If They Build It You Will Buy It: A 3-Flat At 3545 N. Racine In Lakeview
This new construction 3-flat at 3545 N. Racine in Lakeview (is this Wrigleyville? Or Southport?) came on the market in October 2012.
It appears that 2 out of 3 units are already under contract.
The only one still available is the first floor 4-bedroom duplex down.
We have seen this type of new construction all over Lakeview and Lincoln Park in 2012. In fact, within just a few blocks of this unit there are several nearly identical buildings being constructed. They all look the same.
In this layout, the living room, kitchen, dining room and family room are all on the first floor and all four bedrooms are in the lower level.
The unit has extensive millwork and a coffered ceiling.
There is a marble bath and a private deck over the garage.
It is priced at a single family home price of $759,900.
Who’s the target market for these expensive luxury duplex downs?
Tim Sheahan at Conlon has all the listings. See the pictures here.
Unit #1: 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, garage parking, no square footage listed
- Originally listed in October 2012 for $759,900
- Currently still listed at $759,900
- Assessments of $229 a month
- Taxes are “new”
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- Bedroom #1: 14×13 (lower level)
- Bedroom #2: 11×11 (lower level)
- Bedroom #3: 12×10 (lower level)
- Bedroom #4: 11×11 (lower level)
At $759k the buyers better hope that the generation enjoys city living as much as the current one because the value of a duplex-down on an alley on Racine has nowhere to go but down.
The next generation I mean ….
Very attractive place, but most people have a distinct distaste for lower-level bedrooms. I often think that it would be better to have designed places like this so that the main living spaces would be at grade level and could be entered at grade, so that the bedrooms could be on the second floor.
On the other hand, an emergency evacuation (such as in the event of a fire) would be easier at grade level, but only if there is an exit there.
Laura, then you’d have four level for three units, zoning and permit issues come up.
On an alley, duplex down, frame construction with brick veneer. Who would buy this crap?
This place might have chance if the master suite was above grade imho. Most people in this price range are not going to find a basement level master acceptable. Guest bedrooms/offices/dens on lower level are ok and duplex downs certainly have a value for the additional space, but lower level master really hurts this place.
I wonder why they placed three random windows on the alley side. This place vaguely reminds me of a prison. It would have been nicer if they had placed more windows (in a non-slapdash fashion) on the alley side. I would like to have the light the extra windows could provide and they could be covered with privacy shades that would still let the light in, but people wouldn’t be able to see inside.
I have been in a similar new construction duplex down at 3321 n Seminary. The unit was just finishing the drywall stage, but the fact that all the bedrooms were below grade really bothered me and it just felt dark. Also, the downstairs layout felt as though you were walking through a maze going from bedroom to bedroom. Really not appealing to me, despite the inevitably nice finishes and decent construction quality. It may not be fair for me to judge it under the conditions we saw it, twilight hours with very few lights actually working. What say you about the building at 3320 n Clifton.
I would not want to live on the alley behind that taco bell, I think theres a reason for having no windows at urinary level, can you imagine after cubs games? Oh and as a bonus you get that horrid looking parking garage directly behind this place, other than that, Racine is an ok street to live on, just not in wrigleyville as traffic is a fricking nightmare about 80 days a year, although if the cubs move to Schaumburg, that could be a boon for this place! Maybe thats priced into this unit?
There is a new construct 6 unit building just down the block on Cornelia that sold out quickly as well
“is this Wrigleyville? Or Southport? ”
No need to guess, as they are the same place. Just don’t tell the yuppie MILF’s. They think they grew up by moving 2 blocks West.
I agree that duplex downs are probably not a great investment. That being said, I do prefer this layout with all the BR below grade vs. living room/master up and 2/3 BR down with a family room. I think the intent is for the main floor to feel like a single family (which it does) and then instead of going upstairs to sleep you go down. We considered a place like this before we found a comparably priced townhome with 3BR on the same level. Completely agree that traffic on Racine is a PITA, particularly for night games when you get game traffic combined with rush hour.
I think Racine is OK street to live on and the location doesn’t bother me.
The price though – I mean $759 for a Duplex Down in Wrigleyville. You really have to be desperate or stupid to pay that. Someone will though
I love the location and this looks a lot better inside than the typical new three-flat, but I’m not interested in paying $750K for a place where half of the unit is underground. I don’t like the idea of a bedroom that has windows at the level of a pedestrian’s shoes on the sidewalk. It wouldn’t feel private at all.
i agree with Russ….master above ground would help. i personally like duplex downs for teh extra space…but not at 750k…more in the 400k range…
Southport or Wrigleyville, let’s see:
Who is more likely to be yakking in your front yard: Cubs fans, or Music Box attendees?
“Southport” is a street and an economic corridor, sure. A neighborhood? I don’t think so, that area got carved up ages ago.
Don’t like all the bedrooms in the basement, but I gotta say, I DO like having the kitchen/family room at the back of the unit, instead of having the kitchen open to the living/dining room.
It’s unique stock. Where else are you going to get 4br on the same floor at that price?
Familes with small kids want all the bedrooms on the same floor, they also don’t want to go through a renovation.
“more in the 400k range…”
You can probably get a 4bd duplex down in Avondale for $400K.
“You can probably get a 4bd duplex down in Avondale for $400K.”
You can buy 1.7 two flats for that price
upe is correct. There are so many things going up in this neighborhood at the moment. I am excited to see some dilapidated places being redone and excited for some new neighbors. There are 3 on Seminary on the 3300 block, one just finished on the 3300 block of Clifton. 6 units on School, 6 units on Cornelia and Racine (that sold out).
I don’t like the idea of a duplex down at all. The only thing about having a bedroom on the top floor is that you might hear your neighbors above you.
If the builders were too retarded to take advantage of the alley to get more natural light inside these spaces I wouldn’t trust anything else is done very well either. Big ole fail.
“There are 3 on Seminary on the 3300 block, one just finished on the 3300 block of Clifton. 6 units on School, 6 units on Cornelia and Racine (that sold out).”
They ALL look the same. Same building built over and over and over again. Didn’t we learn anything from 2005-2006 when the ugly 3-flats that all looked the same were built all over the north and west sides? No- apparently not. Because the same thing is happening again.
Over and over and over again.
And inside, they all look the same. With the same paint colors and no curtains. And the same furniture.
Because we all live the same lives.
Over and over and over again.
“Because the same thing is happening again.Over and over and over again.And inside, they all look the same. With the same paint colors and no curtains. And the same furniture.”
Potery barn, Crate and barrel, and North face make a killing off this business model.
Funny you mention that Sabrina… I was at our condo meeting a few nights ago and some people from the River north residents association came buy telling us how they WANT continuity in the neighborhood asthetics and won’t let ‘too crazy’ projects happen /eyeroll
“Potery barn, Crate and barrel, and North face make a killing off this business model.”
This is my one complaint about Chicago homeowners. Their interior design sucks. I can’t believe the lack of imagination in our city! And it’s at all price points. It doesn’t matter if you live in a $2 million Trump Tower apartment without drapes or any kind of window treatments or your $80,000 studio where you don’t bother to even paint the walls.
We have no sense of design! The best that is done here IS the Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel etc.
I’m struck by this when watching the various housing shows on HGTV. People in NYC, for instance, can completely transform a 2 bedroom 900 square foot square box in a 1960s high rise into a showcase. But we don’t even bother.
I wonder why that is? Is it because housing is so much cheaper that we know we can move out of the property at any time- whereas in NYC and places where it’s more expensive, you may buy a place and be stuck there for life so they spend more time and money making it their “own” – so to speak?
But even compare the interior design in, say, New Orleans or Charleston or San Francisco with what is going on in Chicago. We are pathetic. At least paint your walls. And buy a decent bedframe. And no, you really shouldn’t have a futon ANYWHERE in your home if you’re over the age of 25.
“I was at our condo meeting a few nights ago and some people from the River north residents association came buy telling us how they WANT continuity in the neighborhood asthetics and won’t let ‘too crazy’ projects happen /eyeroll”
vanilla boxes for everyone. and yet the terra cotta master piece on oakdale took 4 years to sell.
i have given up on humanity, time to go buy an over priced potbelly sandwich and drink a shitty tasting PBR while my wife buy’s a coach bag that looks exactly like her freind then drive home to paint our walls egg shell white and get crazy in the dining room and paint it beige. then when done i can go into my kitchen take a towel out of my cherry cabinets then lay my head down on my granite counter tops and let out a fully snotty bellow of a cry.
“I wonder why that is? ”
1) its the midwest, most of the people who live here are transplanted from such culture hubs as Cincinatti, Detroit, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, etc.
2) I def. think it has something to do with the suburban mentality as well, you think city homes are boring, you should see the suburban sad shacks, sooo bad
3) Being a high cost of living state with high taxes, energy costs etc., not a ton of us have leftover money for furniture? I dunno
It is strange that we have one of the best interior design hubs in the whole country right here downtown in the Merchandise mart, and the area surrounding it. There is surely no shortage of nice furniture and other stuff, except those stores are always empty. The property bubble really fubar’d that market. I think the only people that go in these stores now are professional interior designers hired by corporations or really rich folks.
Bri Bri,
i disagree with the futon, its a awesome thing for the basement play room!
the rest your spot on!
you dont need a sense of design or sense of color to “have style”. you just have to have a willingness to do outside the norm.
honestly I need anxiety pills to calm me as its ridiculous quantity of how many times in a day a guy or girl wearing a northface fleece will pull out their iPhone and tell the person they are with “hold on i need to respond to my face book”.
just look at the homes on CribChater 80% had the fricken cheesy azzz oversized word decoration like “EAT, LOVE, JOY”. at what point does the old french movie billing in a frame become played out? and really painting your kitchen or dining room RED like the rest of the world doesnt mean “im cool its a bold color” it just means your an azzhat
We just had our dining room painted and I went with Red. It really brings out the woodwork and it that makes me an azzhat, so be it.
“and really painting your kitchen or dining room RED like the rest of the world doesnt mean “im cool its a bold color” it just means your an azzhat”
“and it that makes me an azzhat, so be it.”
my friend that not the reason you an azzhat.
but why would you pick red out of all the colors in the rainbow?
If you like red, I don’t think you need to forego it just to prove how highbrow you are.
“my friend that not the reason you an azzhat.” Well played. Hand clap.
” why would you pick red out of all the colors in the rainbow?”
it works well for that room and was available since we went with other colors for the rest of the rooms.
“it works well for that room and was available since we went with other colors for the rest of the rooms”
wife says she prefers white walls as its easier to change the colors of the decor than to get me to paint the walls.
it also gives her a nice reason to shop, and shopping makes her happy and me not painting some room every year makes me happy. so in the end its a happy house hold.
*two-three days to paint a room 2 hours to wash down the walls, which would you choose?
you must be the worlds slowest painter then… one room should take no more than 4 hours by yourself
As long as you are living in your place, you should decorate it however you like. But, I think it is a good idea to make the place a bit more vanilla before putting it on market. Not everyone shares the same taste so the more taste specific a place is, the harder it is to please the buyers. Not everyone is into design and can imagine how a little bit of paint and so on would transform the place and IMHO the burden of marketing is on the seller not buyer’s job to imagine things.
Talking about colorful wall, see
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/233-E-13th-St-60605/unit-1005/home/12645148
“you must be the worlds slowest painter then… one room should take no more than 4 hours by yourself”
if you do it right it will take you 2-3 days. and if the room is standard sized not a postage stamp condo sized room.
moving furniture and sanding one day, prepping, priming, and one coat the next, and the last coat and putting furniture back the next.
so again how do you do that in 4 hours?
“Talking about colorful wall, see”
the wall color doesnt bother me its everything else that is so bland basic and no style.
i really hope those painting in that place were painted by the owner, as if someone actually bought those they should be robbed of all their cash and have thier socks stolen.
Yes the decor is very unflattering for sure. The paintings, the frames, the bar stools that look so unrefined, the coffee table and the side table, ugly cushions, and the list goes on. The place is a weird mix of grandma style and a man cave. This is place that staging would do wonders for. It is a nice unit with great views and the seller has managed to bring the worse out of it.
That place looks like it was staged, just by someone extremely incompetent. Looks like a rental furniture package.
It is the owner’s stuff. I think there was some interior designer involved which is just sad.
Sadly, a number of the small, independent furniture and decor stores I used to furnish my condo have gone out of business in the last 4 years. Agree that with the Merch Mart right here, Crate & Barrel/Pottery Barn/etc are signs of laziness or disinterest.
I despise shopping, so it was not particularly “fun” for me to look for pieces, but it would have killed me to wake up to preconfigured set-ups every day.
I am fairly certain the units are completely empty. When I looked at 3321 seminary it was empty but the broker had pictures on his iPad that were essentially the same pics as this unit. I think they have one furnished unit with this floor plan and they use the same pics all over the city
Nevermind I am wrong!
“*two-three days to paint a room 2 hours to wash down the walls, which would you choose?”
I choose to pay someone to do it while I go out shopping with the wife, which makes everyone happy.
“I choose to pay someone to do it while I go out shopping with the wife, which makes everyone happy.”
in the end you way or my way it keeps the economy moving and thats a good thing 😉
painting the wall red to keep the economy moving is a debatable good thing 🙁
The alley side of the building is nothing but the common hallway for the building and a wall of mechanicals and closets in the lower level so you really don’t need any windows there.
It’s also all brick, someone posted that it’s frame with brick veneer.
The builders keep the intertiors simple, that’s for a homeowner to get creative with.
Different strokes, folks. Paint colors and furniture choices are debatable and matters of personal taste. Now, where the residence containing those paint colors and furniture is located, that’s far less debatable. Given the choice between a home located in a suboptimal location (say, the location of the subject property) but decorated with magazine worthy/award winning/stunningly beatiful furniture, paint and other design qualities, and a home located in a superb location but decorated with burlap wallpaper, cardboard crown moldings and furniture made from rusty barrels, I’ll take the latter all day long.
And where might that superb location be? Hrm?
300 ft east. In a different microclimate.
“Given the choice between a home located in a suboptimal location (say, the location of the subject property) but decorated with magazine worthy/award winning/stunningly beatiful furniture, paint and other design qualities, and a home located in a superb location but decorated with burlap wallpaper, cardboard crown moldings and furniture made from rusty barrels, I’ll take the latter all day long.”
Interesting, I think that it depends on the person, but with respect to housing quality/features/amenities, plenty of younger folks will definitely choose better that they can afford in a suboptimal location, that’s how gentrification happens.
“I choose to pay someone to do it”
For my house, I definitely have a pro do it, with good paint and experience a pro’s work looks SO much better. For my rentals, I am definitely doing it myself unless I expect to have income above depreciation that year, in which case I might pay someone and tell them to work fast.
“Given the choice between a home located in a suboptimal location (say, the location of the subject property) but decorated with magazine worthy/award winning/stunningly beatiful furniture, paint and other design qualities, and a home located in a superb location but decorated with burlap wallpaper, cardboard crown moldings and furniture made from rusty barrels, I’ll take the latter all day long.”
You are not correct. Buyers are swayed by the new kitchen/baths and gray painted walls about 98% of the time. They will buy the brand new “beautiful” house in Humboldt Park for $450,000 before they buy the smaller property with pink wallpaper and a 1990 kitchen in Lincoln Park. I guarantee it.
Also- most buyers can’t look beyond what they see when they walk into a property. That’s why the stagers make so much money. You may have vision anonny- but 98% of buyers do not. That’s why buyers want to buy the staged furniture a lot of the times (or want to own the “model” unit.)
“The alley side of the building is nothing but the common hallway for the building and a wall of mechanicals and closets in the lower level so you really don’t need any windows there.
It’s also all brick, someone posted that it’s frame with brick veneer.”
Thanks for the info Katie.
So that means that the lower level bedrooms really only have windows on two walls- the front and the back of the building?
“It’s also all brick”
Cinder block is not brick. It is, at most, “all masonry”.
“So that means that the lower level bedrooms really only have windows on two walls- the front and the back of the building?”
As with the office set up room in the pix,, I’m sure there are windows facing the gangway on the southside.
“Cinder block is not brick. It is, at most, “all masonry”. ”
CinderBrick? Off to the trademark office. Maybe people don’t like cinder in anything?
“but the fact that all the bedrooms were below grade really bothered me and it just felt dark.”
It’s usually dark when you’re sleeping anyway?
“I think theres a reason for having no windows at urinary level, can you imagine after cubs games? ”
CC comment of the month!
“Familes with small kids want all the bedrooms on the same floor, they also don’t want to go through a renovation.”
The buyer for this is a successful, on the way up type of DINK couple that will have kids. These are the newlywed folks who will put $200K down, spend $700K for their temp. housing for 3-5 years, then flip out of this place into the $1.6 million SFH, putting down $600K on that. These people never “get laid off” etc. and they have the incomes to service the debt. People who will drop this kind of cash on a duplex down are confident, if they weren’t they wouldn’t be investing in SoPo or Lakeview. Chicago seems to produce a big enough yuppie-stream of this type to sell all of these units and THs. Not sure why the target buyers of this needs 4 bedrooms though, 3 would suffice until they move to the SFH. Someone who truly needs 4 bedrooms isn’t going to be looking in this location, at a unit like this.
“telling us how they WANT continuity in the neighborhood asthetics and won’t let ‘too crazy’ projects happen /eyeroll”
too late to make River North look as uniform as Paris. When Berlin was reconstructed after WW2 they made a conscious decision for uniformity on building heights. No random highrises popping up here and there. Like WashDC too.