Ep. 15: Living in The West Loop feat. Rick Kronenburger!
Rick Kronenburger is a resident of the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago who has been there long enough to see the explosion of growth in this area from the ground up. In this episode we discuss what that growth trajectory has looked like, the appeal it has to major corporations moving to the area, the local restaurant scene, and much more!
The Living in Chicago Podcast is where I, Jake Lyons, get to interview all kinds of people about the Chicago neighborhoods they live in, work in, and play in. This way, you can learn about the lifestyle pros and cons of various neighborhoods directly from the people who live there (or maybe even learn something new about your own neighborhood!)
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Fig Tree: figtreechicago.com/
Pete's Market: https://www.petesfresh.com/
Lou Malnati's: https://www.loumalnatis.com/
Viaggio: https://viaggiochicago.com/
Talay Thai: www.talaychicago.com.
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[00:00:00]
Jake: Hello and welcome to Living in Chicago, the podcast where I get to interview real Chicagoans about the neighborhoods that they live, work, and play in. My name is Jake Lyons. I'll be your host. And in this episode, I interview Rick Kronenburger, who is a longtime resident of the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago, which is, if you're unfamiliar, Arguably the trendiest sort of big most up and coming if you can call it that anymore, although, the it seems like it wouldn't necessarily be up and coming anymore.
It seems like it would have been fully arrived if anything, but, the multiple cranes in the sky and the continued growth. In this neighborhood would tell you that even though, yeah you would think it would be fully developed, but still lots of development to go and lots of investment being made in this neighborhood still for lots of different reasons, which we get into in depth, Rick is a marketing professional.
And just loves the West loop and we have a really good conversation about it. He's full of all kinds of [00:01:00] different stories and, history, little tidbits, he seems to know every local business that there is to know. So I knew that this would be a really good conversation and that he would be.
An ideal person to interview about the West loop and it did not disappoint. So I'm not going to waste any more time. Let's just go ahead and get right into the interview and let's hear Rick Kronenburger tell you all about what it's like to live in the West loop neighborhood of Chicago.
All
right. So join here today with Rick Kronenburger who is a marketing professional living in the West Loop. Rick and I have been friends for a few years now because we actually attend the same church. Shout out to Soul City Church in the West Loop. And, by virtue of going to this to this church, I have no shortage.
Of people that I could have asked to come on for the first episode that I do on the the proper West loop neighborhood. In fact, I know for a fact, I'll have probably dozens of episodes on the West loop going forward, just cause I just, there's a lot going on there. And [00:02:00] I happen to know a lot of people who live in the West loop, but I was excited to bring Rick on for the.
First episode of this, because more than anybody else that I know, Rick is just, he is about that West Loop life when I think of West Loop, I think of Rick. I can't think of too many people who really just stand by that neighborhood more than Rick, so, Rick, that being said, thank you for coming on and sharing your your expertise and your experience on the West Loop.
Rick: It helps because I've seen the evolution of the West Loop, too, because I've been here, and I realized, I don't know if I wrote that down when we first started to talk, I've been here for 12 years. Get even realize that I've seen quite an evolution of, you know, of the neighborhood and just, you know, that many iterations and now the explosion of the West loop now, is very, very
Jake: interesting for sure.
Yeah. You know, as. As my role as a real estate agent, it was, it's kind of funny. I, a couple of weeks ago I was talking to a potential client about selling their condo and I was looking into this condo that they bought in 2016 [00:03:00] and I was looking at a picture of the listing from when they bought it.
Versus a picture of the same exact building now and so one of my favorite photographers is a guy who will combine like a picture, like an old timey picture from like the 1800s to what, from the same vantage point of what that, that same angle looks like now and the compare and contrast thing.
And it might as well have been that like 2016 the West Loop compared to now might as well have been like from the eight to 1700 like old Western type of stuff and the versus now it's like might as well be the year 4000 it's just like and that's only seven or eight years.
Rick: I'm right on Madison, Jake just west of Racine and I face north and I look a little bit downtown, so east, but I'm staring right now from two, three years ago.
I'm staring at three or four high rises that have gone up in the past like three, four years. So up on, up down Randolph and over on Fulton and I, and there's two or three more cranes now and I'm on it. And a lot of [00:04:00] websites too, that tell you about what's coming up. There's like five or six more planned and they're all huge.
There's, and there are all these luxury rentals too. I don't know who's renting.
these
They're I've got a friend who just rented on Randolph in, in, in that new building with the orange stripes on it and all in, she's got a two, a two bedroom. She's paying almost 4, 500, you know, but that's pretty far these days.
Jake: And that was what for you said a two bed. Two bed.
Rick: Yeah. And it's a really, you know, a lovely building and all, all these buildings now, it's like we I'm older than you Jake, but like when I first started to rent apartments, there was a party room in, in apartments. Now it's a party floor, you know, and, and they have. they have.
Oh, like a minute or it's, it's just amazing, just,
me.
and you don't really have to leave your building, you know, and if you work from home, like I'm doing, doing today and you get bored in your apartment, you go down to a, you know, to a work live space and there's a gym in those buildings that [00:05:00] you probably spent 125 bucks for elsewhere and it sure.
so, so her 4, 500 bucks, it's a lot, but but they just keep on building. I mean, like, you know, over in Fulton, they keep on going, they keep on going North and now they're starting to go West. They're starting to go to, you know, the far end of Randolph and the far end of Fulton, that's fascinating to me.
Jake: Yeah, so before, you know, I guess we can, before we get too down in the weeds on West Loop, let's, let's get into a little bit about you and your, your origin story. What, what brought you to the
West Loop?
Rick: I was
born and raised in the West Burbs.
I grew up in Hinsdale and I worked for two or three big corporations over my lifetime. So I was able to live elsewhere too. And I lived near Los Angeles. I, I lived in, New York for a little bit. And I live near Washington DC a little bit. And when I had a chance to come back here, we're one, I came back here cause it was my roots and my family, but I came back and I, for a while I lived out I got talked into buying a [00:06:00] house out in the burbs and not exactly a burb guy, but I'm glad I did it.
It was a nice experience. Then I had a chance to come back and I moved up and I lived back and forth like in my college years. I lived in Lincoln Park. I lived, I lived in Streeterville a little bit. And so, so I moved up here to Lincoln Park. I lived at Racine and Armitage and had a kind of funny. I had a 4th floor walk up in a really old building and, and it was one of, I don't know if this is a term, but it was a Tenement walk up where you go up a staircase, then you go down a long haul, then you go to up up a staircase again, long haul, it's not like, you know, how staircases go.
I, I had to like. You know, I was a kid. I had to like not bring home a lot of groceries because it was like clowning climbing Mount Everest and but great building. Great place to live downtown. Great neighborhood is kind of West Park. But I was just kind of
of
tired of Lincoln Park. I'm just tired.
You know, I kind of aged myself out in and I just wanted more space. [00:07:00] So I was working with a realtor back then and And she said, why don't you come and rent over in rent over in you know, in to West Loop and, you know, and back then West Loop was just starting to pop. It was just starting to just starting to pop.
So I came in here and I was truly a pioneer. I lived in I lived. I'm in block Y, which is, it was it was by the thrush companies, but I lived to I graduated. I lived in block X before in block X is on Racine in Washington. It's got the beautiful courtyard. So that was my first purchase in the West Loop.
So I moved there, but it was funny back then when I first bought there, that was the farthest building West, basically, you know, the nicest building West. And I remember it's funny when I told my parents
that I
moved to the West Loop, they, they like, they kind of shuddered because. You probably know there's Jake, you know, like Madison Street was called skid row and and when my parents heard I was moving to the West Loop, they were just horrified.
And I said, [00:08:00] it's going to change. It's in the process of changing. And they said, honey, are you okay? And, and it's not like it was scary back then, but I was a little bit isolated. Because like I said, it was the farthest at it. Like Racine was basically like the end of new construction. There was older construction in lofts and that, but new construction.
So I moved in and I remember moving into block X, like I said, at Washington and Racine and and I remember my first week there. I thought, I I did this good. I hope I made a wise decision and it was an extremely good. Extremely good call because I got in on the bottom end and and I stayed there for seven years, 7, eight years.
And, and just an incredible investment. We won't go into it, but it was just. Ever did. And then I wanted, I wanted more. And that was, a typical kind of They're a condominium, with, you know, with ceilings and walls. And I wanted more of a loft feel. So I started to, I started to look around and I came to block Y, which is [00:09:00] so block X to block Y.
And I came here. And I was looking at a really bad time. Every time I would look at something,
you
know, it'd be gone. It's kind of like now it's like, stuff went really, really quickly. And I came in to this unit. It's a really cool unit and it's and it's a concrete loft. But and, and it's got three quarter walls, but the people before me put in windows and they kind of built out this three quarter wall.
So, I have, it's just, I'm very happy with my choice and I face north. So I have that what do they call it? True north light, that ambient light. It's very bright, even though you're not getting direct sun and it's great for plants and I got a couple balconies. So it's funny because I live right on Madison Street and Madison Street.
Anyone who knows the West Loop can be very noisy, you know, because
you
know, it is a thoroughfare going East and West. And then I live on a party street. I live across from a sports bar and, you know, and, and it's a [00:10:00] bar whenever there's a concert or anything at the United Center it's a, it's a big place or a Hawks game, Bulls game.
There's times I'll just be in my house and I'll start to giggle because it's so loud. It's so loud. But I love urban life. It really makes me happy. And kind of ironically when I looked, when I looked on X, which is an absolutely beautiful, beautiful complex, I stared at a courtyard and they had this urban courtyard and I moved.
One of the reasons I moved. There were a lot of reasons moved, but one of the main reasons I moved and everyone said, Are you nuts? I stared at this courtyard and I, my thought was they didn't plant the right trees because I was on the third floor. Yeah, third floor. I was staring at a jungle. I was staring at like, like my best friend was a squirrel and they built the, they had put in these trees in this beautiful court courtyard.
If, if you're ever walking in the area, it, you know, at the corner, we're seeing in Washington. There's just this gorgeous courtyard. And they built it above a garage. It's won all kinds of awards, [00:11:00] but I didn't like literally staring. It trees and it was kind of creepy and I said, I got to get out of here.
Oh, it was very quiet. Then I moved here and I'm on Madison street and it's loud, but I love it. I,
Jake: yeah.
Rick: One of my favorite things to do like on, you know, a warm night, I go out on my balcony, which is right on Madison Street, on, I'm on the floor. Floor. I love it. On a concert night. I love it on a Bulls game.
It's just exciting. It's just, I really an urban guy. know, I'm really an urban guy. I love that feel. I love the noise. I love the, I, you know, I don't love the fire engines at three in the morning, but mm-hmm, . But I really prefer that. I, it's funny when I go, I go to Michigan a lot and I'll be in Michigan and it's almost
too quiet, you know, and it's like I need white noise.
So I, I have a white noise because I'm so used to urban noise and I have friends who come and stay here and often they'll go, Oh my God, it's so noisy here. I said it, it, it's like anything else. It's like anything else. You get used to it. You get [00:12:00] used to the noise around you. So, so yeah. I'm pretty happy.
Jake: You just, yeah, you just revel in the energy of it all. Love the energy.
Yeah.
Rick: Also, one of the reasons I love about the West loop, it is so strategically located because when I go in, when I'm working in the, you know, in the loop, I walk as often as can, even though it's also, I work right on the number 20 bus the route.
It goes ahead of my building right in front, but I walk, you know, it's about a mile to get to the whole. the core of the loop. And and it's kind of the best part about my day. Best part about my day, you know, I just walk on Madison Street and, you know, I, I have my time, I have my earbuds and and, and whenever I can, I walk there a lot.
I'm also I've also become in the past few years, I've become a pretty big biker road biking. And I, I've got two bikes. It's also very handy too. There's a dedicated bike route on Washington, you know, where they have the guardrails and that kind of thing. And you can go straight downtown because I [00:13:00] love to bike that.
That's why I said I was going to go at lunch today and bike for a little bit. I love to do the lakefront trail and only about. 15 minutes to get down to the lakefront trail from here. So I love that, too. So as I was saying, you know, I'm rambling here, but the West Loop is so strategically located for everything, you know, and.
To the south is Pilsen. You've got UIC in Rush Medical District, a lot going over, a lot over there. You've got Little Italy, you can walk to Little Italy. I went to a party there the other night and and I walked in, in North and like, you know, it's like what's going on at Fulton. You know, it's now become, like, what was the old Rush Street?
It's almost gotten, it's funny. I went and got my hair cut the other night, and I came out, and I walked out on Fulton, and it was buzzing. It was absolutely buzzing. Like hundreds Noises. Hundreds of people. And I thought, wow, this is the entertainment street in town [00:14:00] now. You know,
You know,
they on putting more and more restaurants and they're kind of high and I don't love that.
There's nothing in between, but I have my little haunts that I go to elsewhere, but everything on Fulton and Randolph is pretty high end there right now. Yeah, you have all the great places. You got Rosemary and you got you got Royster and you have all that, all, all that interesting stuff. And it's nice for an occasion, but it's kind of high
Jake: end.
I'm always, I'm always shocked at the yeah, just how often, how many of those restaurants. And they're always busy and yeah, you're right. Like you, you're not going in there expecting to pay less than 50 a person probably, you know, and that's that's before you even get to talking about drinks or anything and it's kind of like the economics of it all always.
Just, I'm always a little flabbergasted by it. It's like, cause yeah, you would think it's like, these can't be more than just kind of like a once in a while, like big occasion kind of thing. And it's like. Are there, I mean, I guess when you live in a city of 3 million people, there's enough people having big occasions every night that you can make it work, but man, I
don't know.[00:15:00]
Rick: No, it's funny with all these new places and you see them all packed and you see the crowds. I always wonder where, where were these people last year? It's like, where did they go last year? Is that restaurant abandoned and close now or what? Because it's on now the hip cool spot. I went to there was a place on, there was a place in Fulton called Lyra and it's Greek.
And, and I, I remember also, the West Loop is really close to Greek town and I've loved that. And when, you know, when there was a Greek town, now Greek town's kind of going away. Mm-Hmm? , there's down to two or three restaurants there. And you remember there was probably 10. And so Lyra opened up and it's Greek.
And I remember going to Greek islands or or like Athena, you go there and you get, you know, you get a beer and you get some flaming cheese and you know, and you get some type of Greek dish and you leave and it's $35. I brought a
friend.
for her birthday. It was 225. Not exactly Greek food as we know it, but it was good.
But then it turned into [00:16:00] a scene too. It's like, I said, okay, we got to get out of here because it turns into like a nightclub and that kind of thing. It's just funny. It's just funny waiting for, you know, a tap on the shoulder going Rick, you need to leave. Now you're too old,
It,
know, or like knock on my door here because everyone.
Like everyone tends to be hip and young and and I'm kind of hip, but I'm not young. So yeah, it's really funny and they just keep on building and putting in this restaurant, you know, and I'm fascinated by the build out of these restaurants to the costs, the cost of building these things out.
Like how, how do they make their money back? I would, I'd love, I'd love to look at their business plan. How, how do you. How do you know it's going to, how do you know it's going to make it?
Jake: How
far out is their break even point and what has to happen between now and then? And yeah, even, even to the point of the big, the high rise, apartment buildings and things like that going up, which are pretty much just full scale, luxury spa resorts at this point that you get to live in and.
Yeah, there's a lot of if you build it, they will come going [00:17:00] on in the West Loop right now, I feel like, especially in that Fulton Market District area where it's like, man,
this is all
really cool, and I really hope you guys are right, because if this goes wrong, that could be pretty, that could be pretty bad here in a few years, but I mean, so far so good, I seem, you know that's where all a lot of tech headquarters are going, Google moving in, obviously, I think is probably, Fair to say probably the biggest the biggest draw to that area and the biggest sort of like vote of confidence to everybody else that in the business community and things like that.
So, I mean,
Rick: so far so good. I love to read about real estate and I love, you know, to read about business real estate and also you know, it's a grand living presidential real estate. I read a story where all the businesses as they're coming back after Covid. They. If they are going to have a nice office, they want it to be in a cool area to, to have their employees spots for them, you know, to go after work to, to be in a cool area.
And they were saying, and you probably heard this, Jake, that the new business center is slowly moving over to Fulton [00:18:00] market there and kind of north there. Anyone with new with the. You know, and, and yes, they might not be taking the amount of space that they had if they were in LaSalle or Clark or, you know, the, the old like Cadillac, like, like high end streets, if you wanted, if you work for a bank and you work for a law firm, you were on those streets.
Now, everyone wants to be west of the river and totally. You know, because I keep on learning got to keep on building these office buildings, you know, are they being filled and it seems like they're all doing pretty good, you know,
Jake: because that area in that specific area, the answer is a resounding yes, they're doing great.
But you know, not not necessarily the case in other in other areas of the city, the state, the country, the world, you know, I mean, the Fulton market is,
Rick: you know, you know, and then what do you All those office buildings in the, you know, in the core of the loop, like I said, you know, the old like,
like
the high end office, the law firms, and you know,
yeah,
it's like, just take for example what is the bank that moved into 110 North Wacker duh major bank.
[00:19:00] moved in,
Jake: Wells Fargo? Not Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo is around there.
Rick: No, America. Just built it. 110 North Wacker, that's where I'm from.
old office is. Bank of America moved in.
Jake: Oh, right, right.
Rick: Shiny tower. And, and what was interesting, they had a couple hundred thousand square feet of office space, space spread out in the core of the loop on Clark, I think.
And they abandoned all of that. So like, what do you do with all that space? You know, and I've heard stories, and, you know, so it's kind of flipped now. Everyone wants to, if. They are going to work the, you know, they want to be in Fulton. They want to be in that area, kind of West loop and then live in live it in the core of the loop, if that can happen, I, you don't know if those buildings can be renovated way the loft buildings are so
Jake: yeah, it's it's tough.
It's really tough to do really expensive, really
Rick: expensive, you know, and you have to, you have to core grade core drill concrete for everything, you know, for, you know, from plumbing to, to electric, to wifi, to [00:20:00] the whole thing, really tough. But, but I'm glad I'm here because it, you know, it, it, it's a booming area.
And and, you know, and like I said, I enjoyed because it's of the core of, it's kind of the spoke.
like,
You know, like, you like the wheel. I live here, but then I can go everywhere from here. It's real easy. You know, there's a mass transit. You know, you've, you've got bus lines. You've got the L. It's like, you know, I, you know, I.
If I go to a party up north now you know, I don't drive anymore. I don't want to drive in. I don't want to, and I went to Uber. I hopped on the 22 bus, you know, I'd go downtown. I hopped on the 20. You can get really, it's really easy to go anywhere from here. And then
if like, you look at a map and you look at the roads and major expressways it's kind of like the crux of where everything kind of come comes together.
From no doubt.
90
Jake: Yeah, you're right there between, between 290 and 90, 94 and, and all that. Yeah, I mean, even Route 66, technically Ogden going through a little bit over there, you know, it's a very famous [00:21:00] highway yeah, I mean, a,
a,
a a nit that I've heard picked before about West loop is that it can be a little challenging to get back and forth from other areas of the city, you know, it's like you kind of, you have to, there's not really like, unless you're, you are going right Back and forth between the loop, which is obviously super convenient if you're doing that, but if you are coming from like the northwest side or something like that, you know, you kind of have to do a couple transfers and there's not like a straight shot, but you know, I don't know.
It is what it is. like The West loop is still between the pink, pink line, green line, and then blue lines to the south. So, I mean, there's a lot. There's, there's, and then buses, of course, so. yeah. You know, it's, it's maybe not the most convenient place to get to from every place in the city, but that's just kind of how it goes, you know, they're not going to, there's not going to be a train line going to every block of the city.
It's just, you know, I don't know. So it doesn't seem like you you have any issues with that.
Rick: No,
No, I have a car. It's funny. I tried. I tried during COVID. I tried giving up a car and I thought I'm gonna try, try this. I, you know, I, I had a lease car and I said, you know, I'm gonna give up because I, you know, I used to go to go to a [00:22:00] lot.
My mom was out in the Burbs. My mom died. And, and, and I didn't go to Burbs. And, you know, and we used to have a house up on a lake up Up in Wisconsin,
yeah,
on the border and I it to my brother and and thought, I don't need a car and I tried it for two years and then I just realized, yeah, yeah, I could do it.
It worked out, but then I realized I need a car. I need a car. It just for groceries, but. Yeah, but I found it was very feasible with just mass transit, you know, of course for groceries, you know, I had to plan accordingly, but I tried it for two years, but I liked it. I lived in an area where I could, if I wanted to, I could live without a car.
Jake: Time for the Real Estate Stats Corner presented by me, Jake Lyons, Real Estate Advisor here in the Chicago area with @properties and my website thechicagohomesource.com. In this segment, I will provide two statistics about the West Loop neighborhood that will give you at least a pretty good idea of what people [00:23:00] are willing to pay to live in the West Loop.
Uh, as of the most recent data that we have, which for me right now is January of 2024. I do this for a couple reasons, but you know, for the most part, I might be a little biased being a real estate agent and whatnot, but I think that real estate's prices are super relevant to any conversation about any neighborhood, because after all, what really is a neighborhood without real estate.
So with that being said, the two stats that I am putting out there. And these are provided courtesy of InfoSparks and Rent O Meter, respectively. Is that of the median sales price of two bed condos. And the median rental price of a two bed apartment. Normally, in other episodes, if there are single, detached houses in the neighborhood that I'm talking about, I will also include that stat.
But if we're sticking to the [00:24:00] proper West Loop neighborhood, it's a very dense neighborhood. It's mostly condos. Very, very few actual single family houses to speak of. And so we're not gonna talk about it. There's nothing to talk about there. But there are in, in surrounding areas and nearby, neighboring neighborhoods and things like that.
Yes, you could find houses, but not necessarily in the actual West loop. So first that median sales price of two bed condos as of January, 2024 in the West loop was, let's just go ahead and say 510, 000. 509, 250. So 50 percent sold for less, 50 percent sold for more. That's the median sales price, 509, 250 for a two bed condo.
For a two bed apartment in the West Loop neighborhood, the median rental monthly price of that is 3, 600. And there it is. There's the real estate stats corner for the West loop. [00:25:00] If you are interested to see what all is on the market right now in the West loop area or anywhere in Chicago, for that matter, you can go to the Chicago home source.
com and the link for that will be in the show notes.
How about just safety wise and just lifestyle wise from that point of view, how would
you
Rick: pretty safe is
we, like
like we went through like everyone else, over the past two years we went some challenging times, there was some card carjackings, but it's pretty, I feel more and more safe every day.
And I'm a big, like, I'm a big stats guy, so I always look at crimes, that kind of thing, and they're all going down drastically here. There's still, there's still a handful, there's not as many carjackings anymore, but I feel, I feel pretty safe here at night. And I walk a lot. I, I walk a great deep, great deal.
If I'm going out, if I'm going like someplace, I don't really drive. I really enjoy walking. You know, I went to Mm-Hmm, , I told you I went to a part, I went to a party the other night [00:26:00] in Little Italy, about a mile and a half. I walked back and forth and, know, I came home, you know, about midnight, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm a smart urban walker.
At night, I, mm-hmm. . I walk with intent and I don't bring a lot of money with me. So if anyone does want to take what I have, I'm going to give it to them. And oh, so, so Jake, here's my, here's my urban, my urban tip of the day, I carry like that. You want to walk the other, I carry a burner wallet.
I call it, I,
have
an old wallet. And I keep a, an expired, you expired debit card that like a gift card. There's no value on it. I put a couple of receipts in there and I also put like 5 in there. So if I should,
if I
should be accosted or that kind of thing, I just hit hand, hand him that wallet. And then in my back pocket, I've got, I've got my license and I got a credit card, you know, just in my bag.
In my back pants. Yeah.
Yeah.
So I call it my burner wallet and
Jake: that's, that's pretty genius. I've never heard of that. That's a [00:27:00] good idea because yeah, because you just never know. I mean, whether, you know, whether you're in the middle of the city or even in the suburbs, anything can happen any at any time, really.
So, I mean, that's,
Rick: that's,
Jake: that's a good idea.
Rick: Yeah. I'm going to try to trademark that, you know, you know, to sell burner wallets and like dead, dead debit cards, you know,
Jake: Huh.
Rick: Yeah. I do that. Yeah.
Jake: Fake IDs.
Yeah, expired ID. Yeah.
Rick: Yeah, that's exactly
Jake: what I do. What would you say, what's the checklist of being a smart urban walker?
So you said, mentioned having a, having a burner wallet. That's the, that's the headline. Walk with
Rick: intent. And and don't just just cliche because everyone does it. Don't don't be on your phone, you know, very cognizant of everything around you and just walk with intent. And you get a lot of times that seems to just do it.
And I and I tend to walk very fast and I've never had every once while, you know, there might be a whole a homeless incident, but that's not you know, it's not anything. [00:28:00] That's caused me any trial or tribulation. But yeah, yeah, just walk with intent and don't and don't be on your phone Yeah,
Jake: but
don't blame your, be on your phone part is interesting.
I've i've heard i've heard different takes on that to where maybe like it is Good to be on the phone because maybe like if, if the person thinks that you know That the person, the potential victim is talking to somebody that maybe there'd be less likely to, you know, that somebody else is immediately going to know that, that they've been assaulted or whatever, you know, it might
Rick: deter
Jake: them.
Rick: Yeah, but I have
So, so, so, like, basically the West loop I think we've done pretty well compared to the, to the other crimes in the city. I don't know what it was. I don't know anyone challenge or, you know, there's not a lot.
that
I, I, I don't know if the buildings are, there's like, I read stuff on, there are a couple of websites or, you know, a couple of Facebook I follow in the West loop and you'll read that there, you know, there's a ride, you know, robbery or that kind of thing, or, you know, breaking and entering.
But I think it's just living in, just living in the city. It's like, you [00:29:00] know, I've lived, I've lived and spent time in some pretty large places. It's always kind of the same. just got to be careful going
around.
And And I live in a pretty safe building, you know, you got to get through doors to get in.
But these days with Uber drivers and kind of thing, I think there's always, you know, fears that door doors are open and not Uber drivers like, you know, like Amazon, that kind of thing. There's always the door. Fine open, know, and people kind of trailing behind but we haven't had really many problems in in in my building here.
So no, I feel safe in the hood here.
Jake: Yeah.
So in the 12 years lived there, what would you say have been maybe just a handful of sort of the seminal moments that have happened to the neighborhood that have helped it get to the point that it is now? We talked about Google moving in, I would assume that would be a big one.
And I think are some maybe some things that maybe we wouldn't necessarily think of right away. Well,
Rick: I think everyone thinks of when, you know, when think of the West Loop, we're like [00:30:00] way me was Oprah, you know, which now the McDonald's building. And I actually watched I actually watched them tear down Oprah's studio.
She kind of like made the West Loop famous. She bought that old armory and had her studio there. And then when she closed up her show, she sold the McDonald's. I watched them tear down. It interesting. I went over there
couple of days
and watched them tear down her studio and you saw things in her studio.
And, and. And her famous office. And then of course, McDonald's moved in there and that's a huge building. That's a block by a block. And and I think that's a big moment. And I would say just, I think once McDonald's moved in and Google moved in, I think then all of the other businesses started to look at like why are they moving or what is their motivation to move here and do we want to be where the cool kids are, and more and more it's interesting to Fulton in there, all of the showrooms that to be at the merchandise Mart, a lot of the office furniture showrooms, they're starting to move over there because they want to be in the cool [00:31:00] hip area. And the Mart is almost going back to offices you know, where it was.
All of the furniture showrooms, you know, the design. So rooms in more and more of them 3 or 4, 5, really big showrooms have moved over into Fulton. And so I think once you had a couple of big businesses come in, I
think once that kind of flow started, the flow just
bigger.
I've even heard rumors.
I heard from a friend of mine that Chase is possibly looking to downsize because they don't need all that space. Of course, they don't have the old, you know, the whole building on Madison, I've heard that they want to be in a more cool area. And I've heard that they, they have been looking over here for the right lease.
I don't know if that's true. But kind of makes sense, know, if Bank of America moved Wells Fargo moved
some
of the larger banks have moved over, over here, why wouldn't Chase, you know, and take, take a bunch of floors in one of these large they're building. And, and also All of the office component [00:32:00] is moving.
I'm kind of North of Fulton. Was that warehouse area there over by over by the brewery? What's, what's the Irish brewery? Guinness, there's a lot of, there's a lot of offices going in there. And, and, you know, and rumor has it, I don't know if it's true that Chase might be moving So it's just an every neighborhood.
And what's interesting, Jake is the West loop just keeps on going West.
and.
you don't call it West Loop, but just necessarily because I, I used to be, I'm just east of Ashland and I'm kind of like a few blocks west of Racine and I'm just kind of east of Ashland for years. Like once you hit Ashland, it was kind of a no man's land.
It's, it's interesting now. When I go to a concert or I go to a, you know, a sports game, I walked the United Center and I don't know if the old days you didn't walk to the United Center. You just didn't do that. And You know, it wasn't really safe. Now it's like the streets are just loaded.
be
Because Center, that's also one of one of, [00:33:00] one more perk of living in, you know, the West Loop.
You're literally one mile from United Center. Less than a mile. It's very, very walkable and you don't have to pay for parking and, you know, just kind of a nice walk, know, going down there if you're going to a game or a concert. So, so yeah, the West loop, in fact, my grocery store, I go to Pete's market.
I love Pete's that's also one of the greatest things about the West loop. Pete's market is down at it Madison and God, what is that street? Western. You know, and you're kind of on the end, but Pete's market down there is fabulous. Anyone who's not to a market has got to go to a Pete's market because Pete there actually was a Pete in Pete was a produce guy from way back then.
don't know if his dad was a produce guy. So anytime you go into a Pete's, you into a store that Visually attacks you with the most beautiful produce, like aisles and aisles and aisles of beautifully merchandised produce fresh and it's The only place go. It's the only place [00:34:00] to go if you want really good be because Mariano's is is Mariano's.
They've just they've just lost everything. They've lost everything that made them made them good. And now I've heard they're about to sell this story, I guess, to Piggly Wiggly, which a chain that they own or, or that's going to buy them in whole foods. I don't really love the whole foods here. It's a little small, but Pete's is fabulous.
I do. I do. Take my car down to So, you know, cause I tend to stock. Yeah, but you gotta go to peach just for the produce. That's just spectacular.
Jake: Okay.
yeah, good to know. I've never, that's one of the few grocery chains in the area that I've never, never actually stepped foot in. So I'll have to take
Rick: that out and they train their staff really well.
they're extremely
Good at what they do. Their staff is really, really. Diligent about service, and they're, you know, they're just really nice people. And I've talked to the staff, I've gotten to know a lot of, you know, the staffers and they said they really like They've, they've worked at other grocery chains and they just really like them the way they their employees.
And that's important to me too, you know, [00:35:00] to totally to, to,
To go
with a, you know, to with a store or vendor that treats employees good. So. Yeah, but that's right on Madison and Western. So right after United Center, about three, four And then you're kind of on the edge of the Loop. And, you know, and, but it keeps on moving west.
It keeps, know, it's past Ashland, all kinds of instruction. There's, there's a lot of private homes there. And yeah.
Jake: Yeah. Along those lines, what are some of the, some of the local. Shot eclectic shops and restaurants that, you don't have to pay a hundred dollars
a person
to enjoy and things like that in your area, places that maybe you're, that you're comfortable talking about without feel having to share too many of them from people listening to the
show.
Rick: Absolutely. Absolutely. Some of my favorites are
if
I'm not going for a nice dinner over in Fulton and Randolph, there, there's a great place called Talay Thai, and it's right at Western, or it's right in Madison and Racine. And it's one of those places, they have excellent Thai food, but they also have amazing sushi.
Normally
I'm up to [00:36:00] school. Do one thing. Well, don't try to both. It's like don't It's like don't try to sell like one weird product and then a completely different product. They do it So well, so if I want really good Thai and called tell a t a l a Y and that's both Thai and sushi beautiful sushi, too.
I'm kind of a sushi snob, you know, I like
when
I like rolls. It's stunning and it's a great carry out place. That's right there. And also kind of that area too. There's, there's a little, I like healthy bar food. I'm kind of a healthy eater. And when I go out, I want to, I still want to enjoy the ambiance of a bar, but I don't want to you know, I have my moments where I agree to see but but there's a place called Crossroads and that's right.
Just It's just rice east of Madison and Racine. It's a bar. It's, you know, a big sports bar when games are there, but really good food, really good sandwiches, burgers. What else? There's Viaggio, which is a kind of a mid scale, upscale Italian. It's a little bit of a scene at the bar, but that's a really [00:37:00] not a cheap.
Not a cheap place to go, but it's expensive, not as expensive. I've ran Randolph or Fulton. What else? Trying to think on Madison Street, you know, there's a couple just small little places. There's great pizza in the area. Then we've got Nancy's on Washington Street, which is, for me, it's the best pizza out there.
Just incredibly good crust. Nancy's is there. Then we have On Randolph, there is mulattis, you know, for deep dish when you need that deep dish fix.
fix.
And
Jake: yeah, when you got the people coming in from out of town who want, want to do the whole Chicago thing, go to, go to Lou's yeah.
Rick: I That's a really nice,
that's
a really nice Lou's eat into or else carry out.
And what else? Everything else is pretty, there's, you there's a few there's a few fun bars here. Every, every once in a while, you just want townie bar that smells like a bar. I love bars.
And there's a place, it's right. Kind of everything kind of is right. It kind of we're seeing in Madison, there's place called third rail.
It's just a tavern bar that you, you can [00:38:00] still get a drink for 5 and that kind of, that's fun. And you know, and up there It's really funny. There's Jets pizza and I had to be introduced to that Detroit, Detroit style pizza and Jets is brilliant. You can buy Jets by the slice and don't have to order it.
So it's pretty tough. If, if you've been out and you pass Jets on the way home, it's pretty tough not to stop because you can get us a slice pizza square and it's that Detroit style pizza. And really good. It's really good. And it's by the slice. Go in And you're out in like a minute or two.
Jake: Yeah,
that ladies and gentlemen, or that, that's why I was excited to have Rick on.
I knew he would deliver the goods. He's just all about the West loop, man. I, I know we're running up on time. I just have a couple, a couple more quick questions for you. What, what is a challenge? Are you
good?
Rick: Yeah, it's good. this has gone incredibly quick.
Jake: I know,
right? Yeah, it looked it's like how we've been talking for 45 minutes already.
It's crazy. What is what are some challenges or maybe just one one challenge [00:39:00] that that you think the West loop is is currently facing?
Rick: I think the challenge for the West loop now, anyone who wants to buy in the West loop, there's not a lot of product, you probably know that
Jake: indeed.
Rick: It's like they're everything they're building is are luxury apartment buildings, and they're just Expensive and there's in all of the condos they're building are they're trying to get families to stay here in all the condos that they're building.
There's a kind of building that just opened up in May in Washington. The top floor is 5 million. dollars. It is for half the floor. It's not even the full floor all all of of the condos are, top floor is 5 million dollars. It's not
Everything that's old, there's not a lot, not a, not a lot on the market and everything that's new is just incredibly expensive.
That's the only challenge. There's not a lot of like kind of mid price condos right now. It's the only, it's the only challenge, you know, it's great. You know, I hate, you know, I hate to be brash and but that's why I'm thrilled that I'm in my place because it's some [00:40:00] point. I'm not on a high end condo, but I'm in a nice condo.
I'm, I'm a score on this place because there's nothing in between. There's a lot of smaller condos and there's a lot of these major condos. So I'm really glad I'm here. But I think that for anyone to move here It's kind of tough. One, of, one of my favorite buildings, Jake, and you probably know it 1040 West Adams.
It's a really long building. it's a loft building from Aberdeen almost up to Morgan. It's just a huge old loft conversion. And it is a, it's kind of like the, the best loft building I've ever seen. Kind of, kind of a reno. It's like when they bring it to a warehouse or from a warehouse to a building.
Yeah. Mm hmm. Like residential. I've got a friend who's trying to move in that building and she's really having a challenge and there's a lot of units in that building, but it's such a popular building because it's really a beautiful loft building and and just, they just did an amazing job. A lot of times, a lot of those loft developers do great jobs.[00:41:00]
There's no problems in it. They just did a well, and she's trying to move into this building and she just keeps on getting bit out. And and, and now people because interest rates were a little higher. You know, you know, people aren't moving out
Jake: Mm hmm.
Rick: unless they're moving to the burbs and, but that is a superb building.
That's a, anyone wanting to move to the West loop? If you, you're willing to look and that 1020 West Adams, 10 1040 was just incredible building. If you've been in there, Jake.
Jake: I, I'm not, I'm, I'm sure I have at some point. I've been in, I'm, I've been in pretty much every, except for maybe like the brand new, you know, basically still being built.
Like if it's, if it's just opened within the last year or two, maybe I haven't been in there, but for the most part, I've been in pretty much every building.
Rick: I'm doing it for an ad a building, you know, for the building, but I don't even have any interest in it except I have friends there. That's an awesome loft building.
You know, it's about a year old
and, you
know, wood, wood beams and brick walls. like, it's kind of like a barrel ad, I say. [00:42:00]
Jake: Oh, what?
Rick: Creighton barrel ad. It's like
Jake: Yeah, yeah.
Rick: that look, that urban feel, but that's a really nice
Jake: building. There's a lot of that in the West Loop and Fulton Market, all those kind of converted industrial loft, you know, the, the things that all the, all the Gen Zers and millennials like to, you know, put on Instagram, like you were saying, all the, the exposed brick, the wood beams, the You know, there's some every building probably has some kind of old, like,
broiler
from the 1800s that is the size of, like, a locomotive that they keep in there just for the ambiance of it.
You know, it's just different little things like that.
Rick: Hey, Jake. 1 more thing. I, you know, I'm talking about West loop. 1 thing that's really important for people who might be.
Might be looking at It's very dog friendly. Lot of dogs. Yes. They're almost dogs is you know, and, and they're people. And I'm on Madison, just one block south of me is a really nice Park.
Hall Skinner. Mm-Hmm. . And it's a.
a huge park.
Park. It's about a three block by
three or
four blocks like [00:43:00] long and about two blocks wide, very much a dog park. It's really a fun park. And there's two dedicated dog parks also in in the West Loop dispensed in and it's a good people. You know, it's a good place for people to be social with their dogs and meet But it's very. Dog friendly. You just got to get them. There's not a lot of green on like Madison and the streets But like you just go a block south and there's a lot of green.
Jake: that's a great call out. Yeah, you're right Very very dog friendly. You can't drive around in the West Loop and not see a dozen people walking dogs at all times Yeah,
Rick: yeah, like you look outside.
You see everyone's out with their dog in the morning And so
Jake: yeah for sure. Yeah, I guess this bottom line what? Why, why would somebody want to move to a Chicago in general, and then within that within that umbrella, why do you think somebody should want to move to the West loop? Like What would be kind of the
ideal person?
Rick: So as I as I think I, [00:44:00] I am still a, you know, a lot of people like to bash this town. And I am still the greatest fan. I, I love it here. I live it here. I have lived elsewhere and I think it's the most livable place I've ever in. When I say livable, I, I mean, it's somewhat affordable, you know, it's somewhat affordable.
It's not Manhattan. It's not LA. You know.
Jake: Affordability is relative.
Rick: Yeah, right. Exactly. Affordability, you know, it's somewhat. But I just think it's a town that
extremely
resilient. And also it's like anyone who lives here too. It's like, yeah, for the past month, we haven't seen the sun. And but when, as soon as it gets nice here, I, I, I just rejoice in the happiness of people enjoying the town.
They really appreciate when it's nice here. And like, you know, Jake, the
summer
here is spectacular. It's just spectacular. You know, the, you know, between all the concerts and, you know, the street fairs, Taste of Randolph, Union Park, which is just west of me, they have all these music festivals, you know, and Riot [00:45:00] Fest is just to the south here.
It's really a fun, a fun, fun place to live. And I love the lakefront, you know, and I'm close enough to, you know, I do, I do a lot of things on the water with friends and it's just. I think it's one of the most resilient places, and I like that it's, you know, I like that it's kind of liberal. I tend, you know, I tend to lean, I lean liberal, and it's, it's a liberal place, and I, I'm just a huge fan, and just, so just narrowing down, and they're going to the West Loop, if you're looking for a lot of things to do, And you want proximity to a lot of things to do.
You couldn't ask for a better neighborhood.
Because, like
I said, it's kind of like a wheel in all the spokes. You're in the middle. You're, it's like you can go any place want from here. You know, I have friends who live like way north, live up in Lake or Edgewater. Great up there in Andersonville.
It's great up there, but it's so far and it's so hard to to. And like, I love Anderson. I love, you know, I love Clark Street. I love that neighborhood. It's too hard to get to. It's you know, [00:46:00] you know, to get up there, it's such a, and, and yet I love it there. We're here, you're more in, in
proximity
to so many different neighborhoods.
You
know, like I said, we live in the south, Pilsen to, to the southwest, the core of the loop downtown. It's like everything. And then if you want to go, you know, Logan Square, Kew, Kew, Kew Village, everything is right here. Yeah, I'm a huge fan. Yeah,
Jake: that's awesome. Thanks
for that.
Yeah, well, that's pretty much all I have.
Was there anything that's anything that you wanted to get to that? Maybe I should have asked or anything that anything that you would like to anything else that maybe you would like to promote either yourself, anything you have going on, or maybe some organizations or anything, you know, if not, no big deal.
But
Rick: I, I like to purview. I'd like to promote, there's, there's a little there's a little gift store on Madison Street called Fig Tree, and if you, if you need a quick gift, if need the craziest birthday cards it's just the greatest place if need a host gift, that kind thing, and it's owned by a lady by the name of the hand, and I'm [00:47:00] big, I'm a big fan of her because greets everyone, and she's very good at what she does, and has fun stuff, and she's also, Jake, has been hugely generous With our church for, for the Christmas store for, for the migrant app, he's given probably a thousand dollars two a product and just because, you know, cares about the neighborhood.
And she's extremely generous and just a fun lady. So it's fig tree. It's like, need a quick hostess gift, post gift, or just crazy cards or like a baby gift, she has all of it.
I'm a,
I'm a, I'm a huge fan of Ann.
Jake: Nice. Great call
out. I'll put her in the show notes. I'll put as many of the businesses that we've mentioned in this episode as possible.
I'll put, I'll put links to them in the show notes for the show. So Rick, thank you so much. This is worth the wait. You did not disappoint. Thank you. Our audience get a lot out of your your Westloop knowledge and yeah, that's all I got. Thank you so much. Bye Jake.
