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Rents Are Up To $3,900 A Month At Logan Square's Latest TOD Apartments

By Rachel Cromidas in News on May 17, 2016 7:10PM

In today's installment of "Rents off the Blue Line are out of control," Logan Square's new transit-oriented "L" apartments are on the rental market—for some of the highest monthly rents in the neighborhood.

Jr. one-bedrooms, which, as far as we can tell, are studio apartments with extra walls, start at $1,575 a month, but go up to more than $1,800 a month for just over 500 square feet. The priciest units listed on the L Apartment's site are upper floor three-bedrooms, priced at $3,900 a month. In exchange, L is offering residents a "bike kitchen" and a swanky roof deck with a gazebo made out of a retired CTA L car. It all sounds fun and hip, until you've priced all your neighbors off the block.

Rents in Logan Square have been on the rise for years, as the neighborhood transforms from predominantly working-class to predominantly trendy restaurants. Still, with Zumper estimating median rental prices for a one-bedroom apartment at $1,280 a month this year, L's units are scarily above average.

Transit-oriented developments, like L, are intended to make areas near CTA stations more livable, increase the housing inventory and offer smaller, more economical units to renters who don't own cars (TODs have very limited parking spaces). But as more of Logan Square's TODs go up, they appear to be anything but economical. The L apartments, at 2211 N. Milwaukee Ave., appear to be priced on-par with these Wicker Park TODs down by Ashland and North.

Activists pushing back against this new world order in Logan Square and Humboldt Park are taking to The 606—that new public park trail and potential harbinger of yuppie rentersto protest Tuesday evening.