A Unique 3-Bedroom East Lake Shore Drive Maisonette: 189 E. Lake Shore Drive in the Gold Coast
This 3-bedroom duplex down maisonette in The Mayfair at 189 E. Lake Shore Drive in the Gold Coast came on the market in January.
It is the shorter building just to the east of the Drake in the picture above. Sorry, but I don’t think I have any other picture of it.
Maisonettes, for the uninitiated, are first floor condos in a high rise that sometimes (but not always) have their own separate entrances.
In this case, this maisonette is the row of extra large windows that extends the length of the driveway of the building so it has lake and Lake Shore Drive views. (See the listing pictures to know what I mean.)
The Mayfair was built in 1924 as a hotel and converted into one-of-a-kind condos in the 1990s. There are 29, with 2 per floor.
This “zen-inspired” unit looks nothing like a vintage condo in the interior as it has contemporary upgrades, including light maple wood floors and skylights.
The kitchen is custom Bulthaup with commercial level appliances (are those blue, black or gray cabinets? I cannot tell for sure.)
All three bedrooms are on the main level.
There is a media room and wine cellar on the lower level.
It has central air, washer/dryer in the unit and 2-car parking.
Purchased in 2007 for $4.495 million in 2007, it has come on the market $1.5 million higher six years later.
The upper bracket has been hot due to the stock market being at all time highs.
Will this unit continue the trend?
Timothy Salm at Jameson Sotheby’s has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #1W: 3 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, 5000 square feet, duplex down, 2 car parking
- Sold in November 1996 for $1.1 million
- Sold in February 2007 for $4.495 million
- Listed in January 2013 for $5.999 million
- Currently still listed at $5.999 million
- Assessments of $3842 a month (includes gas, parking, doorman)
- Taxes of $38799
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- Bedroom #1: 13×24 (main level)
- Bedroom #2: 13×11 (main level)
- Bedroom #3: 12×11 (main level)
- Media room: 20×15 (lower level)
Very cool
That kitchen is spectacular.
so cool but I’m a little disappointed with the finishes in the masterbath, they don’t match the modern feel at all. Wonder how loud it is here with LSD across the way. My dream is a modern interior with an old, historic exterior. This comes pretty close.
wow
Really amazing, and it’s huge, but for nearly $6 mm plus $7k/mo in fees/taxes, I’m wondering if one couldn’t get something that doesn’t have a direct view of the cars rushing past on LSD. ELSD is an architectural asset to the city and lakefront, but it’s got to have the most overpriced places in town.
Looks great, but $6 million and duplex down don’t seem to go together. You could get a pretty fabulous penthouse for $6 million.
duplex down?
OMG! Missed that
Hard to call this one a duplex down, even if it is. It’s more like a house with a finished basement– wine cellar and media room– no bedroom down there. When I walk along ELSD, LSD seems rather far away.
It’s beautiful, but very taste specific. Unless they find someone with the same style, the buyer is going to be investing a lot of cash in decorating. Although at this price point I suppose that’s always the case.
Is this the building with the turn table for cars? I love that car turn table.
I hate to be a hater, especially regarding a $7 million property, but this place feels commercial and cold. It’s not Zen, it’s corporate, like living in an office lobby.
Who lives here? Mr. Miyagi?!?! I wish you guys would all stop waxing off all over this place. I have a dojo in my basement and it’s way cooler than this. I didn’t even see any samurai swords. Leave it to a decorator to bastardize what could have been a really cool concept.
If this is the turntable building, I’d say that that turntable adds at least $100k of value to this unit over neighboring turntable-less buildings.
Zen indeed… Perhaps the folks that own the penthouse on 211 E. from yesterdays post should take some cues from this place. Clean lines, light, neutral, and open. That will get them more $$$$
Laughably overpriced. Best hope is to find a wealthy foodie with a steak fetish who wants to live in the space once occupied by The Palm. The duplex down is where they aged the meat, there’s a1 in them floorboards.
Given the property’s uniqueness I don’t blame the seller for listing very high, floating a trial balloon. Besides, one never knows what bids may be lurking, so start high. If I were a lender I think I could justify lending as much as $4m against this property — so I’ll guess it trades again around the 07 price, $4.5m.
What is the car turntable?
when you drive in, the valet takes care down to small, tight garage via elevator. They don’t have room to maneuver. So, the car comes back up with rear facing street, but turntable turns it 180 degrees so front is now facing the street, and you drive out.
“If I were a lender I think I could justify lending as much as $4m against this property — so I’ll guess it trades again around the 07 price, $4.5m.”
According to Clio, the rich all buy with cash. They don’t have mortgages so what the lender is willing to do is irrelevant.
In fact, in a lot of this market, the low interest rates aren’t what is driving the “hotness.” It is investors, buying with cash. Something like half of all the transactions right now are all cash purchases.
For this price, I’d take a 3 bedroom high up in the Trump Tower with spectacular views. Or a vintage high-rise duplex like the one recently for sale at 2430 N. Lakeview. Or a 19th century townhouse on Astor. I wouldn’t want to be on the first floor on ELSD, mainly due to noise but also because I’d focus all the time on the views I’d be having if I were 10 floors higher.
I’ve changed my mind. I wouldn’t want to lend more than 2 million or so against this collateral because it’s essentially an art piece and therefore its value is presumably more volatile, buyer specific. Sure, someone could lift the current offer and make my point moot. But from the lender’s standpoint, this place enjoyed a tremendous appreciation from 96 to 07, the market top. I think my $4mm mortgage is too aggressive, unless the comps say otherwise. Are there any decent comps for this place?
” this place enjoyed a tremendous appreciation from 96 to 07, the market top”
Pretty sure ’96 is just after the Palm moved out, so probably basically raw space then.
I hear ya anon. What would you guess was spent making the unit into its current state?
Btw, this place got a $2.5mm mortgage from BoA attached in 07. So that makes my willingness to lend only $2mm against it look too conservative. If the new buyer got a $3mm mortgage at 4% they’d pay
$14,300/mo. mortgage
$3800/mo. ass fee
$3233/mo. prop tax
$21,400/month — to live in their own Gap Store-like home.
I disagree with the notion that “what the lender is willing to do is irrelevant.”
The seller’s chance of getting paid $6m is of course much greater if a lender can be found willing to lend 4.8m, which I think very unlikely given BoA’s loan in 07, at the market top. But it’ll be very interesting to see what happens here.
“What would you guess was spent making the unit into its current state?”
Let’s say it was $200 psf for work + finishes, and another $100 psf for the union labor surtax. *still* only at $1.5mm. And I’d say that’s a very generous/conservative estimate.
Purchase price inflated is about $1.65m. So maybe $3.5 (inflating the buildout costs) all in, BUT, I’d bet there were few people in ’96 with the liquidity and desire to take on the project, so I’d think the ’96 price was below ‘market’ (even if only a little).
i dont know if it was raw space or not. looks like they built two units a floor most of the way up, which went for a million to a million and a half generally.
interestingly, here is an article about a development plan that didnt happen.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-07-08/business/9203010735_1_lodging-property-construction-business-mayfair-regent-hotel
“The Mayfair was built as an apartment hotel in 1924 and contained more than 200 rooms. Mr. Abrams has gutted the building and is selling apartments ranging from 3,700 to 8,600 square feet. “It will essentially be a modern building in a vintage shell with high-tech, high-efficiency mechanicals,” he said. The company offers several floor plans and finishing packages, including duplexes, and buyers can also bring in their own architects. The base package offered by the company costs about $150 a square foot.”
if it were raw space then price should have been 750k. but who knows how the pricing varied. when the hotel had it’s liquidations sale I helped a relative who rented a uhaul and purchased a bunch of lamps etc. backed it up onto the sidewalk for a few min to load up. some crabby old lady raised hell even though there was plenty of room to get by. neighborhood hasnt changed much in that regard..still plenty of crabby people making a stink about dogs on lawns or kids riding tricycles in the lobby.
thanks anon. Your numbers suggest the 07 seller may have made $1.5m on his $3m investment, which would indicate once again just how lucrative it was to lever-up in the 90s. The problem now vs ’96 is that with interest rates on the floor appraisals of properties like this are bumping up against their ceiling. I’d advise the seller that having paid way too much in 07 shouldn’t deter him from now (possibly) selling way below his cost.
Listed January 2013 at $6 million.
Relisted January 2015 at $5.25 million.
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/189-E-Lake-Shore-Dr-60611/unit-1W/home/14119901