The First 1-Bedroom Resale in The Illume at 111 S Peoria in the West Loop
This 1-bedroom in The Illume at 111 S. Peoria in the West Loop came on the market in March 2021.
The Illume was built in 2018 and has 79 units and a heated parking garage.
It’s one of the few newer West Loop luxury buildings that also has a doorman.
This listing says it’s the first 1-bedroom resale in the building.
This unit has wide plank floors throughout and floor to ceiling windows with 10 foot concrete ceilings.
The listing describes the kitchen as a “Chef’s kitchen” with white, custom Italian cabinets and high-end Fisher & Paykel and Bosch appliances with quartz counter tops.
The kitchen has an island with a breakfast bar and custom island extension that can seat 4.
The dining room is part of the living room.
The bedroom is en suite with professionally organized closets.
The unit has a half bath, central air and washer/dryer in the unit.
The garage parking space is $40,000 extra.
It has a private balcony off the living room.
Listed at $475,000 plus $40,000 for parking, can the West Loop support 1-bedroom condo prices above $500,000?
Ramsey Al-Abed and Rubina Bokhari at Compass have the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #303: 1 bedroom, 1.5 baths, 915 square feet
- Sold in July 2018 for $450,700 (per Redfin)
- Originally listed in March 2021 for $475,000 (plus $40,000 for garage parking)
- Currently still listed at $475,000 (plus $40,000 for garage parking)
- Assessments of $396 a month (includes a/c, gas, doorman, exterior maintenance, scavenger, snow removal)
- Taxes of $9744
- Central Air
- Washer/dryer in the unit
- Bedroom: 12×11
- Living room: 14×17
- Kitchen: 16×11
- Laundry room: 4×4
- Balcony: 6×10
The facade of this building in the list picture reminds me of communist era housing.
515k for a one bed with no views or no room for a dining room table, is quite a steep ask.
This building is curb repellent, its even uglier in person… blech
as for the unit… Its like the 2018 version of my old CMK condo in river north, except this one doesn’t have any views, but the location is probably better at least for noise…
this will surely test the HAWT market theory as 500k goes a long ways these days in Chicago
This is a sad unit w absolutely nothing going for it. Hard pass.
You brag about the closets and dont show them WTF?
Its staged well, but they were too early with the WFH and not having a dedicated work space and no real option to modify easily
Theres actually a couple of advertised 1Br for sale here, tho they’re clocking in at under 600sf and dont appear to have a window
Renting is a better option than $95K down + closing fees and ~$3K per month. Appreciation will be hard to come by on a cookie-cutter 1 bedroom.
Those cabinets are cheap and hideous.
All of this and you get white walls and exposed concrete. Congrats. You have made it in Chicago.
I would enjoy staying in a unit like this on vacation.
Tough as a primary residence.
What would be the AirBnB payback on this? Still seems high for its lack out qualities.
You can get 1500 sq ft of brand new construction within 2 miles of this place for the same price. What is so special about this building? Is it really that inconvenient to take a $10 Uber to the overpriced restaurants within walking distance of this place?
Groove77 on April 5th, 2021 at 1:21 pm
What would be the AirBnB payback on this?
Zero. Any building that has a semi-competent HOA that allows rentals would limit rental leases to 30 days minimum. Then it’s only one extra step for a property manager or attorney of said HOA to add their building to Chicago’s House Share Prohibited Buildings List, which is what the PM of the Illume Condominium Association did. At that point AirBnb/VRBO won’t even let you list your unit because your address is blacklisted.
It’s very difficult to make short term rentals / AirBnb’s work in Chicago condos because even if you’re lucky enough to find a building that doesn’t have restrictions, there’s no guarantee you can prevent them from adding future rules that prohibit it.
Nevertheless, I agree with the prevailing sentiment on this website that Chicago condos seem like an awful investment right now. The math and rate of return look terrible on so many units in buildings in which I was once considering buying back in 2010-2013. Really glad I held off.
Thank you for that Elliot.
“Chicago condos seem like an awful investment right now”
Also Elliot (phone home), the uncertainty of rent control coming might make a risky investment too.
You’re welcome, Groove. Me and my better-half AirBnb out one of our our units in our 2-flat which is why I keep a close eye on how Chicago is handling STR regulations.
Hopefully Chicago listens to the majority of the economists and looks at how much of a disaster rent control has been in Los Angeles, New York, Berlin, etc. If it ever passed that would be another nail in the Chicago coffin and seriously de-incentivize building, purchasing, and/or remodeling of Chicago’s multifamily housing stock. Ripple effects would not be good.
Are there any AirBnb’ers who only rent out a spare room these days or have that been taken over by couchsurfing (can’t remember the URL name)?
So is there even a concrete proposal for a rent control ordinance? How would it apply to condo owners? To two-flats? I know some upper middle income people who would at least like a max. increase, like 10%, which is fairly high. Bigger problem, at least anecdotally, is that Section 8 has pushed up rents in a lot of less desirable neighborhoods. It’s guaranteed income for LL’s. I’m still surprised how much rents have gone up since I was a renter – I was paying three figures for a three bedroom in Edgewater and now it’s apparently, on average, doubled!
“this will surely test the HAWT market theory as 500k goes a long ways these days in Chicago”
It does?
Not in the prime neighborhoods.
$450 with parking tops if someone is stupid enough to buy this.
Much better deals elsewhere: https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1035-W-Monroe-St-60607/unit-2/home/18941929
or this: https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/909-W-Washington-Blvd-60607/unit-1005/home/12604016
“Hopefully Chicago listens..”
Elliott when in the last 40 years has Chicago decision makers ever thought or acted long term? Hopefully they won’t screw this up.
Rent control does not solve anything, and is an expensive way to mask an issue. Logical way is to incentivize building more apartment units in areas, which will naturally bring the price of rent down to affordable levels due to supply, and it won’t affect the tax base.
@FG, I posted in a different thread on the topic. I think you are hitting the nail on the head – – “rent control” would likely not apply to any of the people having the most visceral reaction to it e.g. one off and super small time landlords and folks renting lux units out. I am unaware of a concrete proposal. Rent Control laws are all widely different in my experience.
Funny people are mentioning air bnb in terms of this unit. I figured the “adventure awaits” pillow and the mismatched living room sofas (in order to accommodate the CB2 sleeper), were anecdotal evidence that the owner of this unit is doing exactly that but it isn’t currently listed as far as I could tell. They probably combined households with someone else (looking at you mis matched bar stools) and now find this place too small.
Also, the front of the building is so unpleasant to look at. Very “soviet block” vibe here. Rather icky.
Thanks Groove and TC! I think incentivizing affordable construction is probably the better way (or doing something at the employment/income level – but that’s even harder to do). If they followed the rental ordinances divisions between small landlords etc, it would probably only be bigger buildings that would be affected by rent control.
PS I like the look of the building – it looks Parisian or something in London. However, the unit needs to be bigger for the exposed concrete to work comfortably.
Part of the issue too as a few touched on here is the continuing conversions of 2 or 3 flats to SFH reducing the supply of quality rentals.
But history has shown us those SFH can and have been converted many times over from rental units to shh back to rental units. example those wonderful greystones in bronzeville. They have flip flop of the history of Chicago.
It shows a perfect example of the free market adapting to the needs without being forced by the gubment.
My gut is that the single-family conversion boomlet is mostly north side rather than south – so far. Although a lot of subdivided/split-up/converted to apartments or SRO rowhouses and SFH in Bronzeville are being reconverted to SFH occupancy again.
Remember this one bedroom? It recently sold again. Here’s the history:
2018: $450,700
2021: $470,000
2023: $490,000
Surprised that they are still getting a higher price even with 8% rates. Wow. Chicago real estate is really holding up.
’21 seller was asking $515k (including parking), the dropped to $505k. And accepted $470k 6 weeks after the drop.
’23 seller was asking $499k (including parking).