WHEATON, IL-The Chicago-based Morningside Group, a developer of retail and multifamily properties in Illinois and Michigan, will break ground today on Wheaton 121. The $60 million property received approval early this month from the local City Council to move forward.

The six-story building going up at 121 N. Cross St. in the downtown is to have 306 luxury apartments. The amenity package will include a swimming pool, outdoor kitchens and fire pits, a dog run and wash station, a car wash, a theater, a large health club and a business center with conference room. Two stories of the property will feature an indoor parking garage with more than 400 spaces.

David Strosberg, president of the firm, said the property should be completed by late summer 2013. The company is receiving more than $1 million in incentives by the city for various public improvements to the site. The property is currently vacant land.

The new property is at the start of a wave for new multifamily across Chicagoland, mostly downtown but starting to trickle to the suburbs. Apartment vacancy will likely plunge to a new low of 3.9% in the Chicago suburbs this year, according to a recent Marcus & Millichap second quarter report. Few projects are under way in the suburbs, but the planning pipeline now totals

about 5,000 units, marking an increase from 4,200 units in the final quarter of 2011.