We Love Terraces: 182 W. Lake in the Loop
Century Tower is an American Invsco conversion of a 1930 vintage apartment building at 182 W. Lake in the Loop.
The 22nd floor units all have huge terraces that overlook the city.
Unit #2201 is a re-sale of one of those units. I don’t know the square footage, but it looks pretty small. Here are the room sizes:
- Livingroom 13 x 16
- Kitchen 11 x 10
- Bedroom 16 x 8
Washer/dryers are allowed on the floors on and above the 22nd. There is no parking with the building. Some buyers upgraded their units, some did not. It looks like the bathroom was not upgraded in this unit.
Unit #2201: 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 300 square foot terrace
- Sold in February 2007 for $254,304
- Originally listed in March 2008 for $293,600
- Reduced
- Currently listed for $289,900 (rental parking only)
- Assessments of $528 a month
- Baird & Warner has the listing
That actually looks alot nicer than I thought it would on the inside.
Any chance you can post links to the actual listing rather than the realtor’s home page?
I can see some bright red lipsticked 80’s Sheena Easton lookalike woman reclining on the living room settee. At least they made a staging attempt. My guess is those assessments are going to go up based on the age of the building and the developer (Invsco).
Few problems with American Invesco:
1) I’ve seen this unit for sale for cheaper (around 250)
2) All of their buildings have a high level of foreclosures
3) 182 W. Lake has the most amount of foreclosures and current owners are complaining about rising assesment costs
4) The reason there are so many foreclosures is because this building was marketed to “low income” buyers with payment subsidies if you make
Looks like the blog doesnt like the “less than” sign.
4) The reason there are so many foreclosures is because this building was marketed to “low income” buyers with payment subsidies if you make LESS THAN $52k/year
On top of the fact that the management is horrible in the buildings of American Invesco.
A, did you happen to note what price the subsidized buyers paid for their units?
It would be interesting to know, because even the substantially reduced prices that the “affordable” set asides are offered at tends to be too many multiples the subsidized buyer’s income, which is a recipe for future problems pretty early on.
Better to drop the CPAN program altogether. It is only one more thing to prop up unrealistic prices, and inveigle people into buying over their heads.
A:
Where are you getting your foreclosure numbers from?
It does NOT have “the most amount of foreclosures”- for that you have to check out The Sterling or 10 E. Ontario or River City (all three in competition for the crown at the moment.)
I haven’t seen hardly any foreclosures in Century Tower- but then the building was sold later than some of the others and foreclosures take time to work their way through the system.
I also haven’t seen any of the units sold to people that qualified for the units that were sold under the market rate go into foreclosure. The last I heard, American Invsco still had some of those units available to purchase.
Anyone else have any info?
I’ve actually been in this unit. It is mind-numbingly small and terribly laid out. It’s probable between 650 and 700 sqft on the inside. I’m no real estate professional, but it definitely isn’t worth the asking price.
Sabrina, thanks for confirming that at this building, there does not appear to be any link between income-qualified buyers (who buy at reduced prices subject to resale restrictions) and foreclosures.
American Invesco conversions have lots of problems caused by the developer, and it would be unfair to blame income-qualified buyers – even indirectly – for these problems.
With an assessment already high for a recent conversion and likely to go up for the many reasons mentioned, I’d be very wary of the price per square foot for this unit. Even with the cool terrace, if it’s only 650 sq ft, the price probably shouldn’t be above $200K given the substantial expenses one could expect. The pictures make it look a bit larger (probably in the 800sqft range) but those can be deceptive…
That said, that terrace is pretty cool and for a certain demographic who wants to be very close to the office, it might not be a bad bet if you’re careful on the final selling price in relation to the assessments.
I actually own one of the CPAN units in this building, and have also been in the unit in question.
My guess is that very few of the CPAN units are in foreclosure unless the owner lost their job. The CPAN program required income verification and the cost to purchasers was approximately 135K. All of the CPAN units in the building were studio condos, so it’s actually a case of the units being purchased by people being responsible, rather than liar loans that were unaffordable.
The building assessments are probably on the steep side already, but the condo board has been aggressive about eliminating some wasteful spending, and consequently assessments are only up 4% since the conversion. (The board froze assessments for 2009, but I believe we may be in for an increase next year after a review of the reserve balance.)
I have not heard of any foreclosures in the building (but I know there are several empty apartments for rent) and have asked management about the on-time rate of assessment payments, which management assures me is still in good standing.
As for the unit in question. It is much too small for the price. I had my wishful eye on another unit in the building with a terrace. It was twice the usable size of this unit with a nicer balcony… and it sold for about the asking price. My guess is this unit should sell for around $225K.