CMK’s 235 Van Buren Selling Like Hotcakes
CMK opened up the sales center for its latest building at 235 W Van Buren, in the shadow of the Sears Tower in the Loop, only a mere two or three months ago and already the building is under construction and about 60% sold.
How’d they do that?
CMK marketed it very wisely. The 47 story building has so many floorplans I can’t keep track. It will have around 700 units when completed. Many of them are smaller 700 square foot one bedrooms.
Their website says prices start at $179,000 but that is for the smallest unit imagineable and from what I understand they already sold a lot of the cheapest units.
But in this slowing market, it begs the question- who is buying?
Corporate America, apparently. A tipster reported that the sales center is saying that nearby companies bought out entire floors in the building. It makes financial sense for them. Why put their employees who are coming in from out of town offices in hotels? It’s cheaper to buy a block of units, furnish them, and use it as corporate housing.
What remains to be seen is how many “regular” buyers are purchasing in the building. Now that the corporations have done their buying, who will buy the other 300 units?
The building will be CMK’s usual style of modern with lots of exposed concrete and abundant windows.
“A tipster reported that the sales center is saying that nearby companies bought out entire floors in the building.”
I talked to one of the sales staff there and they denied this claim.