What Will Happen to the Luxury Market? 111 S. Peoria in the West Loop
This 3-bedroom in the Illume at 111 S. Peoria in the West Loop came on the market in March 2020.
The Illume was built in 2018 and has 79 units and heated garage parking. It is one of the few buildings in the West Loop that also has a full-time doorman.
The building sold out quickly and has been one of the hottest in a hot neighborhood.
This unit is a corner unit with 10 foot concrete ceilings.
It has east and south exposures along with a 6 x 15 private balcony.
There are 7 inch wide plank white oak flooring throughout.
The kitchen has luxury finishes including custom modern cabinetry, a 6 burner Viking gas range, a Liebherr refrigerator/freezer and Bosch dishwasher along with a huge 11 foot kitchen island with quartz counter tops.
The master suite has double closets and en suite bathroom.
The second bedroom is also en suite.
The listing describes the third bedroom as a den/office.
It has the features that buyers look for including central air, side-by-side washer/dryer in the unit and heated garage parking.
Listed at $1,175,000 in March, it was also recently listed for rent at $6200 a month.
With the stock market at record highs just 2 months ago, the luxury market was booming.
But what will happen now?
Coleen Karpf at @Properties has the listing. It is agent owned. See the pictures here.
Unit #309: 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 1891 square feet
- Sold in July 2018 for $1,035,000 (per Redfin and Zillow)
- Originally listed in March 2020 for $1,175,000
- Still listed at $1,175,000
- Also available for rent for $6200 a month
- Assessments of $815 a month (includes heat, doorman, exterior maintenance, scavenger, snow removal)
- Taxes aren’t listed (why not?)
- Central Air
- Washer/dryer in the unit
- Heated garage parking included
- Bedroom #1: 13×16
- Bedroom #2: 12×12
- Bedroom #3: 14×14
- Kitchen: 10×16
- Living/dining room: 15×27
- Balcony: 6×15
Nice job converting a parking garage to residential
Notice that they were pretty selective about showing the views. From the curbed photo I can see why.
Other than the finishes, this is pretty basic accomodations for the money. I guess it is all about location location location.
Things I don’t like:
-The Tub and walk in shower in the master bath should be flipped. Pet peeve is the notion that you somehow will enjoy a good soak with pretty much a view of the commode. Would prefer to stare at the vanity.
Easily fixed but what the heck are people thinking when they have room for a side by side washer dryer but instead put in front loaders? Ugh. -Do they not no you can get side by sides with no agitator? You can do more laundry in an appliance that takes up about the same amount of space.
-I don’t think records should be stored at an angle like that. This person is not a true audiophile.
-What a craptastic brutalist exterior. I find this building very unpleasant to look at. Modern doesn’t have to be austere and uninviting like this.
-For this kind of money, I personally would buy something else, but I am sure there is someone out there who wants to help these folks get there transaction costs back.
What is up with the giant chain on the kitchen counter? Is that “art” ???
“Notice that they were pretty selective about showing the views.”
The south property is being built on, right? That’s the one the neighborhood was all freaked out about but the Alderman told them “too bad” and approved the project anyway.
The chains on the island, to the art critic like me with a trained eye (a couple of art history liberal arts classes in college), represent the thirty year ‘death-pledge’ at $7,947 per month the buyer must sign to own this three bedroom, three bath condo. The chains further symbolize the prison cell like atmosphere of the unit, with exposed concrete ceilings, home depot track lighting, open Menard’s duct work, and the ‘Lowe’s clearance’ industrial carpeting. The good news is that this condo is likely red death virus particle free, whereas it’s comparables, the shared studio apartments at Stateville, are infected beyond all hope.
“What is up with the giant chain on the kitchen counter? Is that “art” ???”
It won’t be there when you move in The Cat. It’s Cribchatter policy to not get into a discussion about interior design choices as that can, and will, be changed by the new buyer (unless it’s so overwhelming that it comes into play when selling the property- as we have seen with some paint color choices).
Location of closets, kitchen cabinet choices etc. are open season, however.
“The chains on the island . . . represent the thirty year ‘death-pledge’ at $7,947 per month the buyer must sign to own this three bedroom, three bath condo. The chains further symbolize the prison cell like atmosphere of the unit, with exposed concrete ceilings, home depot track lighting, open Menard’s duct work, and the ‘Lowe’s clearance’ industrial carpeting. The good news is that this condo is likely red death virus particle free, whereas it’s comparables, the shared studio apartments at Stateville, are infected beyond all hope.”
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I would have up voted you once if you had used “man’s inhumanity to man” somewhere in there, and three times if you had worked in “mise-en-scène.”
Also, the design of that lobby will not age well. In 7 or 8 years the lobby will be about as attractive as the avacado green appliances and carpet of years past, and it will scare potential buyers away. Expect a special assessment to renovate the lobby before the end of the next decade.
I think the art is built into the island, it’s a permanent fixture, just as the chains in the lobby are on the polished concrete slab that’s supposed to function as a table. Otherwise I am familiar with your design policy. I would not commented otherwise.
I think Sabrina, that your policy on commenting on interior choices is fine for average Joes who leave pictures of their family all over the place in the listing photos or bought so much house they couldn’t afford real furniture…..but this seems different. These folks want us to comment on it. Leaving that item on the kitchen island for the photo-shoot was a choice they made to show off how cool they are that they have this kitchen that they use to store “art” because they never actually cook, they eat out all the time. The level of wealth that says, I can buy a home like this, hire someone to decorate it for me and then move on a short while later…NBD.
Also, homedelete & johnc’s comments are priceless.
it would be nice to see what this place actually looks like without the crappy photo editing.
I am so curious now…Was there a chain manufacturing facility historically on site? Is this unit owned by a member of the development team? Did they “borrow” some “art” from the lobby for their photo shoot?
God. Now I cannot stop thinking about it and I have actually work I need to do.
the marble chain shit is some CB2 Jennifer Fisher crap I saw in the latest catalog…
or its a metaphor for having to shell out 100k a year to live in this cramped appearing CMK quality finished apartment that looks like a fuckin parking garage from the outside
“The south property is being built on, right? That’s the one the neighborhood was all freaked out about but the Alderman told them “too bad” and approved the project anyway.“
No.
The playground to the East, your view from the balcony
If I’m paying $1MM, I really don’t want to hear kids shrieking at 8AM. 3rd Floor is low enough you’ll get it in all its glory
The upper 2 floors are prob ok, but still not the view I’d want
Chain looks like wood
An actual wrought iron chain could be cool if you went all in on the industrial look, but whomever staged it is the king/queen of half measures
Nice speaker layout
That being said, I want the table in pics 5-7 and the Armoire in the DR
“Leaving that item on the kitchen island for the photo-shoot was a choice they made to show off how cool they are that they have this kitchen that they use to store “art” because they never actually cook”
Or perhaps that there is so much counter space, that they don’t need that piece.
Or that there isn’t enough closet space to keep their chains in, so they had to leave it out.
also those 1/2″ thick countertops screeeeam luxury… lol
I called the top of the market, saying West Loop 1800 sf condos selling for >$750K are the peak. This one is even more expensive, for 1,891 square feet. It’s near the ONLY green patch in the West Loop, that postage stamp park that’s ugly as hell with a non-geometric and terrible inharmonious design.
It remains to be seen what the Millennials will do. Will they stay in the city, or will having kids finally win out over narcissism and hedonism? Cycles always change, Chicago (GZone) gentrification started its upswing with the 1984 Cubs and now it might finally have peaked, that’s a 35 year run/cycle, but COVID might accelerate the new cycle as evidenced by this listing as a complete peak in the market.
The subject building was developed by the same shyster-types that built the ugly overpriced CONCRETE-finishes sucker-palace in Streeterville: 600 North Fairbanks Ct. By looking at the anti-art discussed, the subject property looks like it was marketed to the same buyer demographic as 600 N Fairbanks.
you used to be able to buy the wooden chain at pottery barn. I remember seeing it in a catalog.
https://www.potterybarn.com/products/wooden-chain-object/
Why didn’t they include the purported view of the sears tower from the MBR?
“The playground to the East, your view from the balcony”
The listing says it has east and south views. That playground is to the west. What’s the problem?
I’d be more concerned about the building going up to the south.
“Will they stay in the city, or will having kids finally win out over narcissism and hedonism?”
We’ve already gotten the answer to that question. The building that is going up next door to this actually had to reconfigure the building to add more LARGER units with 4 bedrooms because there was so much demand for family-sized condos.
GenX and Millennials aren’t leaving the city. Why would they?
You should already know this HH, as you’ve said you live in Kinzie Station which isn’t that far from this location and allegedly hang out at Au Cheval (which is doing delivery during this shutdown, by the way). The whole building has to be Millennials and GenZers.
Why don’t you ask them?
““Will they stay in the city, or will having kids finally win out over narcissism and hedonism?””
In all seriousness, it might depend on how long and how deep this recession and plague continues. There’s a real possibility that tens of thousands of older and outdated, but affordable, insulated, drywalled, 3 bedroom suburban ranches with yards, within driving distance of the Metra, will come on the market in the next few years. When I bought years ago during the last recession that was certainly part of my calculation. The value of an older home with a yard on a 60′ wide lot, with express train to work downtown, was difficult to beat. It will come down to affordability. and if the options are 4 bedroom condos for a million dollars vs a 4 bedroom colonial for half the price, and the backyard is for free, then the answer will be obvious to most people.
What I don’t like about this unit is that anyone in the third bedroom has to cross the entire unit, through the living room and kitchen, to use the bathroom. The only “public” bathroom is right next to the front door. The master and the second bedroom have en-suites, but the person with the third bedroom is out of luck.
I am 35 and moved to Winnetka in the Fall from Lakeview. Nearly all of my friends have moved to the burbs once kids started turning 1. My commute home is about the same as it was in LV. A bit longer in the morning as I am in the office early and there was no traffic in the morning on LSD when I lived in the city. Im closer to the lake now, even though I lived a block and half away from LSD. I do miss the food but as a self-proclaimed hypochondriac, I am thankful we arent in the city right now in our 8 unit walk-up. It will be interesting to see how this ordeal impacts where millenials choose to live. I tend to agree with the following article but we shall see.
https://www.bostonmagazine.com/property/2020/04/03/coronavirus-boston-suburban-exodus/
“Will they stay in the city, or will having kids finally win out over narcissism and hedonism?”
Since the 2000 census America’s back to the city renaissance lowered the share of suburban population from 78% to 72%. That’s it. Americans overwhelmingly prefer suburban lifestyles. That 6% change over 20 years is still a major accomplishment and especially for large legacy cities with mass transit and dense cores which benefited the most from that change. Americans have more options than ever for choosing where to live and that’s good. I suspect the next census will show the inner mountain west, Pac NW and sun belt accelerate their share of population gains as boomers and millennial alike are choosing lower tax outdoor lifestyles in FL, AZ, CO etc. A lot of jobs can be done remotely now appealing to millenials and boomers are retiring from the rat race. The legacy large cities and their suburbs will remain important but probably not as important as before.
Tough to touch real estate I believe in nyc or Chicago. How do you price anything when they have massive budget deficits from this and no one can predict their property taxes. Imo property tax present values are approaching the list price on real estate.
And many won’t want city life now that they see virus risks.
@ Sean – spot on about the real estate tax situation. In a well heeled suburb of Chicago it costs $20,000 and up for building and related permits to build a basic house. I’ve heard of far higher for some towns. These towns still have an entire staff of people working in their building departments (with fat benefits and salaries to boot) while outsourcing the actual permit work. These towns still have the nads to charge $25K-$35K in property taxes. Taxes that should go to the functioning of government like reviewing building permits but they dont. We have reached the point where are taxes arent even paying for basic services in a lot of places. This system is going to implode spectacularly. Our democratic union controlled overlords have no plan, no insight or courage to fix it and the republicans are simply awol choosing to worry about lady bits in some shit ass southern state. States without the debt burden overhang are the winners for the next 20 years. Much pain coming to New England,Mid Atlantic, CA and Illinois.
“republicans are simply awol choosing to worry about lady bits in some shit ass southern state. ”
Not true. Our neighboring Republican states are much better run:
Indiana ends budget year with $410M surplus; extra money will fund building projects outside Region
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/indiana-ends-budget-year-with-m-surplus-extra-money-will/article_b7df2a07-7cf9-56aa-8dc9-0333ac068a6f.html
“the share of suburban population from 78% to 72%.”
Hmmm. I don’t think that 78% of Americans live in “suburbs”. Given that only ~80% of Americans live in urban areas, or which suburbs are a part.
Unless NYC is the only place that counts as “urban”, there’s something off with that number.
1M+ and…. thats the laundry? Cheap open laminate shelving-not even cheap cabinets and zero counter. No pictures of the lone walk-in so its likely whatever the lackadaisical builder could get away with.
“We’ve already gotten the answer to that question. The building that is going up next door to this actually had to reconfigure the building to add more LARGER units with 4 bedrooms because there was so much demand for family-sized condos.”
The RE world is littered with developers who built too late. They will likely be proven wrong. Don’t you know RE history?? They may be the last one, and not sell to proforma.
“older and outdated, but affordable, insulated, drywalled”
helmethofer’s profile
“Indiana ends budget year with $410M surplus; extra money will fund building projects outside Region”
yes massive numbers of professional services employers and employees are clamoring to move to Indiana
“Cycles always change, Chicago (GZone) gentrification started its upswing with the 1984 Cubs and now it might finally have peaked, that’s a 35 year run/cycle, but COVID might accelerate the new cycle as evidenced by this listing as a complete peak in the market.”
So you have been waiting for Chicago to “fail” since 1984 (you turned 40 that year, right?). You’re never wrong, you’re just late, or early, or something. lol
So you have been waiting for Chicago to “fail” since 1984 (you turned 40 that year, right?). You’re never wrong, you’re just late, or early, or something. lol
It’s almost like 08 never happened
This is nuts. Like $500K too expensive. Who on Earth would pay $1MM for this?!