol of neighborhood gentrification.
Across the street is the splendiferous Flatiron Building, home to dozens of artists’ studios and monthly gallery shows - anchored on the ground floor by a Bank of America.
On another corner is Francesca’s Forno, one of the trattorias in the Francesca family of restaurants, which serves as the gateway to many of Milwaukee Avenue’s funky vintage clothing stores.
You’ll find a brand-new Polish bakery, Oak Mill, its glass cases bursting with sugary delights, almost directly across North Avenue from the well established Sultan’s Market, a falafel-lover’s mecca. Both are just a short walk from the Earwax Café, which beckons you with ’60s-era graffiti splashed across its storefront and sits just a few doors away from an Urban Outfitters.
In fact, mixed in with the storied businesses that came in with the urban pioneers 35 years ago, are a host of newcomers who are defying the economic downturn because Wicker Park has the perfect mix of customers for them.
“We do have some national retailers that have come in the past two years,” said Paula Barrington, executive director of the Wicker Park Bucktown Chamber of Commerce. “But the majority of business owners are Chicago-based operators. I continue to see more independently owned retailers in the neighborhood.”
For that reason, she says, the area has become known as a destination for people who are seeking unique fashions and dining experiences and out-of-town visitors are often directed by hotel concierges to the neighborhood to experience “real Chicago.”
“You won’t find [these stores] on State Street or Oak Street, or in Lincoln Park,” Barrington asserted. “We are eclectic in that regard.”
Wicker Park has a youthful vibrancy that could lead some over the age of 30 to feel slightly out of place, but the truth is, you’ll find residents and shoppers of every age here.
“At rush hour you see so many people coming off the Blue Line,” says Barrington, “an amazing cross section of people – from airline pilots to young bicycle messengers to mothers with strollers.”
While a mix of older urban pioneers and young urbanites tend to congregate in Wicker Park, just to the north Bucktown seems to attract slightly more family-oriented residents. Both neighborhoods, which are often lumped together as Wicker Park/Bucktown, have matured from funk to gentrification to an eccentric mix that offers something for almost everyone.
“In the beginning, Bucktown was for people who couldn’t afford Lincoln Park,” said Realtor Jan Smith, with the @properties office on Damen, “so there was this fallacy that everyone would live in Lincoln Park if they could (afford it). That isn’t the case anymore. People like the energy here. It’s a much more urban vibe. We are seeing renters who are starting families and they don’t want to live in Lincoln Park. They are choosing Bucktown.”
The neighborhoods do have some single family housing, most of which is not for the faint of pocketbook. Single-family homes tend to start in the $500,000s and range up over $1 million for the neighborhood mansions.
More than two-thirds of the neighborhood’s homes are condos and townhomes, Smith said. You could expect to find a condo in a three-flat selling from the low $300,000s up to around $625,000, depending on the floor level and condition.
In March, Smith said her office was packed with agents helping home buyers take advantage of the tax credit deadlines.
“There’s nowhere to sit,” she said, taking a call in a conference room. Despite the frantic buying mode, the neighborhood still had about a nine-month supply of housing, meaning that if no new homes came on the market, it would take nine months to sell every property. As in most markets, homes that are well maintained and priced well are selling fast.
“What’s diluting the market right now is the five- to 10-year old construction that was very cookie cutter and unremarkable in every way,” she said. “They would sell in a better market. But they are not selling today; they are just sitting. They were built with concrete block and have not been properly maintained.”
Along the commercial streets, particularly the historic stretch of Milwaukee Avenue between North and Division, some of the old businesses are fading away, while vacant storefronts are starting to attract new tenants.
Wicker Park/Bucktown’s commercial area has its own distinct areas, says Barrington. The historic stretch of Milwaukee is a little edgier, with a flock of vintage and secondhand clothing stores, along with some high fashion places, too, and several music venues, including the well known Double Door.
Division Street, at the south end of the neighborhood, has lots of restaurants and outdoor cafes, boutiques and gift shops. Not so “edgy,” it’s got an international kind of energy. You will also find the Chopin Theater on Division, which offers cutting-edge theater on two stages.
Performing arts are found elsewhere also, including at the Gorilla Tango theater on north Milwaukee, which often highlights interactive experimental theater and new and local playwrights. The St. Paul Cultural Center, which was founded in an old Lutheran church on North Avenue, offers performance space for local events.
The down side to all this popularity is that parking is at a premium. One developer is interested in creating the Midwest’s first automated parking lot in Wicker Park, Barrington added. The lot would let drivers pull their cars onto a conveyor belt that parks the car several stories up. Only a handful of others exist in the U.S., all on the East Coast.
While new businesses continue to flock into the neighborhood, one high-profile effort is now facing foreclosure. A developer who hoped to create a boutique hotel in the tallest building at the corner of Milwaukee and North has lost his financing.
However, Barrington said, a restaurant may open in the basement of the former MB bank at the corner of Division and Ashland, and a retailer is interested in the first floor of that building, which is a landmark.
Meanwhile, shoppers and partiers continue to flock into the neighborhood, which is one reason parking is hard to come by.
“Everybody is holding their own,” said Barrington. “The nightlife is still very strong because people want to experience this great neighborhood.”
