Vintage Duplex Beauty in Lakeview: 421 W. Melrose
Put this one in the “they just don’t make them like this anymore” category.
This vintage 4-bedroom duplex unit at The Eddystone, at 421 W. Melrose, in Lakeview just came on the market.
This unit has good “bones.”
Here’s the listing:
Possibly the most impressive vintage duplex with 2-story living room, book-matched paneling, moldings, plaster ceiling, leaded glass, stone mantle and more. Separate dining room.
New kitchen in progress. 3 en suite upstairs bedrooms including a master with dressing room. 3rd bedroom is now library. 4th bedroom suite is on main level. Leased garage available next door. Potential to combine with 2 bedroom simplex across hall. Amenities include a roof deck and exercise room.
There are NO pictures of the kitchen- hence the “new kitchen in progress” mentioned in the listing.
Jennifer Ames at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See plenty more pictures here.
Unit #14-15C: 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, no square footage listed
- Sold in February 1999 for $450,000
- Currently listed for $1.89 million
- Taxes of $11,955
- Assessments of $2,548 a month
- No central air!
- Fireplace
- Parking is leased next door
- No mention of in-unit w/d but other units in the building have it
5%/year gets us to $733k from the 99 price. Anyone think they’ve spent anything close to $1mm on this reno?
I totally love the place, but the taxes + assessment would fund a $600k mortgage (one of Stevo’s now-mythical 6% jumbos)
Wow.
Gives me the creeps…
Ever been to the Peabody Hotel in Memphis (the one with the ducks in the fountain)? There are two suites that are very like this place–two story living room wrap-around open hallway, fireplace. When I was there, they were the same price as the regular club floor rooms.
I love this flat, but why are the assessments so high? Is this a coop building? If it is, then this place is overpriced, no matter how old-school cool is is.
“If it is [a co-op], then this place is overpriced”
It’s overpriced no matter what.
Also, if it sells for anything close to ask, the taxes will likely nearly double. How would you feel about $4k+ in monthly taxes + assessments?
I think the pink and green bathroom sucks but I love the rest of the place. However, those assessments are outrageous. Would love to see the budget for the association. What are they wasting their money on? Also, how do you quadruple your investment in 10 years? I need to find something like that.
In answer to my last question…they must have done some serious rehabbing.
$3,500/month in assessments+taxes. All before insurance and a $2MM mortgage. Unsaleable. Absolutely unsaleable. Good for all the money they sunk into rehabbing their return will be -98% on all that invested money.
This thing is not even in the ballpark of affordability for its potential market. A 3/3 like this with those ridiculous taxes & assessments should sell for maybe 3-400k, not 2MM.
“should sell for maybe 3-400k, not 2MM”
Now, that’s not fair. It should sell for about $750k (99 price + 5%/yr) with a closing credit for the amount to complete the kitchen to similar finishes w/ rest of unit (whether that’s $15k, $50k or $150k) AND a credit to allow the neighboring 2br to be purchased for an additional $250k. So probably in the ballpark of $500k, net.
Ze Carioca has watched too much Addams Family. This is truly the vintage dream. Would love to hear what went into the renovation.
Of course it is overpriced. Would choke to death on assessments alone.
Add in a few K for them throwing in the 2 DCS BBQ’s
I love this duplex and I love this building.
Assessments at the Eddystone have always been high. Reason is that they have a 24-hour desk, which means 3 shifts of doormen plus a swing shift. That adds considerably to the expense.
Also, judging from the proportions of the two story living room, and the size of the rooms of other apts I’ve seen in this building (which are large), I’d figure this place has at least 2400 sq ft plus double the volume in the living room. Big heat bill for this place.
The building has 2 elevator tiers, each with a passenger and a freight elevator.
That double height living room is gorgeous- old fashioned big-city glam to the max. The library is gorgeous, and that antique bath is beautiful. I’d never renovate it.
It’s hard to reckon the price for an exceptional place like this,
but $1.4 million would feel right.
“Add in a few K for them throwing in the 2 DCS BBQ’s”
You’re paying a couple k a month for them–they’re on the communal roof deck.
Id need a credit just to fill up that library.
WOW. Totally overpriced, sure, but that was some GREAT vintage r.e. porn! I need a cigarette!
I could fill that library instantly. Could really use that shelf space. The damn books are BREEDING in my apartment. It’s totally out of my control.
Too bad I can’t afford that library, though- this is an exceptional apt for an exceptional income.
But WHY are they renovating the kitchen when they are selling? Do they think they can “mark up” the kitchen? Most buyers would rather just get the price of such improvements deducted from the price, and get their own choices. We are past the point in the boom where you can do some schlock “improvements” and profit from them when you flip the place.
Laura,
I vehemently disagree with your 1.4MM prediction. My logic is something like this: the potential market for 1.4MM properties is quite small. Those who have an irrational love for vintage market and are willing to pay a premium for it is also a small subset of the potential buyer market.
The overlap between these two subsets? Infinitesimal. This seller is TOAST. I am more confident of this than most of my predictions.
Remember 3726 N. Lake Shore (http://cribchatter.com/?p=4605) priced around the same amount? 3726 is absolutely stunning (or could be – and with much smaller assessments). I love that place and if I thought they’d take it, I’d give them $1 MIL tomorrow. This place doesn’t really compare. I can’t say what the right price for this place is, but I can say that $1.89 MIL strikes me as outrageous.
Sidelined Buyer, you really think 3726 LSD is better than this place? I’m pretty surprised by that… what makes it nicer, in your opinion?
Kenworthey – Although neither include square footage, 3726 seems bigger (after calculating the room sizes) and the rooms in the pictures here look a bit small. I also prefer all of the space on one floor rather than duplexed. This isn’t as bad as some, but the top floor ceilings look short. I have an extremely tall husband so many a duplex has been ruled out due to insufficient ceiling height. This one has some really nice vintage details, but the oval dining room in 3726 is amazing. This one seems to me to be a bigger version of the 3400 Lake Shore (http://cribchatter.com/?p=5616) wihtout a/c and parking. I also like the assessments and parking at 3726.
I can’t comment at all about the valuation but I have to say that it is gorgeous. Vintage r.e. porn indeed.
Still, I can imagine spending $1.5MM (or even spending $750k which is more the price range I am looking in) and not getting central air!
Very nice, and indeed very overpriced given the monthly outlay on assessments.
For more reasonably priced comparable units (vintage duplex with soaring living rooms) check out Jackson Towers in Hyde Park, I believe at 5555 S. Everett.
Laura asked:
“But WHY are they renovating the kitchen when they are selling? Do they think they can “mark up” the kitchen? Most buyers would rather just get the price of such improvements deducted from the price, and get their own choices. We are past the point in the boom where you can do some schlock “improvements” and profit from them when you flip the place.”
Jennifer Ames has the listing (same agent that has the cool crib on Ohio we chattered about where they put in the Poggenpoel kitchen and re-listed it.)
If you look at the other bathroom picture in the listing (notice how the other 2 baths- out of 4 baths- aren’t pictured at all) you can see that the unit needs some updating.
If they’re putting in a new kitchen, you can only imagine what the old one looked like. At this price point- a buyer will demand new, new, new. A good agent will know the buyers in that market and not put in some schlock and expect it to sell.
But I’m surprised they think the same doesn’t apply to the baths (though I personally love the green vintage bathroom.) The other one isn’t too hot.
I think the updated kitchen is a tossup. To me it is the most important room and I always say the same thing when I see a newly done kitchen.
“Damn I wish they didn’t just re-do the kitchen”
It’s always little things… They used this color granite and I want ubatuba, they put in Viking, I want Thermador. Faucets are Kohler, I want KWC. and on and on…. I already said several times I would not buy something just because I had such bad experiences with Poggenpohl.
It’s a very expensive pass thru and tastes are definitely not the same.
I love this place, but that’s a mighty big price tag. Good luck.
I wouldn’t get rid of a vintage bath like that as long as the tile and fixtures are in decent condition. 20s vintage baths in good shape are something I’m willing to pay for. But the pink&green scheme, I’m sure, is not to everyone’s taste.
I’d rather do my own reno than pay for someone else’s, because they NEVER do it exactly the way I would.
not sure if any rehab has been done. same owner has the adjoining 2 br simplex so quite a package could be put together.