Think the $800K 1-Bedroom Won’t Sell? Think Again: 10 E. Delaware in the Gold Coast

We first chattered about this 1015 square foot 1 bedroom unit at the new construction luxury highrise 10 E. Delaware in the Gold Coast when it first came on the market as a flip in February 2010.

10-e-delaware-approved.jpg

See February 2010 chatter here.

Back then, we were chattering about it being an $850k 1-bedroom. Now it is a $799k 1-bedroom.

If you recall, the unit has all the bells and whistles of luxury new construction, including Poggenpohl cabinetry, Miele and SubZero appliances, but also has a 560 square foot terrace, complete with water, gas and electricity.

From the pictures with the latest listing, it looks like it has been staged and the terrace has been landscaped.

The price was also reduced $50,000 from February. And the parking may now be included (but I can’t tell for sure from the public listing.)

In February, many of you mocked the pricing on the listing, with alternative prices ranging from $450k to $549k being thrown out. The listing was cancelled shortly after we chattered about it. 

It was relisted in July.

Who’s having the last laugh now?

The unit is now under contract.

Anne Victorin at @Properties still has the listing. See the pictures here.

Unit #9A: 1 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 1015 square feet

  • Sold in December 2009 for $650,365 (looks like it included the parking spot)
  • Was listed in February 2010 for $849,000 (parking is extra)
  • Withdrawn
  • Re-listed in July 2010 for $799,000 (can’t tell if parking is included)
  • Under Contract
  • Assessments of $412 a month (includes heat, a/c, doorman, pool)
  • Taxes are “new”
  • Washer/Dryer in the unit
  • Living room: 16×14
  • Kitchen: 10×8
  • Bedroom: 12×13
  • Den: 9×9

62 Responses to “Think the $800K 1-Bedroom Won’t Sell? Think Again: 10 E. Delaware in the Gold Coast”

  1. We’ll see if that contract closes..I’m guessing not.

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  2. I’m doubtful it’s going to appraise high enough, unless there is a significant down payment.

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  3. what are they going to do, use the chicago spire sales as comps?

    LOL cash buyer for sure here… and likely at least 100k below the list price

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  4. I’m sorry, but this ain’t Manhattan. There is NOTHING about this place that screams is should be north of $400k imho. Yeah, it has a nice terrace, but at the end of the day, it is still a 1 bedroom. There are much better deals out there at this price point.

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  5. This just, quite frankly, seems absurd. It may have high end finishes, but it looks like everything else out there. Sure, the terrace is nice, but…it’s not worth a premium that is this high. The price tag is actually the most impressive thing.

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  6. At the bottom of the Redfin listing it says this prop sold 7/29/2010 for 565 k ” as part of a multi-property sale”

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  7. “Who’s having the last laugh now?”

    So many choices!
    The appraiser?
    The seller?
    The neighbors?
    Friends of the buyer?

    As they say, there’s … born every minute.

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  8. I don’t know why anyone is surprised. This is what I have been trying to tell you guys – there are lots of people with lots of money out there who ARE willing to buy in established neighborhoods. I am begining to realize that you guys don’t want to hear this (you only want to hear how great your neighborhoods are and how the sky is falling and everyone is going bankrupt, etc. etc. ) Please realize that if you want to have a serious discussion about real estate out there, you are going to have to listen to the opinions of wealthy people (whether you like it or not).

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  9. I bet an investor bought a block of units to rent…

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  10. “there are lots of people with lots of money out there who ARE willing to buy in established neighborhoods. ”

    Sure there are lots as this is a big city. At issue is how many are doing so today vs. during the boom. The answer is likely a bit less. And as RE valuations are indeed set at the margin, I’d expect prices, even in this segment, to keep falling.

    No way does this thing approach 800k is my guess. I bet this contract falls through and its back to square one.

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  11. Clio,

    I appreciate your thoughts and the commonality we have in a mutual addiction to this site.

    In terms of listening to wealthy people, I just can’t help but think that there are a lot of people out there with salaries like mine – simple average, working class folks. This property clearly doesn’t qualify. This is a wealthy person property and will never, under any circumstance, be mine.

    I thought during the bubble that something was wrong and when I went to my cocktail parties – not everyone was a banker – a few, but certainly not everyone. Can wealthy people buy up every property? The big banks certainly almost have – accidentally. But, they can’t occupy them.

    Part of the real estate market can be determined by the wealthy. But, certainly not every parcel of land, not every square foot. Because us average folks won’t even be able to rent from the wealthy to line your (used loosely, not an attack) pockets if it goes too far.

    I don’t think I’m making sense. This is a wealthy person property. But, not all are. Some are actually meant for the averages. And, the math just doesn’t add up in a lot of these cases. And, I’m talking about double incomes that add up to over six figures – my average isn’t actually average according to statistics. It’s high.

    I’m willing to listen seriously to the wealthy. But, the wealthy need to listen to the regular people, too.

    And, this price is absurd. Not because someone has the money and no property should be this high. But, rather because this looks to be a truly average apartment and it just seems like that money could go a lot farther. The layout looks kind of bland. No interior cookie features. Stainless, granite and nice cabinets are now expected in cookie cutter condos in Dallas for $100K.

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  12. 32A is listed for $554 + 65k for parking and is also pending. Is the terrace, and 23 fewer floors of view, worth $180k?

    Also, there are 8 A-tier units listed, and only 3 not listed as pending:

    11–$649k
    15–$715k
    17–$709k

    All w/ parking extra.

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  13. with parking it’s still a stretch, but it’s not absurd in the 700’s.

    plenty of bachelors out there who really need nothing more than a 1 bedroom…hell that’s exactly who this place was marketed to with the martini shaker on the kitchen counter.

    and that terrace is pretty unique in the heart of the city.

    given what that 1 bedroom with the ridiculous terrace is listed for at Trump, anything with a seven here seems like a pretty decent deal in comparison, again including parking.

    cheap? of course not. but it’s not absurd.

    clio has a point.

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  14. The finishes are very nice here (except the powder room), but its the 1+den and 1.5 bathrooms and only 1000 sqft that makes the price so outrageous

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  15. “I don’t think I’m making sense.”

    Lisa, you make a lot of sense – and I really appreciate your comments. I also really appreciate the way you temper your comments – it is a much more effective manner of communication than mine. I learn something new everyday.

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  16. Other than the building being called luxury, I really don’t see anything about this unit that says the unit is uber luxurious. Looks like every other new construction condo with slightly better kitchen finishes. Go buy a crap american invsco conversion and add $75-100k and you have this unit and still probably $200k left over.

    True 2 bedrooms I can see going for this much… 1 bedrooms at this price point is just retarded in Chicago. Even during the bubble I was like WTF? I don’t care how luxurious the building is. If all you can afford in the building is a 1 bedroom, then you probably can’t really afford to live in the building imho. The market for small weekend homes in the city in Chicago can’t be that big. Probably cheaper to just stay at a nice hotel every weekend instead of owning super expensive 1 bedroom.

    Luxury 1 bedrooms are like buying a base model E-class or 5 series with tiny rims and no navigation. You got it but all the folks in the know are laughing at you… might impress middle america types from Joilet though.

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  17. “Luxury 1 bedrooms are like buying a base model E-class or 5 series with tiny rims and no navigation.”

    Yeah, cuz no spinners and no integrated waste-of-money (who needs a $5k nav system anyway?) *really* affects the prestige of the car.

    “Probably cheaper to just stay at a nice hotel every weekend instead of owning super expensive 1 bedroom.”

    Once the assessment flips to its permanently much higher level, it might be cheaper to stay at the 4S or Peninsula or wherever *every* weekend than it would be to pay tax+ass+ins+utils on this place, neverminding the purchase price. But you’d have to haul your weekend clothes back and forth with you–the horrors!

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  18. Russ, you generalize WAY too much.

    every buyer at this price level is not necessarily somebody who wishes they could buy the 2-3 bedroom but settles for the 1 bedroom because that’s all they could afford.

    like it or not, Chicago is an international tourist destination and has one of the best night life scenes in North America. is it New York? hell no. but it’s not priced like New York either. not even close.

    is there a market for 1 bedroom, high-end condos in amenity laden buildings (room service from the Talbott would be sweet, i don’t care what anyone says) in the most active night-life areas of the city?

    you betcha.

    and, again…how many 1 bedroom units are there, in top buildings WITH a rooftop pool, AND a 500 SF terrace (!), with views, in the heart of the city?

    the number is not that big. i bet you could answer that question counting on one hand.

    it’s not for me. it’s obviously not for you. but there is a market out there for single people who like to mingle and there aren’t that many places like this…that terrace is what sells the place.

    lastly, we don’t even know the final sales price. wouldn’t be surprised if it’s under $750K.

    not a screaming deal, but not ridiculous for the right buyer.

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  19. This place isn’t nearly as hilarious as Vetro’s unit 705:

    http://cribchatter.com/?p=6413

    Just goes to show if you hang out on cribchatter long enough, even the seemingly ridiculous listings aren’t frequently the best in class (if that class happens to be insane)!

    I wonder if units 705 or 706 ever sold? lol..

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  20. shortwithhighceilings on August 20th, 2010 at 11:50 am

    “At the bottom of the Redfin listing it says this prop sold 7/29/2010 for 565 k ” as part of a multi-property sale” ”

    Anyone want to comment on this? Count me as baffled.

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  21. I represented a buyer who bought a unit in the 20s for 670k in May. It was originally asking close to 800k. I was actually able to get three sellers to bid the price down to get us as a buyer. We looked at this unit but didn’t think the lack of view was worth the terrace. My guess is this sells around 700k. There are not that many high end 1br options in this immediate location.

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  22. “Anyone want to comment on this? Count me as baffled.”

    The buyer in the previous sale purchased two or more units and allocated the total purchase price among the units (for transfer tax purposes) in whatever manner they did; the notation is to reflect that the disclosed price for this unit may not reflect the real value paid *and* that the buyer may have gotten some sort of discount for the bulk buy.

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  23. “At the bottom of the Redfin listing it says this prop sold 7/29/2010 for 565 k ” as part of a multi-property sale” ”

    Anyone want to comment on this? Count me as baffled.”

    I will, because I think this is exactly what will happen to the most fortunate of the large-building foreclosures.

    (Talking specifically about large buildings with a ton of units and high vacancy rates– especially new constructions that tried to launch at the end of the boom, and never sold).

    Faced with going into foreclosure, or killing the value of what sales they’ve made, developers sell a bunch of properties at a major “discount” (assuming, say ’08 values). Wealthy buyer gets attractive speculative deal. Developer avoids the major loss that was starting to close in on them.

    Beats the hell out of having large buildings go into foreclosure, right?

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  24. “I represented a buyer who bought a unit in the 20s for 670k in May.”

    Including parking?

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  25. Yes. There were lots of investors in this tier, and there is a shadow inventory. Asking prices are irrelevant.

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  26. shortwithhighceilings on August 20th, 2010 at 12:26 pm

    Fascinating, and thanks for the explanations. So, that means that the bulk deal occurred some time between Feb 2010 and the current contract, right? Would this be considered fair game for data to be introduced in the price negotiation? (Obviously, the parties can use whatever data they want, but I’m talking about convention here.)

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  27. “So, that means that the bulk deal occurred some time between Feb 2010 and the current contract, right? ”

    If redfin is accurate, yes. Hard to check, b/c the PINs aren’t available thru the assessor yet.

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  28. Hey MG – what do you mean by ” I was actually able to get three sellers to bid the price down to get us as a buyer.” Just curious.

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  29. “Once the assessment flips to its permanently much higher level, it might be cheaper to stay at the 4S or Peninsula or wherever *every* weekend than it would be to pay tax+ass+ins+utils on this place, neverminding the purchase price. But you’d have to haul your weekend clothes back and forth with you–the horrors!”

    If you really were staying every weekend, you could almost surely get them to store them (and probably lay out for every visit).

    “and there is a shadow inventory….Asking prices are irrelevant.”

    Whoa, I thought that was HD for a moment. Speaking of which, HD, did you get married?!!? I meant to ask that in the other post. If so, many congrats.

    Also, is Frenchy’s still in business? That would be a nice amenity.

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  30. This is proof the market has come ROARING back with a vengence. Buy now or be priced out forever!

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  31. DZ: I did. I didn’t realize that I let that slip that I was married. thanks for the congrats! I can’t say much more than that so as not to out myself on this board.

    “Whoa, I thought that was HD for a moment. Speaking of which, HD, did you get married?!!? I meant to ask that in the other post. If so, many congrats.”

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  32. HD —

    Good luck convincing your wife to live in your meager ways. Happy wife, happy life. She’ll want a nice big house and you are f’d. Better borrow now or be priced out forever (last time I checked chancery lawyers weren’t clocking Scadden dollars).

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  33. “I didn’t realize that I let that slip that I was married. thanks for the congrats!”

    Who are you kidding? Whole point of getting married is to be able to say “my wife”. But seriously, that’s awesome.

    We should do an anonymous paypal present or something.

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  34. I live in the Gold Coast (technically, this is two streets south). We’ve been looking for a 2/2 E of State and between Oak-Schiller. I’ve visited a couple dozen properties now and there is a glut of luxury 2/2s in 600k-800k range. I’m not sure why anyone would waste 800k on a 1BR.

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  35. because this one has a place for your purse sized dog to piss?

    GRASS!

    you could maybe even stable a horse on that terrace

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  36. Just did a Redfin search on GC 1BRs and there are exactly 6 properties above 500k. All but 1 have over 2,000 square feet and are obviously conversions of much larger apartments. Not so sure why anyone would spend this kind of money on 1BR in Chicagoland.

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  37. “She’ll want a nice big house and you are f’d.”

    I didn’t realize you had such keen insight into half of the human race, JMM.

    Given you have such a great understanding of women, women’s paradigms and problems have you ever thought about putting in to replace Oprah after she retires?

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  38. Bob:

    Why all the hating today?

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  39. JMM, my wife is more meager than I am 😉 I’m the one that has to convince her to spend money.

    p.s. Skadden is spelled with a ‘k’ you db
    p.p.s I’m not a chancery lawyer, as if that’s an insult. Plenty of big firms do commercial and large residential foreclosures. Do you think that the mills are foreclosing on block 37 or the condo towers downtown? How is that an insult?

    “#JMM on August 20th, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    HD –

    Good luck convincing your wife to live in your meager ways. Happy wife, happy life. She’ll want a nice big house and you are f’d. Better borrow now or be priced out forever (last time I checked chancery lawyers weren’t clocking Scadden dollars).”

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  40. “Why all the hating today?”

    Another Friday late night revelry ruined due to a car recall that needs to get worked on tomorrow.

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  41. Jon-

    I basically got three different sellers to start lowering their prices bidding against each other for us to buy their units. It was pretty crazy.

    MGG

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  42. Seriously, is that supposed to be an insult? Who says I want to work at Skadden anyway? I don’t have the stamina for that type of work. If you think you’re insulting me, you’re mistaken. I don’t really understand what you’re trying to do. Furthermore, I didn’t go to Marshall. Seriously, grab yourself a drink and chill out, dude.

    “#JMM on August 20th, 2010 at 1:38 pm

    “p.s. Skadden is spelled with a ‘k’”

    If anyone is the DB it is the one who corrects the spelling of a law firm he couldn’t get a job out out of, John Marshall was it?”

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  43. “Seriously, grab yourself a drink and chill out, dude. ”

    HD, he doesn’t get tail much..if ever. Its likely much moreso due to his personality than his work hours but in any case lets have fun w/JMM when he attempts to troll.

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  44. LOL! I have to side with JMM on the American wives wanting houses thing. All those in-laws, cousins, aunts and uncles whispering too!!

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  45. Why don’t these ridiculous comments get deleted? They have nothing to do with this post, or RE in general… isn’t there some sort of moderation on this board? It’s getting ridiculous. Get a life you guys-a REAL one, I don’t think arguing with faceless screen names online qualifies.

    Have a nice weekend everyone:)

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  46. OK – these comments are starting to get a little threatening and inappropriate. There is no point in wasting my time posting here. I should have realized that long ago. I wish all of you the best of luck in your real estate adventures.

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  47. ***OK – these comments are starting to get a little threatening and inappropriate.***

    ***Why don’t these ridiculous comments get deleted? They have nothing to do with this post, or RE in general… isn’t there some sort of moderation on this board? ***

    lol…took you this long to figure it out?

    natrually don’t want to resort to ad hominem attacks so let’s just say that someone needs to give a hug to a lot of the real-life personas here.

    here’s to hugs and kisses to all the haters out there.

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  48. y’all a bunch of haters. Lookie here, don’t hate the playa, hate the game.

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  49. This site is less fun and, increasingly, less informative than it should be. Sabrina is doing a great job, but the comments are getting more petty and personal by the posting. What’s up?

    As to this unit: I think it’s overpriced, but 340 E. Randolph is a good comparison. Prices there for a one bedroom are out of control, but I see why someone with money, having seen the building and amenities (and having seen an image of their own life there!), would pay those prices just to get in. I don’t know 10 E. Delaware inside, but perhaps it’s a similar kind of building. Or someone is betting that it is.

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  50. Did anyone notice that the unit is now under contract according to the MLS?

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  51. Haha, I should have read Sabrina’s entry before I posted.

    My mistake-OLD NEWS

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  52. This may be overpriced to most, but this to me is an “all it takes is one” type of place. There really might be one rich guy who values a large private terrace more than any of us deem reasonable. I have not seen a lot of great comps for this place, but maybe there are a lot of 1k sq ft, 1.5 bth, great loc, 500 sq ft terrace condos out there.

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  53. Sonies Sez:
    “because this one has a place for your purse sized dog to piss?
    GRASS!
    you could maybe even stable a horse on that terrace”

    It’s a bitch getting them up the elevator, though.

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  54. I think some of you are jealous that somone paid this much for this type of place. The are soo many reasons to pull the triger on this if you can.

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  55. “under contract” can mean a lot of things, but its still not sold

    realtors use this trick sometimes to show there is interest and when the deal falls through why its there for you

    or it means someone with a big gov handout can afford it for a few months

    or it can just mean its flat out sold SO IF THATS THE CASE GOOD FOR YOU

    now if we can just stop the gov /taxpayer funding and let the prices get to where the real market wants it

    Oh I know even this fake market is the current “real market” but a house of cards is a house of cards

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  56. I don’t think anybody is jealous. I think everyone thinks the buyer is a god damn fool. Lord knows there are plenty of them to go around.

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  57. HD did you check the size of the living room / dining room combo……. Another one that won’t fit a dining room table. I guess luxury living doesn’t require a table to eat at.

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  58. After the comment on one of the Vetro threads about folks on balconies above your terrace tossing garbage or liquid over onto the terrace they’ve all lost appeal to me. Prior to that I thought it was a cool design move to add those big terraces on the lowest level of the tower which seems to generally sit directly above retail or a parking lot.

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  59. Valasko, that it crazy the units are too small to fit dining room table.

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  60. Why not ditch the kitchen and add a dining room with a phone to call for room service?

    Anyway, maybe you could squeeze a table in the 9X9 “den/library”.

    Here’s a link to the floor plan — don’t know if it will work…

    http://www.teneastdelaware.com/pdf/TEN_EAST_A.pdf

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  61. If you are in a one bedroom, why would you need a space larger than 9×9 for a dining area? Unless you are an aspiring Jamie Oliver, there really should not be the need for a large cook/dine space.
    I think this idea would work if you also streamlined the living area by incorporating the kitchen workspace and appliances into a one wall, hidden space with wood doors/panels used to conceal the work areas.
    We recently remodeled a fair sized NYC studio using this thought process and it turned out fantastically. All of the cabinets and appliances disappear until you slide open the panels to reveal the work space. Even the table was customized to fold into the wall using leaves so that area was not visible until you needed it.

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  62. This is now re-listed for $749K

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