Tag: luxury real estate

Lincoln Park mansion sells for city’s highest price since mid-2018

Posted on December 30, 2020 by in Chicago Luxury Real Estate, Crains

The Howe Street property went for $11.9 million, the most anyone has paid for a home here since another mansion two blocks away went for the same price 29 months ago.

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A Lincoln Park mansion sold this morning for $11.9 million, the highest sale price recorded for a Chicago home since August 2018.

The sale of the 12,000-square-foot mansion on a double lot on Howe Street, which was not openly listed for sale, is the highest-priced purchase of a single residential property in the Chicago area in 2020. But a situation in Winnetka, where the Chicago Tribune has reported that three different multimillion-dollar mansions may have been bought by a single entity, prevents the Howe Street mansion from taking this year’s crown at the moment.

The sellers on Howe Street, William and Sandra Sterling, could not be reached for comment. The agent who represented them, Tim Salm of Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty, declined to comment, as did the buyer’s agent, Phil Skowron of @properties. The buyers are not yet identified in public records.

The Sterlings’ asking price for the six-bedroom house was $14.5 million. They sold for 18 percent less than that.

William Sterling is the managing partner of Sandia Point, a quantitative research and trading firm with offices in Chicago and New York.

In 2013, the Sterlings paid $3.95 million for the land the house is built on. There is no public record of what they spent to build the house.

No photos of the interior of the home are available, and neither are details such as a bedroom count.

Built by BGD&C, a firm that has built several of the multi-lot mansions in the section of Lincoln Park south of Armitage, the house, according to marketing information from Salm, has “grand living and dining rooms which open onto south terrace. Beautiful stone and wide plank hardwood flooring throughout. Jaw-dropping sculptural staircase topped by skylight and one-of-a-kind chandelier.”

The $11.9 million sale price is the highest in the city since buyers paid the same amount in August 2018 for a mansion two blocks west on Burling Street. That one was also built by BGD&C.

In 2019, the highest anyone was recorded paying for a Chicago-area home was $11.3 million.

Until this sale on Howe, the highest sale price for a Chicago-area home in 2020 was $9.5 million, which a buyer paid in October for a lakefront mansion in Winnetka. The purchaser, according to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, was a land trust that obscures the buyer’s name. The Chicago Tribune has reported that the buyer is also behind the purchases of two other mansions, one that went for $8.2 million in July, and another that went for $6.2 million in November. The total, $23.9 million, would be for the land alone, minus some swapped out to the local park district, and a single house would be built on the site, according to the Tribune.

Crain’s could not independently confirm that all three properties have one purchaser, as public records do not yet show a buyer in two of the transactions.

The Emergence of West Loop Luxury

Posted on December 19, 2019 by in Chicago Luxury Real Estate, Market Insights, New Luxury Buildings, West Loop

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Perhaps no other Chicago neighborhood has seen such an explosion in new development in the last decade as the West Loop. The neighborhood’s transition from a warehousing and meat packing district to a luxury live-work-play destination has produced Michelin-starred restaurants, multi-million-dollar home sales, and the arrival of Fortune 500 companies, including Google, McDonald’s, and many others.

But what is it like to actually live in the area? And what should buyers look out for when considering this downtown neighborhood?

“It’s a great place to work, a great place to live, it has a fabulous elementary school, awesome transportation, great food, and actually a couple of decent parks,” says @properties co-founder Thad Wong in his conversation with Mike Golden in the latest @/The Market installment.

And with rising land and construction costs, we can expect to see prices for new construction continue to climb in the neighborhood, Golden adds.

“I think because of the infrastructure, because of the restaurants, and because of the vibe of the neighborhood, we can start to see the push in pricing as high as we’ve seen in other neighborhoods,” Golden says. “I don’t know if it’ll match some of the top, top tier, $1,200-per-foot pricing yet, but it’s going to be a pretty spectacular neighborhood over the next decade.”

Managing broker George Schultz adds some context, offering an early look into EVEQ, a new, condominium development featuring larger floor plans at relatively moderate prices for new construction.

“What we have at EVEQ and in the West Loop that seems to be the hot product is having three or four bedrooms on one level,” Schultz says, contrasting the plans with traditional townhomes where the living is more vertical. “This allows for a flexible lifestyle where you can work from home, be a single person and have great entertainment space, and you also get a lot more outdoor space.”

Hear more about the burgeoning Fulton Market and West Loop in the video below.

At this 55th-floor condo, the view trumps everything

Posted on December 18, 2019 by in Chicago Luxury Real Estate, Crains, Pocket Listing, Trump International Hotel & Tower

The vistas from a unit with a 90-foot span of floor-to-ceiling windows in Trump Tower convinced a Glen Ellyn couple to move downtown. Now they’re off to Florida, and it’s soon for sale at $2.99 million. Take a photo tour.

Written by: DENNIS RODKIN

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Glenda Spangler wasn’t entirely convinced that she and her husband, Ed, should buy a downtown condo as a getaway from their Glen Ellyn home.

Then she walked into this condo that faces east along the Chicago River from the 55th floor of the Trump International Hotel & Tower.

“I looked out there,” she recalls nearly 10 years later, and ‘I said, OK, I’ll leave Glen Ellyn.'”

The three-bedroom, 3,100-square-foot condo is at one of the rounded corners of the tower, with floor-to-ceiling windows running roughly 90 feet from one end of the home to the other. (See more photos below.)

“The view is spectacular,” Ed Spangler said.  “In the morning the sunrise on the lake, then as it comes up it lights up the city all around you. And later the sunset lights up the city in a whole different way.”

That view, the dozens of restaurants and cultural institutions within walking distance and the high level of service in the amenity-rich tower gradually shifted the couple’s allegiance, and two years later the condo became their primary Chicago residence and they sold their Glen Ellyn home of more than two decades.

Ed Spangler, who retired a few years ago from a career in consulting, and Glenda, who retired from a consumer products company several years ago, plan to relocate to Florida. They’ll put their Trump Tower condo on the market in January. Represented by Phil Skowron of @properties, it’s priced at $2.99 million.

See more homes in our Before It Hits the Market series.

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The curvature of the outer wall enhances the dynamic nature of the view; nothing is flat and static. Glenda Spangler designed the tile-covered fireplace wall to take it further. Most of the time, it looks neutral, but “it’s a mother-of-pearl tile,” she said, “so when the light hits it, it’s like gold.” She designed this wall, with the cutouts for shelving and a fireplace, to be contemporary with a hint of tradition.

 

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The combination of den and kitchen is a warm, intimate family space separate from the large main room that’s designed for living and dining room functions. The windows here are oriented northeast, toward the towers of picturesque landmarks, the Wrigley building and the former Tribune tower.

 

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Navy Pier’s fireworks, boats cruising along the river, and handsome buildings like the Hancock Center are all “part of the entertainment,” Ed Spangler said. “We’d like to thank the city for doing the Riverwalk,” which brought sculptural forms and countless pedestrians to the water level. “It’s like theater on the river,” he said.

 

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The living and dining room stretches about 35 feet, lined all the way with windows. On the opposite wall, the design of both the limestone fireplace and the bookcase niches keeps them light and neutral.

 

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Glenda Spangler used a time-honored design trick to emphasize the light and open feeling of the condo: at the right side of the photo is a mirror mounted on a portion of wall, there to multiply the view.

 

n the kitchen, the Spanglers added some cabinets and replaced out-of-date dark granite countertops with a lighter cream version. They bought the condominium in 2010 for $2.3 million, and spent an additional amount afterward on improvements such as these in the kitchen, the tile wall, and others. They declined to say what their total investment in the property is.

n the kitchen, the Spanglers added some cabinets and replaced out-of-date dark granite countertops with a lighter cream version. They bought the condominium in 2010 for $2.3 million, and spent an additional amount afterward on improvements such as these in the kitchen, the tile wall, and others. They declined to say what their total investment in the property is.

 

There’s another fireplace in the master bedroom, set into the tile-lined wall at left. “Before the sun comes up in the morning, it’s nice to turn on the fireplace and sit and look out the windows,” Ed Spangler said. The tile here is a light green, selected to match green frosted glass doors in the adjacent master bath.

There’s another fireplace in the master bedroom, set into the tile-lined wall at left. “Before the sun comes up in the morning, it’s nice to turn on the fireplace and sit and look out the windows,” Ed Spangler said. The tile here is a light green, selected to match green frosted glass doors in the adjacent master bath.

 

Other than new lighter countertops and a television, the master bath is largely as the developers built it, in a neutral look that matches their later design of the rest of the condo.

Other than new lighter countertops and a television, the master bath is largely as the developers built it, in a neutral look that matches their later design of the rest of the condo.

 

There are two more bedrooms in the condo, this one used as an office.

There are two more bedrooms in the condo, this one used as an office.

 

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The view, ever-changing with the season and the time of day, is the main event at this condo. Because of the building’s fortuitous siting at a prominent bend in the river, from inside some condos it looks as if the tower was built over the river itself. From the Spanglers’ unit, the view encompasses everything from Cloud Gate, aka The Bean, out to O’Hare, Glenda Spangler said. They plan to divide their time between Florida and California, two beautiful parts of the world, but “there’s nothing like this” in either place, she said.

The Future of Gold Coast Luxury Real Estate

Posted on December 17, 2019 by in Chicago Luxury Real Estate, Gold Coast, Market Insights

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Sales numbers from the last few years paint the picture of a down market in the Gold Coast – the upscale lakefront pocket that has long been known for ultra high-end condos and co-ops. But another evident trend that sales reveal is a wide gap between new construction and existing housing stock, particularly in dated inventory.

While new construction in the Gold Coast now can hit $1,200 to $1,300 per square foot, a lot of the inventory in ‘last generation’ buildings will be priced at half that level, and older condos will sell for even less.

However, a variety of options and slow sales can present an opportunity for buyers who are willing to put in some sweat equity, says Rick Sobin, managing broker and VP of Brokerage Services for @properties.

“A lot of people are seeing great opportunity in large units with good pricing, who are [then] able to gut a unit down to the studs, start over again, and when it’s finished, end up with a very well appointed unit at a price point with there still being an opportunity for a profit.”

And for the new construction side? Expect to pay top dollar. The cost to build in this exclusive neighborhood is some of the highest in the region, says @properties co-founder Thad Wong.

“The land value in the Gold Coast is the highest in the city,” Wong says. “You’re not able to build anything in the Gold Coast for under $1,000 per square foot.”

What does all of this mean for the Gold Coast market in 2020? Tune in and listen as Rick Sobin, Thad Wong, and Mike Golden offer their insight and predictions for the coming years.