Looking for a Secret Downtown Terrace? A 1-Bedroom at 40 E. 9th in the South Loop
This 1-bedroom in Burnham Park Plaza at 40 E. 9th Street in the South Loop just came on the market.
Burnham Park Plaza was converted back in 2000 and has 290 units and parking. It’s a full amenity building with a doorman.
This unit has some unique features including angle and curved walls and exposed brick.
There are laminate floors.
The bedroom doesn’t appear to have windows, however.
But it does have a special feature that some buyers look for: a private, secret terrace.
The wood terrace that is off the living room measures 8×18.
Before you complain about how it looks, the listing also says:
Note: Seller to replace and re-build new terrace prior to sale.
Oh, and according to the listing, it does not face the El.
The kitchen appears to have maple cabinets although in a different picture they look white. Appliances are both white and black.
It has central air, washer/dryer in the unit and parking is available for rent or sale in the building.
The listing calls this an “investor’s special” as the unit is renter-occupied through Dec 31, 2019 at $1650 a month.
Does this unit make sense for an investor in 2019?
Scott Conwell at South Loop Properties has the listing. It is agent owned. See the pictures and floor plan here.
Unit #317: 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 1025 square feet
- Sold in February 2000 for $118,000
- Currently listed at $224,900
- Assessments of $428 a month (includes doorman, exercise room, exterior maintenance, lawn care, scavenger, snow removal)
- Tenant occupied at $1650 a month
- Taxes of $2929
- Central Air
- Washer/dryer in the unit
- No parking but available to buy or rent in the building
- Bedroom #1: 9×12
- Living room: 30×15
- Private terrace: 8×18 (listing says it’s not included in square footage)
This is such a weird building. Units had such cheap finishes and weird layouts and weird structures. Also, there were some sales back during the crisis that just had to be some kind of mortgage fraud – where the sales occurred at 2 – 3 X the market value at that time.
As for buying this as an investment, it’s like so many condos as an investment – a really low return at the list price.
[12*(1650-428)-2929]/224900 = 5.2%
At $199, it’s all of 5.9%, which maybe works.
If one lived there for a while, and then ‘forgot’ that their loan is for a primary residence, it probably works ok. At current investor mortgage rates, you lose money every month, but might be able to make it up by buying more places just like it.
Yeah, that’s the calculation except that the property taxes are based on a $136K valuation and it was reassessed at like 176K I think. Longer term it will go up again.
I just don’t think it’s worth the hassle with that kind of return. Not to mention vacancies and having to periodically repaint, refinish floors, and replace appliances.
Threshold off the deck looks jacked up. No pictures looking out to the deck from LR.
Odds high on water damage
Also this place smells of divorced mid level manager dads.
“Threshold off the deck looks jacked up.”
That’s exactly the kind of stuff I’m talking about in this building. And then you’ve got the bricked off windows in the hallway – a super long hallway – and some kind of weird space/ wall/ support beam in the hallway next to the kitchen. But at the right price…
“And then you’ve got the bricked off windows in the hallway – a super long hallway”
to make matters worse, they left the limestone sills. just odd.
and don’t forget that brick wall has an R value of about 0.80 so it’s going to be a long cold wall in the wintertime.
Someone pays $1650 /mo to live here? Hope that covers all utilities and parking…
I paid $1800 including all utilities for a bigger place with a killer balcony in RN with access to top notch amenities. I would never even considering living in this place unless it was almost free.
Literally a bowling alley design that looks to a brick wall with a windowless bedroom and almost no storage space. Might be good for a crack den or something, but not actual living.