We Love Rooftop Terraces: Views and a $100K Reduction in 433 W. Briar Place in Lakeview
We’ve chattered about the conversion vintage mid-rise building at 433 W. Briar Place in Lakeview several times before.
See our February 2009 chatter here.
The developer has been selling units in the building since 2007.
But this is the first time I’ve seen the top floor unit marketed with its own private 45×35 rooftop deck.
The 2-bedroom unit has south, west and north views.
It has also been reduced $100,000 since April.
Everything is new. The kitchen sports custom cabinets and a 6-burner Jenn Air stove.
Parking is negotiable.
The units also have central air and in-unit washer/dryers.
Meta Rose Torchia at @Properties has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #11B: 2 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 1620 square feet
- Originally listed in June 2007
- Was listed in April 2010 for $599,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed for $499,000
- Assessments of $411 a month
- Taxes of $8901
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- Bedroom #1: 17×12
- Bedroom #2: 17×12
Although there is a “private entrance” to the roof deck, I am not sure if it is a “private roofdeck”. If it was, this would be a great buy for the area!!!!
Either way I think it’s great, assuming the roof gets shut down late at night so that your neighbors aren’t right outside your door having parties.
Is parking included? It says “neg” which I assume to mean negotiable, but then the stats say 1 space. Is street parking an option in this area?
Nice place. Whether the deck is private or not would make a huge difference to most buyers, I’d think. Given their cagey description, I would assume this is not a private area. Looking at the pictures, though, I don’t think you’d have to worry about late night partiers disrupting you…doesn’t look like the private entrance is via a set of glass doors, as you might expect. The private entrance is probably via a set of stairs accessible from the unit.
street parking is not a good option in this area. I used to live right here… parking is a must in my opinion. I think this place is only worth that price if the roof deck is indeed private.
Whether or not the rooftop deck is private is the key in my opinion. Otherwise I can’t see dropping $500k on a 2br/2.5 bath without parking (at this price, in this market, by “parking negotiable,” I can only assume they mean parking included). A third bedroom would be nice as well.
On one hand, the listing reads “Brand new massive (45×35) roof deck w/ priv. Entrance from condo” – which is vague. Could be a private entrance and private deck, or just a private entrance.
On the other hand, the listing reads “You will not find another outdoor space that compares!”
Common roof decks are a dime a dozen in the city. I also looked at the other listings for this property and none made reference to outdoor space or a common roof top deck.
It would be pretty misleading if this was shared. Cool place.
I live at 540 W Briar, and that is a great price for the area. The one downfall to the area is parking, however. It is nearly impossible to find parking on Briar or Barry, so even if you could negotiate a parking spot for yourself, it would be tough to have people over to hang out on your rooftop all of the time.
I remember this building as a beautiful, though rather run-down, rental, and I think I liked it better.
Jeez, did EVERY developer have to have a kitchen open to the living area. The original floor plan of the 2 bed 2 bath units was flawless. There was a large living room, a huge separate dining room, and a massive kitchen. Just follow the footprint; why knock down walls and turn a lovely formal traditional apartment into just another developer-schlock condo?
And the diagonal floors- a herringbone parquet would have suited this place more.
It’s still a beautiful place, much more beautiful than most new construction, but a lot got lost in the translation here. The living room and dining room millwork, for example, have been stripped away.
And I have only what other people on this site have said, but I’ve heard that much of the ancient common area plumbing was left in place. If this is true, the owners have huge special assessments to look forward to.
I agree that it would be misleading if this were a community roofdeck. I’ll speculate and say that based on the fact that this doesn’t have the trademark 5 sets of mismatched patio furniture and 7 grills that this is private. Pure unfounded speculation on my part. Community roofdecks above or outside your unit are a total dealbreaker in my opinion.
I will also add that it appears to be a private roofdeck, because their neighbor next door:
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/433-W-Briar-Pl-60657/unit-11C/home/13634330
is not advertising access.
Especially when compared with the inferior layout of the other unit for sale on the floor, add in the roof deck, lack of need to undo all the old fogeyness of 11c, unit B comes out as a clear winner. Also check out the owner of 11C chasing the market down – from 1.1mm in May of 09 to 700k today. Ouch. Maybe there’s something wrong with the building because there are a lot of active sales.
This building has not sold out from the original developer (first listing them in 2007.) That is why there seem to be a lot for sale because there are.
It is a conversion into condos.
Don’t even think about it. I wrote about this building in ’08 after my husband and I had placed an offer on a unit. The offer was accepted and we worked out a great deal that included amazing upgrades. However, after checking deeper into and beyond the fresh paint and granite countertops,we discovered the guts of the building ,plumping stacks, elevators, tuckpointing, etc. had not been touched. This info came directly from one of the listing agents, only after we pressed him to spill.
Needless to say we chose not to live there.
Margo, I believe it’s your original comment that I’m remembering.
That building was a rental for decades before conversion, and not an expensive one for the area. If none of these common elements you mention were upgraded during the conversion, as your agent admitted they were not, then that means $1M or more will have to be spent to upgrade this stuff over the next decade. Probably a lot more. The elevators alone (2 passenger and 2 freight) could cost that much, at $15,000 a stop minimum.
These buyers are in for big special assessments not far down the road.
I’d deduct $200K from the price to cover all that. Other prospective buyers, I’m sure, have made the same discovery and that’s why the units are not selling. They should be priced comparable to other vintage buildings in the area, and you’ll note that the prices have dropped drastically on many of the vintage high rises around there, because of high maintenance costs.
The deck is not private, but can only be accessed through this unit.
Anonny: so is the deck not considered private by the association for some reason (ie: limited use, common element is what I’d expect).
anonny: Wha? How would that work exactly? Are other owners allowed access to the roof? Through this unit? Who furnishes the space? Can this unit’s owners keep personal items on the roof?
If that is really the case, it is a monumentally dumb decision on either the ownership of the roof rights or design of access.
There will be an OPEN HOUSE Sunday July 11 from 1-3 pm. Belgravia Group is purchasing the remaining units in the building which is a major positive for current owners and also future owners. I don’t know all of the details but an owners meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday of this week.
The roof deck on my listing is not legally private. However, the only access is from the interior of the unit. The penthouses have applied to the city for roof deck permits as they were not granted at the closings. So, it is being sold as-is. My seller does own a parking spot and is very willing to negotiate that with an offer for sale.
I believe this building is finally be moving in the right direction. Please feel free to contact me for further information. Meta Rose (312-882-6796)
How does that make sense? If the entrance is “private,” and its the only entrance … then I assume nobody else can access it?
Thanks for the update Meta. Perhaps some interested buyers will be there to check it out in person at the open house.
I looked at the place this weekend. Pretty cool place. And the roof deck is truly only accessible through the two penthouse units and possibly a second, auxiliary staircase (I can’t even imagine someone taking the other staircase).
As Meta Rose noted above, and as was described to me, the current owners of the penthouse units “thought” they had private roof right. It was not however written into the dead/contract/etc at closing. So, there is a rooftop deck, really only accessible via a private staircase through this unit, that doesn’t have any real legal entitlement. Maybe you could make an estoppel type argument if the association ever challenged the deck (i.e., tried to make you tear it down, etc), but it isn’t clean regardless. Some lawyers dropped the ball on this one.
Not sure if Belgravia can amend the association bylaws, or take any other action, but they really need to grant to private roof rights to the two units. It would otherwise be a pretty harsh conclusion for the current owners (there are entrances and private staircases through the two units – the intent was pretty clear).
Overall, nice layout, nice place. And the realtor was very good and knowledgeable (one of the better ones that I have come across).
I rented in this building before it was purchased and converted. I would have gladly bought our apartment, and I think that most if not all of the other tenants would have, too, had they offered reasonable pre-construction prices and terms (i.e., less than $500K for a non-doorman building without parking, and more than a week to decide). But the new owners just wanted to clear the place out so they could remodel and flip the units. Unfortunately for them, they bought at the very top of the market and have not been able to unload, particularly since they did a quick-and-dirty remodel. I haven’t looked into it for a while, but most of the units have never been really sold (just transferred among various developers).
This was a wonderful building, and what happened is a crying shame. Many of the beautiful old details that made the property special — the millwork and woodwork — have been stripped away. As other posters have noted, none of the guts of the building have been touched. I now own a 2br in a big old building on Lake Shore, but I still miss that apartment.
A heads-up to the CribChatter crew: an affiliate of Belgravia Group acquired 433 Briar’s unsold inventory and has cut prices on 17 units by ~20 to 39 percent. We’re producing on a variety of sponsored content for the project, including this new video tour through one of its three-bedrooms with the building’s project manager: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlLDIM0q4Qk. We also posted pricing info last week and another video from outside the building today at Yo.
Now that Belgravia Group has acquired 433 Briar, have there been improvements to the previous problems this building was facing? Prices have been cut dramatically- are the units now worth what they are asking?
Client bought here. Building entirely Sold Out.