Vintage Elegance In a 2-Bedroom Duplex in the Edgewater Beach Apartments: 5555 N. Sheridan
They don’t build them like the Edgewater Beach Apartments at 5555 N. Sheridan in Edgewater anymore.
This 2-bedroom unit is one of 5 first floor duplexes in the building.
The listing says it has park views.
It has 10 foot ceilings on both levels and an elegant staircase.
The living/dining and kitchen are on the first floor with the two bedrooms and the bathroom on the second floor.
The kitchen has white cabinets and black appliances.
There’s no central air and no in-unit washer/dryer.
The building has rental parking available for $95 a month.
It’s a full service building with an indoor swimming pool.
The building is also a co-op but I can’t tell if the taxes are included for certain in the monthly assessment or not.
Who’s the targeted buyer for this unit?
Kim Biggs at Koenig & Strey has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #142: 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, duplex, no square footage listed
- I don’t know the prior sales price because it’s a co-op
- Originally listed in January 2013 for $225,000
- Still listed at $225,000
- Assessments of $887 a month (includes heat, gas, cable, pool, taxes?)
- Taxes of $806
- No central air
- No in-unit washer/dryer
- Parking is $95 a month
- Bedroom #1: 12×15 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 12×14 (second floor)
almost rented here in 1993. good to see they still have the hoop up in the pool.
I always wondered what units in this building looked like. Too bad there’s no washer dryer allowed. The assessments seem more reasonable than I would have expected.
Two words: horrible neighborhood.
Plus it is far from downtown.
Even with the condition downgrade (and need for new kitchen), I can’t see not buying this:
http://www.koenigstrey.com/108282468/5555%20N%20SHERIDAN%20RD%20#615, CHICAGO, IL 60640
instead (barring massive distruction in the unpix’d rooms). The extra 2 bathrooms alone would make the difference.
does anyone else remember the exterior being a brighter shade of pink? maybe 10 yrs back..
The assessment seems almost TOO reasonable for the size of the unit and the level of service and amenity in the building, I would be rather suspicious of that because this building has a history of undercharging on assessments, then getting a massive bill for decades of deferred maintenance that blindsides the moderate-to-middle income owners here. About 10-15 years back, 40 years of deferred maintenance caught up with this place and it required tens of millions of dollars worth of work on the stucco shell, the garage, and the pool, and prices were driven way down temporarily as many residents couldn’t come up with special assessments of $40,000 or more, and there was panic selling. Afterwards, many of these units were sold at ultra-low prices because the specials were so huge that the buyer had to pay.
The units are ho-hum in appearance as vintage units go- not nearly as beautiful as most buildings of this vintage. The staircase in this unit is really the only attractive feature. But there are a lot of compensations. The best thing about this building is the lifestyle and the level of amenity. You have not only the pool, but a huge, lovely private park, a garage, a beautiful lobby with unbelievably flattering mirrors that make you look 10 years younger, and even a little lending library that residents contribute to and from which they can casually borrow. The units vary from plain to very pretty, most being not that great, but each has a storage locker just outside the back door which is almost a room in itself. There is a nice restaurant on the ground floor, along with historic and charming Anna Held’s coffee shop, and even a great local bridal designer who has had her business in the place for a long time, Ella de la Rosa. The neighborhood is pretty good, and very charming, and the public transportation is great. There is a new Dominick’s a few blocks away at Foster, which of course delivers, and nice places to eat on Bryn Mawr.
I wish the old Edgewater Beach Hotel was still there beside this building. It fronted on Sheridan Road and the property, with the hotel and this co-op building, took all the frontage from Bryn Mawr almost to Foster, and had the famous boardwalk along the beach. The outer drive is there now, more’s the loss. My grandmother used to come up to Chicago and stay at that hotel back in the day, and remembered the great times she had there.
The “targeted market” for ANY co-op nowadays? Lawyers who are very knowledgeable about co-op to condo conversion! Today’s young people are not attracted to the co-op “lifestyle” and these buildins are going to have to “adapt or die (along with their residents).
This is an awesome, beautiful vintage bathroom but has so many dings against it unfortunately. No w/d, no a/c, pay for parking AND only one bath on top of those issues. I think this looks far better than unit 615 but that is clearly the better deal if you can afford it AND the rehab which is why it is so cheap. Most people don’t have the cash to update a place, put in a new kitchen and 3 baths….
Vintage unit….not bathroom. Who knows where my head was at….
I’ve always liked this building.
“does anyone else remember the exterior being a brighter shade of pink? maybe 10 yrs back..”
“About 10-15 years back, 40 years of deferred maintenance caught up with this place and it required tens of millions of dollars worth of work ”
I think the color change is related to the masisve work–you’re recalling either the pre-work color, or the immediate post-work color (before it faded). But yeah, I remember it brighter, too.
This unit is pretty depressing. Not very elegant or charming for a vintage unit.
here is the hotel Laura mentioned. pretty cool
http://chuckmanchicagonostalgia.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/postcard-chicago-edgewater-beach-hotel-and-apartments-nice-beach-scene-handsome-c1950.jpg
another pic http://www.compassrose.org/static/EBMap_Big.jpg
These rooms all look so narrow and squashed. I’ve been in other units in this building and they were much more roomy. I’d consider the building, but on a higher floor with a lake view. I love the location, amenities and vintage touches, as well as the grand lobby.
I know some of you live in this neighborhood, and I hang out there now and then. Bryn Mawr certainly looks good these days. What’s the feel of the area? Are there still a lot of apartment “hotels” on Kenmore/Winthrop and the associated transient populations?
Looks like Laura already answered my question about the neighborhood. I know she lives around here. Thanks for the insight.
It’s true that these units (the ones I’ve seen) don’t have too many vintage touches. There aren’t any fireplaces, for example, or wood trim. But the floor plans are quite nice, and some units have been combined and seem quite spacious.
Let me say more about the neighborhood.
I love this area, and I mostly feel pretty safe and good walking around, even late at night.But “marginal” neighborhoods like Uptown, Edgewater, and Rogers Park are fragile, and a couple of badly managed buildings with criminal tenants can undo decades of improvement, if left to fester. Edgewater still has some “issues”, such as a bad corridor building in the 5700 block of N Winthrop, that the ward office really needs to go after, and which has been the locus of crime and quality-of-life offenses. Now, when Mary Ann Smith was alderman, she was very, very aggressive about enforcing neighborhood standards and riding herd on bad landlords, to the point of maintaining a web page of “bad” buildings. Landlords who did not clean up their buildings were subject to court-ordered vacates and sales.
However, the new alderman, Harry Osterman, seems rather complacent and residents need to spur him a bit. Crime has risen in the area, and the cause is badly-run, cash-cow corridor apartment buildings stuffed with low-quality tenants. I’m concerned that now that Uptown has a very competent and pro-active alderman, Cappelman, who is doing such a good job of cleaning out cess- pit buildings, that many of the worst people from them will end up drifting further north.
Thanks, Laura. Very insightful.
I checked out the area myself over the weekend, on Sat. afternoon, and came back with mixed feelings. I walked up Bryn Mawr from Sheridan to Broadway, over to Catalpa, to Kenmore, back to Bryn Mawr.
The neighborhood has a nice ethnic mix – you can tell from just spending 20 minutes there. And Bryn Mawr looks really nice. The buildings are well taken care of and there are some stores/restaurants/coffee places/theaters that look fun to hang out in.
But Broadway is just dead. Nothing interesting to see. And on the side streets I saw some people I’d rather not be around every day, to put it nicely. Also, there’s some sort of home for schizophrenic people right off of Bryn Mawr on Kenmore, and the people were all out in the yard making weird noises. I realize these people have to live somewhere (and there’s actually a place very similar right in downtown Highland Park), but it was a bit depressing to see.