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In my post, The Irish Are Coming, The Irish Are Coming I focused on the increased spending on New York City by Irish buyers. Now reading an article out of Chicago I see that the Irish are also buying up property in Chicago too. The low tax, high growth environment is creating amazing wealth in Ireland and they are looking to invest in United State real estate in increasing numbers.

So if you have properties that are not moving well, maybe buying some advertising in Ireland is not the craziest of ideas. 

Having established beachheads on the East Coast, Irish investors have turned their attention here, as evidenced most dramatically by Dublin developer Garrett Kelleher’s plan to erect the Chicago Spire, a 150-story lakefront condominium tower.

Kelleher is hardly the first to eye trophy real estate here, however. Anglo Irish Bank Corp. this year financed the $93 million purchase of 625 N. Michigan Ave. by a syndicate of Irish investors. An Irish builder is putting up a 35-story condo building in the South Loop. Irish realty brokerages are partnering with U.S. developers to market high-rise condos while they’re still on the drawing boards.

So far, most buyers are of the institutional stripe, typically buying blocks of condos or prominent commercial sites. But individuals, empowered by the thriving Irish economy, are starting to get noticed in the marketplace, some brokers say.  “They’re certainly out there,” said Catherine Steigmann, a broker for @Properties in Chicago who visited Dublin and Limerick last year to promote Lexington Park, a condo development that the Limerick-based Chieftain Group is putting up on the site of Al Capone’s old hangout, the Lexington Hotel.

Steigmann said Irish investors have bought about 70 of the building’s 333 units, with varying intentions. “Some are going to use it as a second home; some are planning to send children to school here; some see it just as an investment opportunity for a few years. They’ll rent it out and see how it goes,” she said. via the Chicago Tribune.

Related posts:

1. Chicago Sees Real Estate Slowdown for 2006
2. The Irish Are Coming, The Irish Are Coming
3. Chicago Mercantile Exchange to Add Real Estate Futures Trading
4. Cendant Board Approves Spin Off of Real Estate Division Named Realogy Corp.
5. Chicago Plays Politics With Developers