Elegantly Upgraded 3-Bedroom Townhouse in Old Town for $1.195 Million: 165 W. Goethe
This 3-bedroom townhouse at 165 W. Goethe in Old Town came on the market in November 2023.
Built in 1980, this complex has 5 townhouses, each with street facing 1-car garages.
The listing says this townhouse has been “elegantly upgraded” with high end kitchen and baths.
It has a mixture of hardwood and marble floors.
There are two fireplaces.
The kitchen has modern wood cabinets, what looks like stone countertops, stainless steel appliances and a breakfast bar which seats 4.
There’s a balcony off the kitchen.
The townhouse has a skylight.
The listing says the third bedroom, which is on the main floor, is currently being used as a family room. It has a fireplace, marble floors and you can access the backyard which has a patio and which is surrounded by brick walls.
The other two bedrooms are both on the third floor with the living/dining room and kitchen on the second floor.
There are three and a half bathrooms. There’s no floor plan with this listing so I can’t tell where all the bathrooms are located but it appears there is at least one that is ensuite with one of the bedrooms.
It has central air and one car garage parking.
This townhouse is located near the shops and restaurants of Old Town and grocery stores including Dom’s Market and Aldi. There are also buses nearby.
Listed in November 2023 for $1.195 million, this is nearly double the 2003 sales price of $655,000.
Buyer’s love “new.”
Will this townhouse go under contract in 2023?
James Kinney at Baird & Warner has the listing. See the pictures here (sorry, no floor plan).
165 W. Goethe: 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 2400 square feet, townhouse
- Sold in August 1989 for $340,000
- Sold in October 2001 for $568,000
- Sold in September 2003 for $655,000
- Originally listed in November 2023 for $1.195 million
- Currently still listed at $1.195 million
- Assessments of $166 a month (includes scavenger)
- Taxes of $14,414
- Central Air
- 1 car garage parking
- 2 fireplaces
- Bedroom #1: 16×14 (third floor)
- Bedroom #2: 16×14 (third floor)
- Bedroom #3: 20×17 (main floor)
- Living room: 27×23 (second floor)
- Dining room: 13×10 (second floor)
- Kitchen: 11×9 (second floor)
- Balcony (second floor)
- Backyard patio (main floor)
On the realtor front: I cannot understand why the three photos of the backyard are all low resolution.
On the unit: I intellectually understand it is “new,” but this place has a definite “grandma” feel to it.
Those TWO “No Parking” signs on the garage tell me all I need to know about people parking you in and inconveniencing you.
Exterior looks like it needs some TLC. I have always found the entry doors to these units to be depressing.
“Elegant” is subjective. I guess they did a nice job? I would have taken the covers off the patio furniture and staged that area a bit. It is a major selling point for the unit. There is also no way the room leading out to the patio would ever be considered a bedroom. This is a nice sized 2BR. For this location and lack of curb appeal I would pay over $750K though I could see this selling for more than that….I think their asking price may be a bit optimistic.
No curb appeal at all. A boring brick box.
“No curb appeal at all. A boring brick box.”
Ask yourself: when was this built and what was going on in that neighborhood at that time.
It will explain the design of the development.
“Those TWO “No Parking” signs on the garage tell me all I need to know about people parking you in and inconveniencing you.”
Wouldn’t any street facing garage or parking space in Old Town have to be very clear that you can’t park there? There’s a historic house in the Old Town Triangle that has that brick parking space and they, too, have a big sign that says no parking.
“On the unit: I intellectually understand it is “new,” but this place has a definite “grandma” feel to it.”
Marble floors perhaps?
Furniture won’t be there when you move in but the floors will be. How hard would it be to maintain the floors? I can’t even maintain marble in the kitchen, on the counters, so I would be scared to have them as floors.
Great location. I wish there was a floor plan.
The light fixture in photo 15 is an interesting choice for a tub/shower.
This property is in a no man’s land or at least to me it feels that way – it doesn’t feel like Old Town and also not like Gold Coast.
I do wonder what this will close for… will wait for David’s future note.
Chicano’s, there are areas of Chicago that aren’t in any particular neighborhood, so the area in question may well be a no-man’s-land. Prime example for me is the area between Bucktown (North of Armitage) and Wicker Park (up to Wabansia).
The various community boundaries decreed by the city council are contiguous, but those are irrelevant to neighborhood limits.
Damned autocorrect. Chichow.
“it doesn’t feel like Old Town”
There’s OTT (best residential Old Town) then there is Wells Old Town (down to Evergreen, east of the el) then there is Cabrini/Oscar Mayer Old Town (down Wells to Payton), which is well into decade 3 of transition–maybe as JDL completes North Union, this area will orient more to the south or the east than the north, but it still feels OT-ish to me (but maybe that’s Old Town Liquors and Eat a Pita on Division nostalgia).
Even with that, this strip is very much no man’s land legacy Cabrini/Oscar Mayer Old Town–built like a bunker before the black tower went up and when the block to the south was mostly occupied by Tower Olds, and the Oscar Mayer plant loomed over the buildings on the west side of Wells, south of Goethe. They (and the development across the street to the north) wer intentionally not part of the neighborhood.
Johnc
“Chicano’s, there are areas of Chicago that aren’t in any particular neighborhood, so the area in question may well be a no-man’s-land. Prime example for me is the area between Bucktown (North of Armitage) and Wicker Park (up to Wabansia).
The various community boundaries decreed by the city council are contiguous, but those are irrelevant to neighborhood limits.”
you are 100% right when you say no man’s land. Reminds me then of Carl Sandburg Village a few blocks north. Literally built as a DMZ zone buffer for the Gold Coast.
anon
then there is Cabrini/Oscar Mayer Old Town (down Wells to Payton)
my response :
https://explore.chicagocollections.org/image/uic/59/0z70z20/
Eat a Pita on Division nostalgia).
HAHAHAH I know who you are IRL now. Let everyone know that Mike Rokyo still walks among us
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which black tower
is it the one next to well’s automative at 1317 n. wells?
this dark tower?
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1309-N-Wells-St-60610/unit-1407/home/12813821
[photo]–yup.
Torn down in … ’94? I remember riding the brown line under the overpass bt the buildings.
“this dark tower?”
Yup. Building had issues (had to check my memory): https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-11-21-9204160482-story.html
S&L construciton loan, RTC involvement, Illinois state government appearance of corruption, etc. etc.
I’ve been in this building a few times
The 2 bedrooms were super compact
2 bedroom and 2 full baths in under 1k sq ft
Reduced to $1.095m.
Open house on Sunday!
there is a floor plan
https://ssl.cdn-redfin.com/photo/68/bcsphoto/125/genBcs.11939125_25_1.jpg
can see in main red fin link