Contemporaine Penthouse Tries Again and Raises the Price $400K: 201 W. Grand in River North
We’ve been chattering about this 2-bedroom penthouse unit in Contemporaine at 201 W. Grand in River North since I first started Crib Chatter in September 2007.
On and off the market for that entire time period, the pricing has also reflected the changes in the economy during that time.
Originally listed in September 2007 for $3.95 million, 2 years and one financial crisis later, it had been reduced by about a million dollars to $2.99 million before being withdrawn from the market.
It was also available to rent for $15,000 a month.
See our September 2009 chatter here.
This unit is best known for the 3000 square foot patio landscaped as a Japanese garden with 12 foot tall Bonsai trees.
In 2009, the actual interior of the unit was also 3000 square feet but was not a 2-bedroom but was a 1 bedroom plus den. Currently, it is listed as a 2-bedroom with no square footage listed.
It has 2-story windows in the living room overlooking the garden.
The kitchen has modern cabinetry with stainless steel appliances.
2 car parking is included.
Has the upper bracket market improved enough to finally sell this unit?
Is someone willing to pay more than the 2009 list price for it?
Debra Dobbs at Koenig & Strey Real Living now has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit PH2: 2 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2 parking spaces included, 3000 square foot terrace, no square footage of the interior listed
- Sold in April 2004 for $1,700,000
- Was listed in September 2007 for $3.95 million
- Withdrawn from the market
- Was listed in April 2008 for $3.79 million (2 parking spaces still included)
- Reduced
- Was listed in July 2008 for $3.59 million (2 parking spaces still included)
- Reduced
- Was listed in September 2009 for $2.999 million (2 parking spaces still included)
- Withdrawn
- Re-listed in April 2011 for $3.4 million
- Currently still listed at $3.4 million
- Assessments of $2000 a month (includes cable and water)
- Taxes of $28,725
- Bedroom #1: 23×20
- Bedroom #2: 13×10
It is nice, but 3.4 million? Rich folks should be out of their mind : )
The sellers must have put a lot of money into this place to justify asking for 100% appreciation from April 2004 until now . . .
This is not a serious listing. Not going to sell for anything close to ask. I don’t even know how to describe it. A vanity listing?
Will be lucky to walk away with $1.9MM
This place is amazing, and I think it’ll fetch a premium to the $1.7MM paid in 2004… but nothing even close to $3.4MM.
Seller should wait and put this back on the market once Groupon does its IPO.
So apparently those bonsai trees have survived harsh Chicago summers and even harsher Chicago winters.
I’m surprised that the word “koi” is nowhere in this listing.
This place is nice, I guess, but it feels cold, like a lavish corporate apartment, and not like a real home.
Beautiful terrace, but this is Chicago, after all, so how much time will you be able to spend on it? Three or maybe four months a year?
At least the parking is included. It would have taken them even more chutzpah to charge $60,000 a space on top of the $2,000 in assessments and outrageous asking price for the condo itself.
That $1.7m had to be the for the standard finishes/raw space. This place was upgraded significantly above and beyond the already uber high-end finishes that the developer put in this developments’ units.
I saw the other penthouse unit prior to it selling and it wasn’t even in the same galaxy in terms of quality/high end finishes relative to this place.
This is one of the very few condo buildings I would even consider buying a unit.
This place is on some Bruce Wayne sh*t. Absolutely love it, but not sure it is worth $3.4, but definitely pimpalicious. I really would be curious to know how much the owner’s put in it. It really wouldn’t surprise me if the build out was close to $1 million or more.
“The sellers must have put a lot of money into this place to justify asking for 100% appreciation from April 2004 until now . . .”
They did all the exterior space and (most? all?) of the interior after the purchase. Don’t have a good guess, but certainly over $500k and under $1.5mm into the place after the $1.7mm purchase.
when it dosen’t sell for 2.9, then you really should re-list for 3.4. Listings in the summer months should carry such a premium…
Are the outside photos of the garden real?
“how much time will you be able to spend on it? Three or maybe four months a year? ”
Over 200 days, easily, if you have the time and inclination. Over 300 if you’re hardcore about using the space, and something like you suggest if anything less than San Diego perfect just won’t do.
I hate this building with a passion. It looks so awful when you are walking by. It’s a concrete monster with windows. This could be the nicest unit in Chicago and I’d still pass on this place just because it’s so hideous on the outside.
Agree with anon about the extent to which one could use this outdoor space.
But if you’re buying a $3 million two-bed in Chicago, you’re likely getting in plenty of outdoor time in other states/countries. For the time you are in Chicago, it seems there are some pretty nice two-beds available in the Mich Ave/GC/north Sville luxury highrise zone.
…bland building from the outside, but the garden and interior look really beautiful.
However, for this price, I would rather buy a mansion like this:
77 East Elm Street
MLS/Source ID: 07815463
or a condo on East Lake Shore Drive…
Awesome home! It was featured on LX TV Chicago Open House over the weekend and is really nice. The issue is that it is still a small condo. I think that they needed a much bigger interior space to compliment that garden and command such a premium price in the current market. Imagine $3.4 with four bedrooms and 5.5 bath that includes a library and a full sized professionally equipped media room in addition to the fabulous terrace. Now that would sound much more in line with that price point! I guess it comes down to finding that special someone who wants a premium high end entertaining space for intimate dinner parties in the city. Those people do exist but they will not overlook the previous listing price of $2.9 Million. Once that was put on the permanent record $2.9 will always become the “starting point” for negotiations.
I agree with anon about using that outdoor space way more than 3 months a year. I had a convertible and with the floor heater that was really easy to use for 6 months per year. I’m sure that they have an infrared heater for the seating area. Remember just how great you felt back on that first warm sunny 50 degree day in Feb or March? Especially when it came after a long series of rainy grey days.
Until recently, I was waiting for the first warm, sunny 50 degree day of May! 🙂
Wilson, I agree wtih you re. the exterior.
take him to the north face store…buy him a 4 season tent and Anon goes to 365 days a year.
Me, never before put on long sleeves below 50 and i now put on a light fleece at 72. I could get a good month out of that roof.
If i won the $150 million dollar megamillions/powerball, this would be my summer home 🙂
That asking price is laughable. There’s no way it’s selling for $3.4 million.
At $150 million I think that my summer home would have boats, beach, and butlers. It might make a nice in-town but at that point I’d likely have great relationships with the downtown General Managers of the Peninsula and Four Seasons. It would likely be easier and almost as cost effective as I suspect that I’d be spending a lot less nights in Chicago.
I’m with Miumiu regarding crazy rich people. Probably hard to find comps for a property like this, but I’m going to guess that it sells for around $2.2 mil … eventually.
The big problem with the seller raising the price is the message it send to potential buyers, viz., I’m nuts. Some buyers may figure that it’s not worth the time or energy to negotiate with a buyer whose perceptions of the RE market are so disconnected from reality.
yeah but its so close and has such easy access to where you can drag 23 year old sluts from the nearby club scene
can’t do that at the pen unless you like cougars or gold diggers
I love chicago, and i’d still have a residence here for July and August but that’s about it. I’d pay one of my friends 100k just to maintain the place 8) ah we can dream
If I had won $150 mln, first of all, taxes would cut about 50% to begin with, so I’d be starting with $75 mln. So $3.4 mln is way too much of that to spend on a place so far from the lake and park. I’d rather spend $2 million on a co-op in a classy vintage building like the Drake Tower with a lake view for my Chicago summer home.
“If I had won $150 mln, first of all, taxes would cut about 50% to begin with, so I’d be starting with $75 mln.”
Taxes + PV = about 2/3 of the headline lotto $$, so “$150mm” = ~$50mm in your pocket.
Still enough to move in next door to (or at least down the block from) Ze about 4.5 times over.
I’m going to keep it real. $150 million windfall and I would probably get the hell out of Chicago. I’d visit often though. I’d spend the bucks to get a nice place in NYC or a second home on Martha’s Vineyard. I’d be traveling so much I don’t think I could justify the cost of keeping a place in Chicago.
“I’d spend the bucks to get a nice place in NYC”
Why would you go through the tax avoidance headache of having a NYC (possible) domicile? Don’t think they wouldn’t try to get their vig.
And I’d spend winters very far from Chicago, believe me. And springs. I’d only be in Chicago for June, September and October.
Once in a lifetime property. Price is too high though, even for a regular market.
Oh and I must be getting old and really frugal here. I would invest most of the money (of course after a shopping spree) and will definitely not burn 3mil or even 2 on this place.
Anon, if I had $50 mill in cash, NYC can have their 10% income tax or whatever it is. It won’t have any impact on my lifestyle at that point. I probably wouldn’t buy in NYC though. Not even sure if I would spend enough time there to warrant the cost. Probably cheaper to just stay in a nice hotel.
Keep on dreamin’…
Miumiu needs some new miumius.
ah CC question of the day.. And so far sonny came closest to the ‘two chicks at the same time’
f’tards.. Will someone say Monaco domicile already!! And seriously the worlds highest concentration of insanely hot women. Worlds most expensive real estate too. Funny how those two went together, coincidences never fail to amaze me.
“f’tards.. Will someone say Monaco domicile already!!”
Geez, I’m calling out the idea of giving NYC a chance to assert domicile and you call me (implicitly) a f’tard? I think you need to step outside for a p,p,p.
“Probably cheaper to just stay in a nice hotel.”
That’s my point. You could pretty much stay in a 5-star suite every night for just the property and income taxes you’d avoid by not buying, neverminding condo/coop fees.
yes Jennifer, you get it : ) Have you seen the lovely Zanotti at neiman?
http://beta.neimanmarcus.com:80/store/product.jsp?itemId=prod128380012&catId=cat39890778#
Ze, in Monaco even with 50mil one is not considered all that rich. I’d rather go buy something in Italian riviera where the money goes way further.
“The sellers must have put a lot of money into this place to justify asking for 100% appreciation from April 2004 until now . . .”
Additionally out of their mind to think that the money they sunk into this deserves any sort of premium at all, or even a dollar for dollar return on their investment.
I love these sort of listings on here because I can click through the past ones and laugh that even supposedly superstar brokers can’t get this sold. This seller is complete guano delusional.
This will be a fun one to follow through the years. Currently my guess is it’s worth 1.4MM.
anon… Implicitly? Roflmao.. Nothin implicit about it. Sorry havin a tough day.. Wife out of surgery since yesterday.. All well.. But i’m campin out on the rooms sofa for 3 days sans weed…. Just starin at medical equipment thinking how to engineer a bong. Resin should come off of surgical steel easy one would think.
Oh and f**k NYC.
What you just said is what I tell my wife. For cheaper we can call the 4 seasons and ask them for a global 365 day rate.
Miu… Truth is 50 would do you well there. Wouldnt be my place anyway, but it is a FUN place. I’m stayin in Rio, still havent finished furnishing.
“This place is amazing, and I think it’ll fetch a premium to the $1.7MM paid in 2004”
It won’t. Valuations have plummeted and when people spend a lot of money on renovations to a particular style it just further restricts the appeal to further sub-niches.
This seller is apparently stuck in 1989 where Japanamania and sushi were all the rage. No–they were stuck in Tokyo, 1989 where property valuations went along with that.
I watch movies from the 80s and laugh at how exotic sushi was back then and how people treated Japanese culture as if they’d own the world. These days I can get a sushi buffet lunch for as low as $15.
These days I laugh similarly when I hear the under-35 set talk about how they want their kids to learn Mandarin. These people are, by and large, stupid.
“What you just said is what I tell my wife. For cheaper we can call the 4 seasons and ask them for a global 365 day rate.”
Funny, I’ve said the same thing to my wife, but disconnected from a “buy a place in Manhattan” discussion.
Not nearly as close to realistic for us, but nor do either of us have any of the Manhattan-lust that is so common (nice place to visit, wouldn’t ever want to live, for all the reasons you’ve ever posted here and a few others).
bob… Why would learning any language be a bad thing. Inadvertantly does wonders for synaptic connections also. Wish i learned one earlier. I really struggle on processing languages. Would love to be able to speak at least 5. If i had a kid i would move to Paris.
Ze, sorry about your plight. Hope your wife will get well soon. BTW, I could not agree more on languages; knowing a language makes you also much more cognizant of other cultures and opens new words. We will try to speak at least 2 of our languages to the kid and English should come naturally to him living in US any ways.
Wow this place is crazy. I have no idea regarding price, so I am not even going to try to comment, but at least the buyer will end up with a one of a kind property. Very, very cool.
Sushi lunch buffets can be had for even less than $15 but I would not want to actually eat at those places. Heck you can even get cheap sushi at
…jewel or Dominicks. Yeeech!
theres actually a good little sushi place right next to this. I think it was naniwa but not positive. Had a very unnatractive little outdoor area if that helps with recognition. consistently good sushi.
for good (for your money) lunch sushi, the food court under the Chase tower is actually pretty good
Miu I’m drooling. I would have to get both colors of course. I had to drag myself away from some amazing Manolos on sale in there on Sunday.
I also laugh at the Mandarin though. I definitely appreciate the benefits of learning other languages (I am fluent in two and proficient in several others). But when you hear these parents say their kids need to learn Mandarin to compete in the global workplace, it’s a little ridiculous. An alarmingly significant percentage of today’s graduates would be better off spending that time and money learning how to speak and write in their first language to a level that competes with the level most foreigners are at.
Hot Woks / Cool Sushi actually has good sushi lunches for the $15 range Bob mentioned, and is a sit down, table cloth type place.
moshi moshi!
Hot woks is upscale pan-asian food. Better ingredients, better quality, better presentation, smaller portions.
BTW speaking of price if his seller ever gets serious I am completely confident that they can find a buyer between 2 and 2.5 million.
Great looking place but is it worth more than $1,000 a square foot? How many properties in the entire city close for more than $1,000 a sq ft in any given year?
Purchased with a $1,200,000 mortgage.
Mega Vega from Hot Woks/Cool Sushi rocks.
“bob… Why would learning any language be a bad thing. ”
Jennifer said it more eloquently than I ever could. Also why not spanish? It’s spoken by as many people as english and far more people in Chicago. But these days Mandarin is “in” for parents who think they are training the perfect little corporate automaton.
bob.. I don’t disagree on that point. But wont hurt to be wrong, so only upside. Like i said i’d rather have them speaking english, german,spanish,french… Fortunately for now the lingua franca is ENGLISH… Gracas a deus!!
And chichow… I can feel you missing this place. Today, on the beach, a celebration of the anniversary of the bikini… How can you not miss it!!
“An alarmingly significant percentage of today’s graduates would be better off spending that time and money learning how to speak and write in their first language to a level that competes with the level most foreigners are at.”
“Jennifer said it more eloquently than I ever could.”
Really? Could you help me understand her meaning?
G..
what confused you? Was it her criticism of rich white american childrens current language skills, or that she said it in one big giant unpunctuated run on sentance.
Sorry jennifer.. My grammar is atrocious, but I couldn’t resist!!
Speaking of mandarin chinese, what’s a good program in the city?
BTW, I have met a few American’s in their forties that speak Japanese (or they think they do). Guess that was Mandarin of eighties : ) As for learning Mandarin, I am not sure it is such a bad idea, I was once seated by a Boeing VP on a flight from Asia to LA (or SFO?!) and he was working on learning Mandarin on a ipad. China is and will be a big business partner of US, actually Tim Geithner is a head of the curve and already speaks the language. That being said I think learning Spanish makes the most sense for most Americans.
“or they think they do”
They probably weren’t learning it before college, or HS at the earliest, I would bet.
Just wait until the china bubble pops in a few years… oh man that one’s going to be a doozie
don’t waste your time learning chinese
learn proper english first. if anything learn spanish
“They did all the exterior space and (most? all?) of the interior after the purchase. Don’t have a good guess, but certainly over $500k and under $1.5mm into the place after the $1.7mm purchase.”
I did a build out, not to this level and it was 800K. This had to be a 1.5-1.8 build out. Those trees and landscape (and proper drainage) was expensive.
Sorry about that G, it was late and I had eaten too much macaroni cheese.
If you have to learn Mandarin for work take an intensive training course, I’ve worked for companies that had to bring these people in and they’re good. But realistically, you’re better off sending your child to the library to read a few more books than you are sending them to learn how to say ni hao and ham bao. I’m nowhere near old, but when I was in elementary school you couldn’t get away with not knowing the difference between there and their, never mind passing college English and not being able to get it right!