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Rents At California Blue Line's New TOD Start At $1,495 A Month For A Studio 'Convertible'

By Rachel Cromidas in News on Aug 3, 2016 5:08PM

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Rendering via MiCa

In our latest installment of "Rents off the Blue Line are out of control," we have MiCa, the controversial transit-oriented, luxury apartment development that recently went up near the California Blue Line CTA station.

The TOD, which was nick-named the Twin Towers during the early stages of development, announced this week that it has begun leasing apartments for Oct. 1. Affordable housing activists demonstrated in front of the twin apartment buildings, situated just off California Avenue on Belden and Wrightwood streets, earlier this year, out of concern that they will hasten Logan Square's descent into a soulless yuppieville. Developer Rob Buono told us that 22 of the 216 units will be "affordable" in price, but otherwise no different than the market-rate units, with rents ranging from $798 to just under $900. Among other amenities, all units will have in-unit laundry and central air and be pet friendly.

MiCa's website does not list specific apartment pricing information (we've reached out to the leasing agency and will update this post if we hear back), but it shows the smallest units currently available are 463 square feet, for rents starting at $1,495 a month. The building was recently completed and the apartment complex has just begun offering the units for rent for October move-ins.

It will probably take more than some pagan rituals to afford the security deposit on that, but at least the units are slightly cheaper than the neighborhood's other new TOD in town: The L apartments, which start at $1,575 a month.

As rents around the city, and particularly in Logan Square, continue to rise, some of the newest transit-oriented developments are promoting luxury amenities at prices one would expect to find closer to the Loop (The California stop is about 5 miles from the Loop, or a 15 minutes train ride).

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Floor plan via MiCa