2-Bedroom With Skyline Views Reduces $149,900: 1300 N. Astor in the Gold Coast
This 2-bedroom in the Astor Tower at 1300 N. Astor in the Gold Coast came on the market in May 2023.
Astor Tower Condos was built in 1962 by Bertrand Goldberg. It was originally the Astor Tower Hotel and had some famous customers including the Beatles.
It now has 78 condo units and garage parking. It has 24-hour door staff, on-site maintenance and management, a fitness center and a rooftop 360-degree deck.
Apparently, the building is not on the historic register, nor is it landmarked. Block Club Chicago has more on how it was built:
In 1959, Bertrand Goldberg began designing a strikingly modern high rise for Astor Street, juxtaposed by the surrounding classical revival townhouses and apartments. The Astor Tower featured a structural center core of poured concrete upon which twenty-four residential floors were hung, and further supported by twelve parameter columns. The core and columns rise for a full five stories before the residential floors begin, giving the building the shape of an “ice pop.”
This innovative design required Bertrand Goldberg Associates structural engineer Bert Weinberg to revise the building’s structural calculations, requiring three more stories to be added to the design, delaying the start of construction. Meanwhile, Marina City had broken ground beside the Chicago River in 1960 and was constructed as scheduled, with its first residents moving in to the finished first tower in 1962, a year prior to the opening of the Astor Tower Hotel.
This unit is a “rarely available” half floor corner unit with “breathtaking” lake and city views from its floor to ceiling windows.
There are “newer” hardwood floors throughout.
The kitchen is “eat-in” with sleek flat panel cabinets, stainless steel appliances and a panel ready integrated refrigerator, granite counter tops, a slab backsplash and a peninsula.
The primary suite is on the southwest corner with skyline and sunset views. It has a walk-in-closet and an en suite bathroom with marble vanities, rain shower and body sprays.
The unit has the features that buyers look for including central air, washer/dryer in the unit and 2-car tandem parking which is included.
This building is near the shops and restaurants of the Gold Coast, Rush Street, and Old Town as well as the beach and parks.
Originally listed in May 2023 for $699,900, it has been reduced $149,900 to $550,000.
That’s below all the sales prices since 2006.
Is this unit a deal?
George Furla and John Kosmopoulos at Dream Town have the listing. See the pictures here (sorry, no floor plan.)
Unit #26A: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1600 square feet
- Sold in October 1999 for $315,000
- Sold in May 2006 for $680,000
- Sold in April 2010 for $810,000
- Sold in October 2014 for $772,000
- Originally listed in May 2023 for $699,900
- Reduced several times
- Currently listed at $550,000 (includes 2-car tandem parking)
- Assessments of $2889 a month (includes heat, a/c, doorman, cable, exercise room, coin laundry in the building, on-site engineer, party room, sundeck)
- Taxes of $11,851
- Central Air
- Washer/dryer in the unit
- OR, you can rent it. Listed on August 31, 2023 for $5750 a month
- Reduced
- Currently listed for rent at $5,000 a month (is THIS a deal?)
- Bedroom #1: 18×13
- Bedroom #2: 15×10
- Living/dining room combo: 18×27
- Kitchen: 11×7
Monthly nut is $3,900 IF you pay cash. You’d be better off renting. The property is unlikely to appreciate.
“Currently listed for rent at $5,000 a month”
So…was wondering how that spread related to the Seller’s mortgage nut.
Was 100% financed, with the mortgage to the Bank of Mom & Dad.
Looks like it could have been pre-estate planning.
“The property is unlikely to appreciate.”
Sadly, KK is right.
And, I can’t imagine not having any vent above the stove. Even my vintage rental has a basic one. Great views, though.
HOA is brutal. Great location and unit has potential with some minor reno, but I can’t see how anyone could justify that monthly nut.
I wonder if we will ever witness the deconversion of some of these older high rises with sky high assessments.
I like it. The assessments are $1k too high. Always seemed like they were putting a fresh coat of blacktop down every year, but that doesn’t explain the high assessments.
The last pic provides a glimpse of the rooftop space of the building directly east of the playground. Is that Wrigley’s place?
I love this building but wowee zowee…those assessments kill this unit.
This also needs a floorplan to explain the closed with an exit door. Was this unit previously two units or was this at one point a hotel and converted to residential?
Also, can we chat about this:
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1314-N-Sandburg-Ter-60610/home/14113960
Combined unit – I think they were all one-bedroom’s originally. That’s part of the reason for the high assessment, though 1400 is high for a one bedroom – this can’t be a cheap building to maintain though.
A beautiful unit and building. Looks like a deal, especially with views that are hard to find here (most floors are blocked by nearby buildings).
I suppose the taxes/assessment are keeping this one from selling. They’re not outrageous, but it is about $3,000 a month above and beyond the mortgage, and with mortgage rates at 7%, it probably makes it harder to sell units with high HOAs.
Btw, the Beatles had a suite here in their 1966 Chicago visit. It was on the top floor, and it’s where Lennon had to apologize to the press for making the (correct) claim that the group had become more popular than Jesus.
“I didn’t mean it to be a lousy anti-religious thing. I just said what I said, and it was wrong, or it was taken wrong, and now it’s all this.”
“I wonder if we will ever witness the deconversion of some of these older high rises with sky high assessments.”
Russ: this has already been happening for years. Mostly 1960s and 1970s buildings.
But with money so expensive right now, probably going to be a big pause on it.
SABS persona says “Sorry no floor plan”
28A which is two floors up has a floor plan. 28A has been modified to be a large one bedroom and wowsers is asking for ~ 2x the price ( 995k vs. 550k for 26A)
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1300-N-Astor-St-60610/unit-28A/home/183719465
Where is the garage parking?
CAT says
“I love this building but wowee zowee…those assessments kill this unit.
This also needs a floorplan to explain the closed with an exit door. Was this unit previously two units or was this at one point a hotel and converted to residential?
Also, can we chat about this:
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1314-N-Sandburg-Ter-60610/home/14113960”
there used to be some rule that once you got over a certain size say 1400 sq. ft that you needed a second ingress/egress but I don’t recall if it is still a rule. Regardless, I think most units here were 1 bedrooms so the extra door might be left over from a combo
Sandburg Terrace is like affordable housing for the Gold Coast. In a way, it reminds me of the development of housing around UIC. There will be a pricing floor due to the location, but neither the finishing nor the appreciation will ever be grand.
I think it’s great that this place has an Astor address, but I wonder if anyone under 35 cares about an Astor address.
as for cross shopping, I’d consider a unit in the Hancock
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/175-E-Delaware-Pl-60611/unit-7805/home/14119019
on the HOA, so for a smaller building with less total units, at what point do assessments get silly? more than $1 per sq. foot? $1.25 per sq. foot?
Maybe I’m thin-skinned but I’m curious why people downvoted my comment here. If you disagree with me, I’m all ears.
We chattered about 28A in March, chichow.
https://cribchatter.com/skyline-and-lake-views-from-this-2-bedroom-gold-coast-penthouse-1300-n-astor/
“SABS persona says “Sorry no floor plan””
Are you going to call me Joe Zekas next chichow?
Such lame comments saying I’m some sort of fake person (remember Bob saying I was in India? Lol). It’s so tiring.
no
RIP Joe Zekas
So why do you keep insisting I’m some kind of fake person chichow with the “SABS persona” crap?
I don’t get it. But it’s as bad as many of you claiming I was Joe Zekas over the years. Yes, RIP to him. But it took him dying for many people here to admit I wasn’t him.
So sad.
“I’m curious why people downvoted my comment here”
Some people are still mad at John.