Family Living in a 4-Bedroom Aqua Penthouse: 225 N. Columbus Drive in Lakeshore East
This 4-bedroom penthouse in Aqua Tower at 225 N. Columbus Drive in Lakeshore East just came on the market.
Aqua was built in 2009 and has both apartments and condos.
There are 270 condo units along with a parking garage.
It’s a full service building with a large exercise room, a billiards room, a half basketball court, a rooftop deck, and both indoor and outdoor pools.
This unit is on the 81st floor which is a top floor penthouse floor.
It has floor-to-ceiling windows that are south facing over a balcony that extends the length of the unit.
Those windows have Lutron motorized remote controlled blinds.
The unit has crown molding, millwork and a gas fireplace.
The kitchen has white Plain and Fancy cabinets with a 48″ Subzero refrigerator, a Subzero wine cooler, Miele dishwasher and Wolf range with double ovens.
The counter tops are Calacatta gold marble, including on the 13 foot island.
The master suite has a walk-in closet finished by Closet Works.
The master bath has a Mosaic marble shower, Airbath Jacuzzi tub and the same Calacatta gold marble counter tops as the kitchen.
It has a laundry room, central air and 2 parking spaces are available for extra cost.
At 3,000 square feet, and with the rare set-up of 4 bedrooms, is this an ideal high rise family home?
Jennifer Ames at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See the pictures and the floor plan here.
Unit #8108: 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 3000 square feet
- Sold in April 2013 for $1,731,000 (looks like it included 2 parking spaces)
- Currently listed for $3,750,000 (parking is “available”)
- Assessments of $2557 a month (includes heat, a/c, gas, doorman, cable, Internet, exercise room, pools, exterior maintenance, scavenger, snow removal)
- Taxes of $35,920
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- Bedroom #1: 16×15
- Bedroom #2: 12×12
- Bedroom #3: 13×14
- Bedroom #4: 17×13
- Walk-in closet: 9×12
- Laundry room: 9×6
I wasn’t expecting this place to be so boring. Maybe it’s the monochromatic interior design scheme? Of course the view is great, but the interior looks like every new build in North Center. That’s a huge price jump from the last sale
Family living… yeah you can live a lot of places for nearly 4 million bucks with your family
this would be near the last on my list
Very odd that an apartment that size and price wouldn’t be situated on a corner (or two) so you could have multiple exposures – especially when the views are so outstanding.
I’d get exhausted at having to tell everyone to take their shoes off before stepping on those floors, and constantly cleaning them when you easily notice one-day’s worth of dust buildup contrasting nicely against the black sheen. Not the worst problem to have if you’re grossing in the low seven-figures, I suppose.
“constantly cleaning them”
T+A is basically $200/day. You either have a daily maid service for a fraction of that or you get one of the robot mops.
“grossing in the low seven-figures”
I suppose that is true, but personally really wouldn’t want to allocate like that, unless either income was over 2, or assets over 10. At $1.5, just seems like a stretch.
The pictures are obviously photoshopped as its unpossible to have city and lake views at the same time.
Views are killer, unfortunately the interior doesn’t match
Some of this stuff being sold as high end is laughable. Not tying in the lighting to the Lutron system is inexcusable at this price point
Cannot help but notice the balcony is obviously not use-able – – wind 81 stories up must be insane.
This isn’t $4MM to me but then again I suspect that the buyer of this home at this price point is not buying their only home so much as parking cash somewhere safe and outside of their home country. That would also explain the rather cold and somewhat personality-less finishes.
Also, I grew up with dark stained wood floors. Total nightmare.
“The pictures are obviously photoshopped as its unpossible to have city and lake views at the same time.”
The pictures are not photoshopped. This is a south view along the lake shore. I agree with another poster who said this should have been a corner unit. Seems underwhelming for $4 million.
bought for $1.7MM in 2013, and now wants more than twice the price!!!!??? Greedy or realistic? not sure which.
Has anyone ever been on these balconies? The curves + height + thin and low railing making me queezy. I don’t think I could ever be comfortable.
this place desperately needs some area rugs…and some paint on the walls.
“bought for $1.7MM in 2013, and now wants more than twice the price!!!!??? Greedy or realistic? not sure which.”
i’m curious if it was a vanilla box at the time of the first sale. very typical for penthouse units. i’m surprised though that it would take that long to sell after construction was complete.
This is nice, but fairly generic. I think the floors are beautiful; didn’t realize dark stain required so much more cleaning/maintenance.
I have been underwhelmed by the units I’ve seen at the aqua. It appears that most of the expense went into the exterior. That’s super for people who live in buildings that have a view of the aqua, but not so great for people who actually live in the aqua.
The other 2 units on the 81st are owned by one person, who also owns two units on the 80th. Appears to have over $8m into the units. No mortgages.
God awful light fixtures.
Greedy, greedy, greedy. Multi-millions for just OK.
This unit could use some color on the walls and some area rugs but I bet the people interested in it are more exxited about it being a top floor penthouse with 14 foot ceilings. Not sure what other penthouses are available at this price point. I wish I had $4m to drop on this and then another couple thousand in decorations would be no big deal. AFAIK the other units at aqua have 8 foot ceilings.
” I grew up with dark stained wood floors. Total nightmare.”
I have them right now and I like them because it helps me keep them clean. I can easily see how long it has been since the robot vacuumed up the cat hair.
4 bedrooms but only one is ensuite.
Fail #1
Double recent price with or without build out.
Fail #2
No corner view
Fail #3
Totally overhyped building who’s only notable feature is curvy balconies. Not too daring or imaginative for such high praise. And frovthe record, I actually like the building.
Views aren’t too spectacular considering it’s the 81st floor. If you live that high, you should at least clear nearby buildings, but this unit doesn’t. And I’d be scared to death to step out onto a balcony 900 feet above street level. That’s a deal killer for me.
So is paying nearly $4 mln and being told, parking is “available.” What? At this price point, I’d expect it to be included. And more than one space.
I actually like the monochrome decorating. But I wouldn’t like sharing my amenities with hotel guests. The balcony is a bit ridic at 81 floors up. It’s unusable. I had a balcony at 13 floors up which was pretty much unusable. The fact that the railing is so short is fine since nobody ever goes out there.
Wat, you use balconies above 13 floors… it’s going to get dicey at 80 floors up but they are usable–source, lived in several building with 50+ floor balconies and used them a lot.
I lived for several years with balconies in mid 30s and around 50th floors. Was perfectly usable at least as far as the height (weather is a separate issue) and I’m not the most comfortable person with heights when there’s a perceived risk of falling. I’d be more concerned with kids around.
“I’d be more concerned with kids around.”
But I’d be about as concerned with balconies at 4 floors as at 50.
Ok maybe it depends on where the building is located. I found it very windy on 13, maybe I was in a wind tunnel.
I used to have a 14th floor balcony in River North overlooking State St, it was fine to use and seldom too windy.
The problem with balconies in Chicago is the same for floor 13 as it is for floor 81: spiders.
It’s never predicable when the spider population is going to explode on a balcony. The balcony might be perfectly pleasant one day and a couple days later not usable at all.
Unoccupied staged apartment, executed by someone with no high-end professional interior design experience. LOL. Artwork hung too high, furniture straight from Costco on-line catalogue. Kudos for hanging some clothes in that closet, though it looks like a Container Store display. Perhaps this is a speculator who made a long-play, thinking it’s time to exit this poorly-built building before the next Gang showpiece opens for occupancy.
Nothing here telegraphs $4 million with exception of that (ultimately wasted) panoramic view. Balcony unusable beyond the “looked-me” two-minute experience.
“Unoccupied staged apartment”
Guess it’s possible, but owner sold only other Cook property ~2 months after closing on this unit.
I wouldn’t call the view “panoramic.” It’s quite disappointing for being 81 floors up. Other buildings in the way, no corner perspective – all one direction. I’ve seen better views from 20% as high up in other buildings.
Closed 3,750,000
They paid too much. Not even a direct lake view.