Iconic Building Week: Life From the 85th Floor in Trump Tower: 401 N. Wabash
This 85th floor 3-bedroom in Trump Tower at 401 N. Wabash in River North came on the market in August 2016.
It has north, east and west views from its curved glass living room.
Because its near the top of the building, it has extra high 11 foot ceilings.
There are 3 fireplaces and an 8×6 laundry room.
The kitchen has luxury appliances including Miele, Subzero and Wolf.
All 3 bedrooms have en suite bathrooms.
There’s also a den.
The unit has central air and 2-car parking is included.
Trump Tower was finished in 2009 so it’s not even 10 years old.
Yet few would doubt that the building already has iconic status in Chicago.
Originally, locale real estate agents called the location of Trump Tower a “class A building in a class B location.”
But the Chicago River has become quite the scene since construction began with the addition of the Riverwalk, the development of Wolf Point and a flurry of new office towers further to the west.
When it was finished, Trump Tower was the fourth tallest building in the United States. It also still has the second highest residence in the world, dwarfed only by those in the Burj Khalifa.
It has 486 units and owners get the amenities of the hotel.
While this 85th floor unit is not the highest unit in the building currently on the market, as there is a $12.7 million 89th floor penthouse listed, at $4.3 million, it is a third of the price of that penthouse unit.
Is this a deal for a high floor with these views?
Chezi Rafaeli at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #85A: 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 3080 square feet
- Sold in June 2009 for $2.517 million (included 2 car parking)
- Currently listed for $4.3 million (includes 2 car parking)
- Assessments of $3760 a month (includes gas, cable, doorman, exercise room, pool, exterior maintenance, lawn care, scavenger, snow removal)
- Taxes of $51921
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- 3 fireplaces
- Bedroom #1: 16×18
- Bedroom #2: 14×16
- Bedroom #3: 19×12
- Den: 12×14
- Laundry room: 8×5
When Trump is elected president in a few weeks, (and likely again in four years for a second term presiding over a prosperous country), the value of this unit will only go up, up, up. Everyone is going to want a piece of the Trump miracle and this is your chance to get in before prices explode.
Are those engineered floors? I can clearly see the seams between planks, which from what I have seen is usually indicative of engineered flooring.
nice but what makes this worth over a million more than 77A?
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/401-N-Wabash-Ave-60611/unit-77A/home/40368726
8 floors worth a million dollar premium or does Sabrina just love to find the most ridiculously high list price nonsense
“nice but what makes this worth over a million more than 77A?”
not justifying the price but I believe you’re getting the extra foot of ceiling heigh and their also including 2 parking spaces.
The value of parking spaces in cities will plummet if the advent of autonomous (driver-less) vehicles takes off.
“The value of parking spaces in cities will plummet if the advent of autonomous (driver-less) vehicles takes off.”
I’m still skeptical they’ll ever actually get it full autonomous. Even planes that they claim run on ‘autopilot’ still have two pilots in the cockpit to monitor everything.
I WOULD KILL TO LIVE IN CHEETO JESUS TOWER!!!! WHOS READY TO RAWKKKK?!!!! LOLZ
the guy paid 2.5m in ’09 with a loan funded in 2014 for $2.2m. I suppose he’s got a winner here. But given the hassles, wouldn’t he have been better off making the same levered bet in stocks instead of re?
“Are those engineered floors? ”
Most likely. Nearly all high-rises have engineered floors as they usually don’t allow nailing the hardwood to the concrete.
Even if autonomous cars take off, I will still want my own autonomous car.
I dislike sharing.
wojo – which brokerage would let you buy $2.5m in stock with only $300k in your account? There is none. Plus a 15% downward move and you’d be wiped out.
“not justifying the price but I believe you’re getting the extra foot of ceiling height and their also including 2 parking spaces.”
So, you’re paying $1MM for air?
PS There it is, the snaidero cherry kitchen with black granite. They were having trouble selling the units, so Trump (or his bank) decided to fully build out the unsold units on spec (i.e. finishes) and IIRC they chose Snaidero chery/black granite as the spec. There are many units in the building that look like this one. Crain’s had a write up once on the realtor who grew up in Tel Aviv. Glad to see all are willing to sacrifice so-called “principles” to make money using Donald J. Trump’s name and product.
“wojo – which brokerage would let you buy $2.5m in stock with only $300k in your account? There is none. Plus a 15% downward move and you’d be wiped out.”
You can probably get pretty close to a multiple like that with portfolio margin, although probably not on any pure equity or even indexed position unless it is heavily hedged (which kind of defeats the purpose). Not sure because for most people portfolio margin will let you get a lot more leveraged than most are comfortable with.
portfolio borrowing is typically capped at 100%
so good luck levering up 9 or so times on your stock portfolio
might be able to do it with futures or options or something? I’m not sure TBH not my specialty
Ceilings look barely 10′ to me. Pretty obvious 11′ is BS.
“portfolio borrowing is typically capped at 100%
so good luck levering up 9 or so times on your stock portfolio”
So a margin requirement of 50%? No way, you can do that under Reg T for almost anything not exotic or in big trouble. For a diverse portfolio across all applicable baskets I think averaging 25-33% margin requirement is trivial to get to. Not sure if you can reasonably get it above 4x, although maybe they will let you stuff T-bills in there, I dunno.
I presume that when he got his mortgage in 2014, the condo was appraised higher than its 2009 purchase price, so I’d guess his LTV in 2014 was much lower than 88%, which—here I agree with you—is a leverage ratio no broker-dealer would extend to stock punters. That said, I’m still presuming he was highly geared in 09, and that makes me wonder why this condo struck him as a better speculation than a levered long stock position.
“So, you’re paying $1MM for air?”
how about the added cost for concrete, steel, and glass?
many people will pay a premium for it.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/for-ceilings-what-a-difference-a-foot-makes-1470924659
Looking at IB’s margin rates, it appears that if one wanted to buy 1 emini on the S&P 500, it would require $5k margin deposit (downpayment), which would get you (I think) exposure to $106k worth of the index (500 x $213 – today’s closing price of SPY.)
So if one wanted to speculate on the price movment of $2.5m of stocks (instead of high-end condo), you could do so for only $115k, which seems low to me.
https://gdcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=marginnew&p=fut
Hindsight is a fantastic investment strategy
Nice HD fireplaces
“8 floors worth a million dollar premium or does Sabrina just love to find the most ridiculously high list price nonsense”
To many people: “yes.”
You always pay more to live on a higher floor.
JohnnyU: I hate to break the news to you man but I just don’t like you that way. You’re always complimenting my taste, and bringing my name into the conversation just to get my attention; but I’m just not that into you, OK? Thanks!
Fuck Trump and all of his buildings.
Crazy, unacceptable kitchen. The sink so far from the stove. So every time you want to do something as simple as boil water, you have to walk back and forth, spilling water. Or cut vegetables for stir fry and then walk the cutting board back to the sink. And the fridge may as well be in another room. He can’t even make a kitchen great let alone a whole country.
I disagree, I would like to have more space between the place I do my dishes and the stove… it can get cluttered if you have lots of pots and pans
this is a nice set up, you have your cook station (stove), your prep station (the island) and your dish station (the sink) all nicely spaced apart
“more space between the place I do my dishes and the stove”
Works great if you have a pot filler tap, or a secondary sink (typ in the island). This, less so, even with your preferences, Sonies.
Guess I eat less pasta than most folks
“Ceilings look barely 10? to me. Pretty obvious 11? is BS.
Rating: -3 (from 3 votes)”
Ok, I see now that I was looking at the dropped ceilings in the entry area and the kitchen, which are more like 10′. So I was wrong. Since the listing said “in every room” I didn’t look at all the ceilings to see that the lower ones I was looking at aren’t the only ceilings. Not a fan of the phrasing but it does seem to be 11′ around most of the unit. Mea culpa.
“So every time you want to do something as simple as boil water, you have to walk back and forth, spilling water.”
How do you even get through the day? I mean layouts are important and I’m not saying it doesn’t maybe suck but this just sounds so comical. Makes me think of the “infomercial fails competition” on Youtube. THANKS OBAMA!
JohnnyU: I hate to break the news to you man but I just don’t like you that way. You’re always complimenting my taste, and bringing my name into the conversation just to get my attention; but I’m just not that into you, OK? Thanks!
HD = Home Depot
Clown = HomeDelete
JohnnyU,
Please, stop the flirting, I’m really not into you! I swear!
Also you’re a DB if you really think that’s a home depot fireplace in this unit…
“Guess I eat less pasta than most folks”
lucky you!
Is the market really starting to slow again?
I keep hearing from agents that it’s “dead” out there (depending on the price point, of course.)
“Affordable” properties in the GZ keep going under contract. And they keep announcing new condo buildings for the very rich (i.e. $1 million+).
But that $600k-$900k range seems tough right now.
Anyone else hearing/seeing the same thing?
well might as well put this in the Trump building
based on discussions before on middle class
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-america-divided/middle-class/
at least we were with the herd and all over the place for middle class
I’m with GoneFishin. This is an atrocious kitchen layout given the price point! Anyone who thinks otherwise doesn’t cook much.
“an atrocious kitchen layout given the price point”
Well I could debate two things here price point and kitchen layout.
I’ll stick with layout as the price seems a bit extreme.
The layout is good with what they had to work with. I’m never a fan of the fridge next to the oven layout. To bulky and despite insulation it still gives off some heat/cold that work against each other.
But I’ve seen worse at lower and higher price points.