Lis Pendens on $4.95 Million River North Condo: 33 W. Ontario
We’ve chattered about the stresses in 33 W. Ontario, the Millenium Centre, as foreclosures and short sales have appeared in the River North highrise. 33 W. Ontario was developed and marketed by American Invsco.
But this is the most expensive lis pendens to date.
Here’s the history:
Unit #60SE:
- Sold in March 2005 for $1.9 million
- Sold in February 2008 for $4.95 million
- Lis pendens filed in November 2008
It’s sister unit, Unit #60SW, is currently on the market. It’s a 4-bedroom penthouse bi-level unit.
Sandesh Bilgi at Century 21 Sussex and Reilly has the listing. See more pictures and a virtual tour here.
Unit #60SW: 4 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, no square footage listed
- I couldn’t find a prior sales price
- Originally listed in April 2008 for $5 million (using the other sale as a comp???)
- Reduced in September 2008
- Currently listed for $3.5 million
- Assessments of $2873 a month
- Taxes are $22,000
- 2 car parking (can’t tell if this is included in the price)
ANyone want to loan me 4.5 million? I’d take this place if I had the $$. great view. awesome “patio”. def. not cookie cutter.
Was this place rennovated between 2005 and 2008? Can anyone tell me why it was sold for 2 million and more than doubled in 3 years? The pre-foreclosure price isnt even close to the bubble price.
WTF is going on?
Wow what an unbelieveable place! Woooow! I bet some movie star (or probably now unemployed investment banker) paid that much money to get the tenant out of there, hence the rediculous increase in price. Amazing place however and well worth the 2 mills the original owner paid for it. If I could only win the lottery, i’d totally live there! 🙂
A monster fraud took place here, it seems. The 2008 sale has Mortgage Fraud written all over it. How was it possible for something that sold at $1.9 million at the peak of the boom in 2005, to sell for over twice that in 2008, well on the way down the slope.
Who made the loan for this, and who bought it?
Gorgeous place – looks very liveable.
Man, I have the opposite reaction to this place than most of you. Terrace aside, it doesn’t look “livable” at all. It just seems…corny, and already dated, like some 20-year-old bachelor’s idea of what “luxury” should be. Definitely not my thing at all.
MitchellD, I share your impression. Your description is very apt!
For that price, you’d think they’d throw in the parking :O)
The listing for the 2005 sale for #60SE (f/k/a #PH-B) at $1.9M described the unit as a “concrete box,” which indicates it was raw space. The listing also included a unit size of 3,150 SF.
MitchellD: Interesting – I’ll better describe why I think it’s a great space: only two floors as compared to 3-4 vertical of some similarly priced SFH. An open kitchen that still feels like a kitchen rather than a wall unit. Separate dining area that can also flow into the outside space. Sizable outside space that is private. A media room, and a separate living room area. What appears to be a wood burning fireplace, in a highrise.
I’m not sold on the finishes (that hood scares me), and the random impressions in the walls I’d fill with paintings or sculpture rather than TV’s. I’d also ditch the rock garden under the stairs.
But alas, I don’t have the 4 million, much less the original 2, to get the shot.
I dunno, for 4 million I’d want that place to be closer to the lake/river. Seems a bit far west.
G,
Thanks for clarify the unit sales.
“The listing for the 2005 sale for #60SE (f/k/a #PH-B) at $1.9M described the unit as a “concrete box,” which indicates it was raw space. The listing also included a unit size of 3,150 SF.”
$603.00 per sq. ft. for raw space……. ouch!
an honest question b/c i’m not totally sure of their structure, but other than fleecing greedy ill-informed investors, did American Invesco actually do anything wrong legally (not morally, I think we know that answer).
This has fraud written all over it. Why would a place increase so much in so little time during a slowing economy? Seriously. Looks very fishy to me.
Also regarding the decor. I would never live in this unit/building even if I won the Mega Million tomorrow. It has no class. American Invesco is one of the worst (if not THE worst) developer in the nation (they should have that as their tagline!). The finishes are so 80s rich that I would have to re-do everything. 600 Fairbanks, even Dump Tower (which I am by no means a fan of) is livable modern which I like a lot more than this place.
This is the second $4 million+ condo foreclosure we have seen in River North in the past 12 months.
Both went into foreclosure within a year (or less) of purchase.
I’ll agree with the others here who suspect that something in the milk isn’t clean (or the original owner got seriously lucky with a buyer as dumb as a box of rocks); with the high assessments and other issues this has more than a slight hint of fraud.
Market Price = what a willing buyer will pay will pay a willing seller. We see large anomolies in prices if: a) the buyer is an idiot(pays too much); b) the seller is an idiot (price too low); or c) buyer/seller gets bad information from his/her broker. The only thing that was “perpetrated” here was a fool and his/her money, coupled with a willing lender, and an “eager to make 2.5%(or 5%) of $4.95Mill) broker all found each other at the same time.
If you look this transaction up on the MLS, the selling and listing agent are the same people which means if coop was 2.5%, generally total commission is 5% which equals a nice little commission of roughly $245,000. If that is not motivation to sell this unit (uhh…find a sucker), I don’t know what is.
This unit is 1/2 the price now. There was a scam and those 2008 prices are way inflated. You won’t ever see them that high again.
Unit 60SW is now 925k. Less than 1 mill. Assmt is well over 3k and taxes 2.5k/month. I’m in the same building a few floors below and luckily my place was a conservative purchase so the crash hasn’t hit me as hard, it just sucks to be stuck.