It may not be the traditional way of unveiling new loft condos in an urban setting, but a Chicago developer hosted a warehouse fete complete with svelte models, tight fitting promotional t-shirts on a runway, and strobe-highlighted music. The promotional center piece? Eco-friendly loft condos in Chicago's trendy community of Bucktown.

"In a marketing ploy that would only make sense in such an aggressively chic community, developer William Senne is tying his company's yet-to-be-built, eco-friendly loft apartments on Fullerton Avenue to all that is hip and stylish in Chicago," reports the Chicago Tribune.

The new condos, called EcoLogic Lofts, speak to everything green, alternative and recycled. The lone model unit sported:

• Living room rugs made of recycled bicycle inner-tubes

• Bathrooms with wall paper from recycled magazines

• Throw pillows created from second-hand Gianni Versace suits.

Planned for seven-stories, the building will highlight wind turbines to assist in the structure's power source, showing that it's about green in the downtown condo development. Pricing starts in the $200's and is geared toward an obvious younger audience as the group's web site touts photos of the under-30 crowd, outfitted in fashionable dress, and also including one of three people sharing a shower (a young man with about 0 percent body fat in between two wet, but clothed women – headlined: "Eco-friendly living and water conservation were never this fun.")

In other words, Sene told the Tribune, "it's urban cool. And, so in the near future, will be green development, he predicted."

"'Eventually, eco-friendliness will become embedded in our everyday life,' Senne predicted, citing the Obama administration's aggressive new agenda for green development and Mayor Richard Daley's own fondness for such building."

Published: February 23, 2009

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Mr. Carr is an award-winning real estate broker in Northern Virginia and authored "Real Estate Investing Made Simple: a commonsense approach to building wealth." He also contributed to Donald Trump’s book, "The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received," and is an active trainer and coach of top producers in the Washington DC market. As a sought-after expert on real estate, Mr. Carr has been featured on CNN, various broadcast outlets and was the former real estate editor for The Washington Times. He accepts questions at his blog www.RealEstateOlogy.org.