Funny, you don`t look like a duplex.
That`s a line more builders seem to be using as the popularity of the two-attached-homes product continues in the Chicago area.
”They are duplexes, but you`d never know it,” said developer Jim Rapier of his new 140-unit Laurel Oaks project in Streamwood. The units are designed to look like large single-family homes, with entrances on opposites sides of the building. Most of the garages are side-loaded.
”I think the word duplex has the wrong connotation,” said Rapier, a partner of NIRA Ltd., developers. ”In duplexes you almost always see two garage doors from the front. These are single-family attached. It just happens that there are two of them.”
The NIRA project reflects a trend towards disguised duplexes in the last two years that has surfaced from St. Charles to Buffalo Grove. They often are more affordable than single-family homes and give builders an opportunity to make the most of a site limited in size.
Rapier said he and partner Ed Niziol decided to go with the double units in Streamwood as a result of their experience with their Warrenville Lakes townhouse project in Warrenville.
”In Warrenville we were basically building four-unit townhouses,”
Rapier said. ”We had some duplexes, but we could have sold 10 times as many. They were just gobbled up. People told us they really wanted two to a building.”
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Laurel Oaks is a planned unit development on a 23-acre site originally zoned for both townhouses and apartments.
”We intentionally downzoned the whole site because we found it more attractive,” Rapier said.
The downzoning ”was a plus” in getting the project okayed by the village, said Streamwood planner Jay Leavitt.
The site, designed as a planned unit development, includes two open areas, one a 1/2-acre wooded plot and another a tree preserve and small lake comprising about 2 1/2 acres.
”In this way we maintain the natural beauty of the stands of century-old oak trees and provide greenbelts and private enclaves for the community,”
Rapier said.
Preconstruction prices range from $119,900 to $132,500. There are four floor plans that range from one to four bedrooms; some of the units have walkout basements that take advantage of the rolling terrain.
Preparation of the site, on Ill. Hwy. 59 just south of Ill. Hwy. 19, is scheduled to start in May.
– Montalbano Builders has introduced two expanded floor plans at its Country Place community in west suburban Bartlett, according to Robert Hill, vice president of sales and marketing. Country Place is a subdivision of 380 single-family houses with prices ranging from $137,990 to $187,990.
”Many buyers are finding the extra space in the family rooms of the expanded floor plans very appealing,” Hill said. ”Move-up buyers are looking for larger homes, especially ones with large family rooms, to accommodate growing families.”
The Bedford model offers 2,185 square feet and can be expanded to 2,350 square feet. In the expanded plan, additional square footage was added to the family room, master bedroom and kitchen.
The Concord model offers 2,400 square feet with the possibility of expanding to 2,750 square feet. In the expanded Concord, the square footage was added to the family room and the master bedroom.
The bathrooms in both homes also were expanded, according to Hill.
To visit Country Place, take Ill. Hwy. 59 to Stearns Road. Go east on Stearns to Jefferson Street (Church Road), then north on Church Road to Newport Boulevard and turn left to the models. Or take Lake Street (Ill. Hwy. 20) to Greenbrook Boulevard, then south on Greenbrook 2 1/2 miles to the models.
– In the first quarter of 1989, Town & Country Homes, based in Clarendon Hills, posted 227 sales in its seven developments. The figure is 50 percent higher than last year at the same time, according to Linda Fanti, vice president of sales and marketing.
Fanti explained that in other years, home buyers waited until after the Super Bowl in January to start shopping for a home.
”But with the date of the Super Bowl being pushed back every year,” she said, ”we found that many people were coming out right after New Year`s. So we started an aggressive marketing campaign early and it has paid off.”
Town & Country Homes is developing Farmington Glen, 134 single-family homes in Hanover Park; Autumn Ridge, 139 townhouses in Schaumburg; Wellington Court, 196 townhouses in Schaumburg; the Enclave, 106 single-family cluster houses in Arlington Heights; Brookstone, 299 single-family houses in Carol Stream; St. James, 80 condominiums in Arlington Heights; the Greens of Glendale Lakes, 146 condominiums in Glendale Heights, and the Meadow at Farmington, 206 single-family houses in Hanover Park.
– Bartlett Associates has sold all but 25 lots of the 144-lot Walnut Hills development in northwest suburban Bartlett since its April, 1987, opening.
”The final phase has just been opened, with deliveries of completed homes scheduled from June through November 1989,” reported Sandra Kanakes, director of sales for both Walnut Hills and a new James company development, The Golf Villas of White Eagle Club in Naperville/Aurora.
Walnut Hills, Bartlett`s first luxury single-family home development, is a partnership of local businessman Rhett Butler and the James Companies.
A total of seven plans, each available in three or four architectural styles, range in size from 2,000 to 2,800 square feet and in base price from $178,400 to $244,000.
The former 72-acre wooded private estate was planned by Architects Don Schiller and Bert Frank to preserve the groves of trees. Construction crews were instructed to clear about 20 feet around each home site, but to leave the rest of the wooded, hilly areas intact. Crews also were sure to preserve distinctive trees-mostly oaks-that had been marked with snow fences, wells or ribbons.
Kanakes said home styles for the final lots includes four two-story models, one split-level, one 1 1/2-story plan and one ranch model.
Walnut Hills is 1/2 mile south of Irving Park Road on the east side of Ill. Hwy. 59 (Sutton Road).
– ”The New Home Experience,” an eight-chapter, step-by-step guide to buying a new home, is available at the residential projects being developed by Centex Homes. The book, by Gerald Harker, president of the Illinois division of Centex Homes, covers such topics as types of homes (single-family, townhouse, duplexes, etc.), signing a contract, obtaining a mortgage, selling the existing home, the closing and maintenance of the new home.
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The book was written ”to foster a sense of balance in the new home experience,” Harker said.
”Whether you`re buying your first home or your fifth, it`s easy to get carried away, to let the emotional upheaval of making one of the biggest decisions of your life affect the home buying process from start to finish,” he said.
Visitors may receive a free copy at these Centex developments: Westwind in Carol Stream, Grosse Pointe Village in Vernon Hills, Falkirk in Cary, and Oak Knoll in Streamwood.
– The ERA Real Estate offices in the south suburbs are sponsoring a Real Estate Career Night from 7 to 9 p.m. on May 4 in the Harvey Holiday Inn, 17040 S. Halsted St., Harvey. Both experienced sales associates and those considering a career in real estate are invited. For more information, call Carol Treace at 687-8100.
– Century 21 of Northern Illinois reports that the first quarter of 1989 reflects a slight increase in sales over the first quarter of 1988, an increase in the number of closings, and an increase in home prices over the same period a year ago.
Sales for the first quarter totaled $984,240,284, compared to $975,447,796 in 1988. The number of closings increasd to 6,684 from 6,068. Home prices for the first quarter of this year averaged $95,178, a 5.34 percent increase over the 1988 average of $90,353.