Crib Chatter

This is the first time I’ve ever heard of an industrial loft in a converted warehouse with concrete floors described as “cozy” – oh, but wait, they’re referring to the “den” in the unit.  See picture below:

The rest of the loft?  Not so much.  Cool modern aesthetic though.

3108 S. Lituanica St. : 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2400 square feet

• Currently listed for $549,900
• Attached garage
• Alan Shultz at Coldwell Banker has the listing

13 x 22 walled terrace/patio.  Not sure about this terrace though.  Is that another unit you’re looking into while you’re out sipping your coffee in your pjs on Sunday morning? 

This is a story about how a short sale can destroy the comps in a condo building.

Take 2024 S. Wabash, a 42 unit loft building in the up and coming Motor Row area of the South Loop.

Two similar units are on the market in the building.  One unit, #406, is still lived in by the owner- who also bothered to pain the walls.

Unit #406: 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 1200 square feet

• Sold in May 2004 for $258,000
• Currently listed for $289,900 plus $15,000 for parking
• @Properties has the listing

The second unit, #506, doesn’t look as cool.  White walls and lack of furniture can do that.

Unit #506: 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 1200 square feet

• Sold in September 2004 for $269,900
• Currently listed for $280,000 plus $20,000 for parking (must be sold with the unit)
• Is a “short sale”
• Cacciatore Harper has the listing

Identical units – different paint jobs.

One owner will suffer (with a declining sales price) as the other owner, already in financial distress, simply tries to dump the unit.

No one wins.

According to Ecker’s comments in this prior post, Mel Gibson’s character in What Women Want didn’t live in the Gold Coast at 1300 N. Astor, but instead lived in Lincoln Park at 2400 N. Lakeview.

The buildings were of the same era and architectural style, with 2400 N. Lakeview being a Mies Van Der Rohe (as Ecker so kindly pointed out.)  2400 N. Lakeview was built in 1964.  1300 N. Astor in 1963.  You can see my confusion.

Guess which movie I’ll be renting this weekend to figure it all out?

I talked about a one bedroom you could get for $219,000 in the Astor Street building.  Here is one at 2400 N. Lakeview for a bit more:

Unit #811: 1 bedroom, 1 bath

• Currently listed for $245,900
• Assessments are $322 a month
• Ceilings are ten foot
• No washer/dryers in the unit (is it allowed in the building?)
• Garage parking available (rental only???)
• Koenig & Strey has the listing

Either way (if Mel’s character lived in the Gold Coast or Lincoln Park) one thing is certain- neither of these two units was even close to the full floor condo he seemed to have in the movie (with city views.)

But we can pretend.

A few weeks ago we had a Tuscan Villa in Lakeview.  And now you can have your own Mediterranean Palace as well.

What’s up with Lakeview anyway?  Apparently buyers no longer want good-ole midwestern bricks.

I salute this developer who has decided to build something different, however.

But the Mediterranean style is very distinctive and not common in Chicago.

2732 N. Marshfield: 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 4600 square feet, 2 car garage

• Was listed at $1.625 million
• Currently listed at $1.550 million
• Brand new construction
• Rooney Realty has the listing

There are no pictures of the interior.  I guess we’ll just have to imagine the “vaulted ceilings.”

2732 N. Marshfield [Craigslist ad]

Staying on the movie theme as in the last post, What Women Want also showed Mel Gibson’s character living in a high rise condo building which was actually 1300 N. Astor.

1300 N. Astor is a Bertrand Goldberg designed building that is very popular with buyers, regardless of if Mel Gibson’s character lived there or not.

Here is a picture of Mel in a scene outside of the building:

And here is the “real” building:

There are several units available in the building, priced as high as $1.125 million.

But my favorite is this cheap one bedroom.  The listing says it is in the original condition– which would place it around 1963.

Now that’s a “fixer” if I ever saw one.  Could be a deal for someone who is handy.

Unit #8C: 1 bedroom, 1 bath, no square footage listed

• Currently listed at $219,000
• Assessments are $612 a month
• No in-unit washer/dryer but building permits it
• Koenig & Strey has the listing

Remember the 2000 movie What Women Want starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt?  It was filmed in Chicago and retains a distinct Chicago feel.

There are several scenes at Helen Hunt’s character’s luxury condo which, it turns out, isn’t a condo at all, but a Gold Coast mansion (figures… it is Hollywood.)

The house/condo appears in the second part of the movie,  specifically at the end,  when Mel’s character is trying to win back Helen.  He shows up at her condo and greets her up the swooping staircase.  I tried to find movie photographs of the scenes but these are the only ones I could find that were close.  You can’t see much of the room here though:

And here:

Notice, Helen’s hair is up in the scene where they’re fighting- and it’s down in the “make-up” scene at the end of the movie (where they are happily ever after.)  But I digress.

You too could live like Helen Hunt.

It is actually known as the J. Lewis Cochrane House, built in 1895 by George W. Maher, it’s an 8100 square foot, 6 bedroom, 5 bath Gold Coast historic home.  There is only one car garage but also a one car carport.

Sorry,  no pictures of the sweeping staircase (you’ll have to rent the movie.)  Or maybe that was a different house altogether, who knows.  But this room looks similar to those they showed in the film:

Looks like the interior could use a bit of updating however:

1521 N. State Parkway: 6 bedrooms, 5 baths, 5 fireplaces

• Currently listed at $5.9 million
• Rubloff has the listing

You would think that an authentic loft conversion in Streeterville that is on a mini-branch of the River would be Hot, Hot, Hot.

The Lofts at River East Arts Center at 445 East Illinois is at the heart of Streeterville.  On one corner of the building is the Fox & Obel gourmet grocery store and on the first floor there are art galleries.

It is a brick and timber building that was being used as offices.

It could be cool, except it’s not.

I hate to say it, but this conversion is a bust.

As you can see from this picture of the building, MCL Companies, the developer, is going to bust out the historic windows in order to make interior terraces.  But it is the historic windows that make the units cool to begin with.

If you see the model in the sales center, the wall with the windows is the nice old brick (just what you’d want in a loft.)  Unfortunately, by busting out the windows and making interior terraces, as per the picture above, you will lose that wall of brick.

On the side with the river, they are not constrained by any historic pretense and will be hanging balconies off the side of the building.  The way the drawings are portrayed, the developer will be knocking out most of that brick wall as well in order to add in the big sliding glass door out to the balcony.

Watch Out For Timber Ceilings

The timber ceilings are nice.  I asked whether or not they will be re-insulated (as anyone who has lived in a timber loft knows of the noise problem if there is no insulation added.)  The sales agent told me the developer was converting them “as is.”

Buyer beware.

Prices Are High Even For Streeterville

The price points for the smllaest one bedroom are $434,600.  This is with a bedroom with no windows (the kind that is behind the kitchen.)

The two bedrooms, which were about 1150 square feet, were starting at $578,600.  Parking was available in a building next door for $50,000 per spot.

Unfortunately, another negative were the assessments.  They were extremely high due to the age of the building.  Ask anyone living in one of the old brick warehouses- they are expensive to maintain.  The two bedroom units had assessments starting around $800 a month.  The one bedroom units were $500 to $600 a month.

Sales Are Slow

When I was at the sales center a few weeks ago, there were only a handful of units sold.  Again, the price points were just too expensive (even for the already expensive Streeterville neighborhood.)

For the price of a one bedroom, I can buy a two bedroom loft with the brick a few blocks away in also trendy and hip River North.  And the assessments would be less.

The developer was going to try and add “new” units to the top of the building.  The rendering of the building (above) does not show these units.  I know the neighborhood association and the preservationists were against the addition on top of the historic building.

That is at least positive.

In my opinion, prices will have to come way down for these units to have any chance of selling.

The Lofts at River East Arts Center [website]

There isn’t space for much new construction in the Lakeview neighborhood so when a new condo building is announced, it’s sure to be popular.

Such should be the case with The Winchester, a new 12 story mid-rise that is planned for the corner of Belmont and Hudson, at 3175 N. Hudson, near Lake Shore Drive.  Currently, there are a few low-rise vintage buildings on the location.  Those will be torn down.

This is an all two and three bedroom building ranging in square footage from 942 square feet to 3572 square feet for the penthouse.

The building itself is pretty non-descript.  It’s your standard mid-rise with a curved wall of glass on one corner.  A few units will have peekaboo views of the Lake.

 Prices and Square Footage 

The smallest, and cheapest units, will be on the first three floors above the parking garage (floors three through six).  The developer is building the larger units on the upper floors.  Hence, the 942 square foot 2 bedroom, 1 bath (the cheapest unit in the building) is already sold out (but there were only three of them to begin with.)

When I was at the sales center a few weeks ago, nothing else except the smallest two bedroom had sold.

The other two bedroom units have the following square footages:

Floorplan B: 1178 square feet, 2 bedroom, 2 bath

• Price range of: $439,900 to $459,900

Floorplan D: 1210 square feet, 2 bedroom, 2 bath

• Price range of: $459,900 to $474,900

Floorplan A: 1278 square feet, 2 bedroom, 2 bath

• Price range of: $479,900 to $499,900

Floorplan F: 1300 square feet, 2 bedroom, 2 bath

• Price range of: $519,00 to $534,900

Floorplan C: 1414 square feet, 2 bedroom, 2 bath

• Price range from: $509,900 to $529,900

There is a two bedroom plus den that is 1667 square feet starting at $729,900.

The three bedroom units start at $749,900.

Yes, parking is extra with all of the units.  It starts at $28,000 for a space on the third floor up to $35,000 for a space on the first floor.  It is indoor and heated.

Retail In the Bottom Floor

The developer envisions retail along the front of the building on Belmont.  Because of the small size of the building and the design, the garage is actually quite roomy and two parking spaces per unit will be available.  Where do you ever get that in Lakeview?

Standard Finishes and Upgrades

The standard finishes are “luxury” finishes with the thicker granite in the kitchen, Viking appliances, and marble in the bathrooms.  The standard wood floors were also the upgraded wood.  The sales agent also told me that if there was something else you wanted that they didn’t offer, they would be “flexible” in finding it for you. 

The sales center has a mock up of a kitchen and two bathrooms (but there is no “model unit” per say.)  But the mock up gives you a pretty good idea of what the kitchen and baths will look like.

The Building Is a Nice Addition to the Neighborhood

Overall, this development, by GJB Development, is a nice product and a great addition to the Lakeview neighborhood.  My only gripe with it is its price points.  It is very expensive for the Lakeview neighborhood.  The traditional buyers of condos in Lakeview have been the 20 and 30-somethings who aren’t yet ready for a house.  How many of them are affording half a million dollars for a smallish two bedroom?

Not too many.

Perhaps that’s why sales haven’t exactly taken off.

The sales agent told me construction would begin in “spring 2008” but it depended, of course, on sales.  He said they could begin with only 40% sold depending on if that included any of the bigger units on the upper floors.

Seems to me they have a long way to go to get to that 40%.

The Winchester Chicago [website]

Old Town isn’t the first neighborhood you’d think of for loft living, but there is a popular loft building located there at 1660 N. Hudson, the St. Michael Lofts.

This building doesn’t have the authentic brick feel of loft buildings in River North or the West Loop, but this building does have the tall ceilings and the large windows.

Unit #2-0: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths

• Currently listed for $489,000 (includes the parking)
• Assessments of $440 a month
• Lofted duplex unit
• 14 foot ceilings
• Jameson Realty has the listing

With all of the new construction buildings in Streeterville being priced at the nosebleed level, maybe you think you’re priced out of this “hot” neighborhood?

But you can still find deals out there.  One of them is at 211 E. Ohio, The Grand Ohio.  The Grand Ohio was an apartment building that was converted into condos about 7 years ago.  It is a massive building of 586 units which includes studios, 1, 2 and 3 bedroom units.

It has one of the most impressive fitness centers in the city, with an indoor basketball courts, a pool and tennis courts.  There’s no need to join a gym if you live there.

One of the few negatives about the building is that the units do not have in-unit laundry.  But there is one floor that does- the third floor “loft” units.  These used to be, apparently, offices that were converted into living space.  They have their own private elevator and recessed terraces (the other units in the building do not have balconies.)

A studio is currently on the market on the third floor.  What makes these units unique is that the 16 foot ceilings have allowed owners to “add” a bedroom level- basically turning a studio into a quasi-one bedroom unit.

Unit #314: studio (no square footage given but around 700 or so)

• Currently listed at $225,000
• Assessments are $320 a month
• Parking is available for $35,000
• The “lofted” bedroom measures 8 x 12 (and you can fit a bed up there)

Re/Max Edge has the listing. 

A two bedroom, two bath unit, Unit #308, is also on the market on the third floor, currently listed at $515,000 with 1500 square feet.  It is not duplexed.  Parking is extra.

The lofts at the Grand Ohio are an affordable alternative if you really want to be in the thick of things in Streeterville but are not quite yet at the “luxury” price point.