Vintage High Rise Week: A 3-Bedroom With Views at 5000 S. Cornell in Kenwood
This 3-bedroom on the 16th floor of 5000 S. Cornell in Kenwood came on the market in September 2020.
According to Chicago Apartments, a Century of Lakefront Living, 5000 S. Cornell was the last of the high rises completed in the Chicago Beach district, now called Indian Village, in 1930.
Conley and Carlson were the architects. It was built by William G. McNultry in 1929-30.
During the 1920s boom, many other high rises were apparently planned for the area that were then never built.
This building has 77 units and 4 apartments per floor. With two sets of elevator banks, it means just 2 units per elevator bank.
According to Chicago Apartments, it promised “luxurious living at modest cost.”
This unit has North, Northeast and East views including of the city skyline and the lake.
It has tall ceilings, a faux fireplace, crown moldings and hardwood floors throughout.
The kitchen is a galley kitchen with dark wood cabinets, granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances.
It has 3 full bathrooms with two of them en suite.
Like many vintage high rise units, it also has a separate dining room.
It doesn’t have central air or washer/dryer in the unit. Parking is available to rent across the street.
Listed in September 2020 for $244,900, it was under contract in October. It has come back on the market at $219,000.
For 1800 square feet, is this a deal?
Glen Tomlinson and Elaine Batson at McKey & Poague Management Group have the listing. See the pictures and floor plan here.
Unit #16B: 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 1800 square feet
- Sold in June 1998 for $73,000
- Sold in October 2005 for $208,500
- Lis pendens foreclosure filed in January 2009
- Bank owned in September 2015
- Sold from the bank in May 2016 for $87,500
- Originally listed in September 2020 for $244,900
- Reduced
- Under contract in October 2020 at $225,000
- Re-listed in December 2020 at $219,000
- Assessments of $1268 a month (includes heat, gas, doorman, cable, exterior maintenance, lawn care, scavenger, snow removal)
- Taxes of $1156
- No central air
- No in-unit washer/dryer. There’s coin laundry in the building
- Parking is available to rent across the street
- Bedroom #1: 16×12
- Bedroom #2: 21×12
- Bedroom #3: 12×7
- Living room: 20×15
- Dining room: 19×15
- Kitchen: 14×8
Not too bad of a place but you need to be committed to living here for 20 years as the assessments are a dealbreaker for most people
This might be a good candidate for a rental for a U of C post doc or the like
While the units in this building are not the most decorative or interesting of all Hyde Park buildings of that vintage, this is still one extremely nice place, especially for the price. It’s well cared for and nicely updated, in a well-kept, comfortable building.
The HOA might sound high to many people, but at slightly more than 70 cents a square foot, is pretty average for a vintage high-rise, and much lower than many others, including buildings in Hyde Park, which is HOA hell. That cost includes the heat,hot water, trash collection, building and grounds maintenance, and common area electricity.
The taxes are a gift, and low enough that a buyer should be able to absorb the inevitable tax hike next year, without too much pain.
“It’s well cared for and nicely updated”
Yes and no. I think if you took away the furniture it wouldn’t look so nice. Various plate covers are missing, 1 by the odd placement of the microwave outlet and the other in a wall in a bedroom. Also the outlet wiring on the outside of the wall for the coffee pot looks terrible. The kitchen cabinets next to the range look pretty beat up.
Why is the dining room staging backward?
Have to agree with marco–looks like it’s pretty dinged up. Might not be terribly expensive or hard to fix, but when it looks rough on the surface, often there is a lot of hidden BS.
The issues are small and easy to correct, and “beat up” doesn’t necessarily indicate larger problems. The condition of the building itself is much more important, like how old is the heating plant, how is the masonry, how are the elevators, how is the roof?
My own unit was in awful cosmetic condition, which I will state is costing me a lot of money to correct, what with acres of striped wallpaper and ratty old carpeting to be removed, among other things, and the price I paid reflected it. However, it was and is mechanically in excellent condition, and I figure I got a very good deal for a lovely unit that even has Space Pak A/C, a rarity in my price range.
This place is still a fairly good deal for the money. It’s hard to find a vintage unit that doesn’t need some sort of improvement.
“how old is the heating plant”
Speaking of–how is the maid’s room heated, with the radiator removed?
““beat up” doesn’t necessarily indicate larger problems”
I didn’t say “larger problems”–just *hidden* problems.
And not “necessarily” either, just often.
“Why is the dining room staging backward?”
Badly Photoshopped?
Zillow has the “Before” pictures, it was in pretty rough shape.
This is what it is, decent middle class housing.
9A is about as nice as you can reasonably make one of these units. and sold for the initial ask
12B is missing the radiator in the Maids room as well
For all the typical crap we like to dish out to realtors who do a bad job with photos on this site, I think this realtor did a major solid with the virtual staging. Yes, the backwards photos are funny, but for the “typical” buyer, the virtual furniture selection makes the place look so much nicer. Problem is, that might just bring people in the door but when they actually see it….no staging and the stuff beyond the decorations becomes more apparent.
The person who bought the foreclosure actually retained a lot of the stuff that was already there (kitchen backsplash, tile in bathroom, etc.), but basically put lipstick on a pig with it with floor refinish, paint, obviously replacing/putting in appliances and cabinets where missing. Did a reasonable job for probably a reasonable price, but it doesn’t appear to be an elaborate renovation.
In any event, seems like a decent place for a decent price. Will sell eventually….Those taxes are incredibly low – lower than a month of HOA fees?! Is this Chicago we’re talking about here? Seems like a typo.
The broker needs to go back, tear off the little piece of toilet paper left hanging, re-shoot that shot, then replace the picture. Trump’s attempted autogolpe has been handled with greater skill.
I don’t think that the building is **that** well maintained – I know someone who went to look at a unit here and the elevator broke down before they could go up – they passed obviously.
The cost of rebuilding or replacing old elevators is exorbitant, and since this place has 2 elevator tiers, it probably has 4 elevators- two passenger and two freight. I have no idea what this building’s finances look like, but if I wanted to buy, I’d delve, because replacing those things will likely mean one kind hell of a special assessment.
One freight two passenger… They probably already had to modernize to some degree thanks to the Life Safety Ordinance – but modern elevators are no more reliable than vintage.
This apartment is under contract again.
Maybe someone saw it on Crib Chatter and decided to go take a look? Whoo-hoo!
This sold in Feb 2021 for $219,000.