As Muscare explains in the video, the "soft loft"-style homes come with contemporary lighting fixtures from Lightology (which can be seen in the photo at right), cherry flooring and they are wired for surround sound. The walls are made of thick concrete, and Muscare told one potential buyer that they could pound away on the walls with a hammer, and the neighbors wouldn't hear a thing.
The last time we had written about the development was in March, when the building was still under construction. At that time, Joe reported that half of the homes in the 24-unit development had been sold. Now, according to the price sheet I picked up at the open house, 11 homes - just less than half - have been sold. Muscare says the developer is currently offering $5,000 credits at closing, and the next three buyers will receive free garage parking spaces that are normally valued at $25,000.
According to the price sheet, one-bedroom / one-bath condos are priced from the $290s to the $330s, and two-bedrooms with one and two baths are priced from the $340s to the $420s. Assessments run from $109 to $173 per month.
"We'll have a knock-down, drag-out for the next six months over this. …This project will be completed and sold out before this gets resolved. … This is, in my mind, legal stupidity."
-Donald Trump's attorney Steven Schlesinger from the New York-based firm Jaspan Schlesinger.
On Friday, Crain's reported that Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Americas, the primary lender for the Trump International Hotel and Tower, filed a suit against Trump, alleging that $334.2 million still had not been paid on the $640-million construction loan. The suit calls for Trump to make good on a $40-million personal guarantee to the bank he signed back in February.
On Saturday, Schlesinger told the Chicago Tribune that the building would be completed according to schedule, within five months, and he was confident that construction financing would be secured early this week.
"We have every belief that they are going to fund either Monday night or Tuesday morning," Schlesinger told the Trib. "The monthly draws on the construction loan have been in the $20-million range. We were working on the documents for the draw and I think they were substantially completed Wednesday night."
When the Trib report ran on Saturday, Schlesinger hadn't yet laid eyes on the lawsuit, but he offered a prediction: "It's going to cause a lot of legal fees."
One thing I learned while visiting open houses last weekend is that Chicago Graystone Development has more new condo developments in Lake View than I had previously known about. While talking with Dave Salyers of Jameson Real Estate at Halsted Row, Salyers mentioned a building that I had never heard of, The 723. As the name suggests, The 723 is located at 723 W Diversey Pkwy, just a block south of Halsted Row in Lake View, so I walked over to check out the open house.
As anyone who is familiar with Chicago Graystone probably knows, most of their buildings look pretty similar, with the notable exception of Mod in the West Loop. The developer has a handful of active developments in Lake View, and most of them are three- to five-story, boxy brick buildings with those big brick balconies facing the street.
The 723 has has eight 1,700 to 1,900 square-foot two- and three-bedroom condos priced from the $440s to the $640s with garage parking included. Below are a few photos of the furnished model, which is a ground-level two-bedroom / two-bath priced in the $440s.
I've always been impressed with how quickly the Central Station high-rises are constructed. Take The Enterprise Companies' Museum Park Place II, for example. The 29-story high-rise at 1901 S Calumet Ave has been out of the ground since the summer, and already it looks like it's almost ready to be topped off.
Last month, Sun-Times business reporter David Roeder reported that residents of the first Museum Park Place high-rise at 1841 S Calumet Ave were experiencing serious problems with water leakage in the roof, walls and basement of that building. While reading that, I couldn't help but wonder if there might be a correlation between the speed with which these buildings are built and the quality of construction.
Residents of that building "took their complaints to the street, picketing in front of Enterprise's condo sales center," Roeder wrote. Not the sort of behavior you expect to see from luxury condo buyers in the South Loop.
The building at 1901 S Calumet Ave will be a mirror image of the first Museum Park Place high-rise, with the same red cross-hatch pattern across the front. Museum Park Place II will have 276 one- to three-bedroom condos that are priced from the $250s to the $600s. At last check, a little more than half of the homes in the building had been sold.
In the second half of my Joewalk through "East Uptown," I come across five more new-construction developments and rehabs between Argyle Street and Foster Avenue.
Catch a glimpse of some of the new-construction and rehabbed condos I found in the eastern half of Uptown last week. In this video, I start off in the 4300 block of North Kenmore Avenue and make my way up to the 4900 block of North Winthrop Avenue, passing five developments along the way.
Check back this weekend for the second half of my "Joewalking" tour, or watch the video now on the YoChicago YouTube channel.
Before heading over to Clybourn Green last weekend, I visited Fountain View, where a furnished model was opened about a month ago. Like Clybourn Green, Fountain View is being marketed as a green development (see a list of green features here), but more than anything, I think the development benefits from its location. Although the address of the development is 2326 W Giddings St, the building fronts Lincoln Avenue in the heart of Lincoln Square.
The model unit is a 1,360 square-foot two-bedroom / two-bath unit with a den on the fourth floor that's priced in the $540s. The model was pretty nice, but the most impressive (and the most expensive) condos seem to be the corner units, because they look out on both Lincoln Avenue and the small public square to the south. Both of the corner units I looked at - units 204 and 404 - were unfinished and unsold. Both of them have two bedrooms and two baths and 1,518 square feet of living space, and they're priced in the $530s and the $550s.
According to the price sheet I picked up, seven of the 18 homes in Fountain View have been sold, and the remaining two- and three-bedroom condos are priced from the $470s to the $550s.
Mark spent last Saturday hitting up sales centers and open houses on the North Side. One of the developments he visited was New Haven Homes' LV Lofts at 3245 N Ashland Ave in Lake View. In this video, he talks to Elizabeth Muscare of Rooney Realty, who is handling sales for the development's 13 available homes.
One- and two-bedroom homes at LV lofts are priced from the $290s to the $420s, according to a new price sheet Mark picked up at the sales center.
This was the scene at the plaza in front Fountain View, which is located at 2326 W Giddings St in Lincoln Square, when I visited the open house last weekend. Through much of the 20th century, Lincoln Square was a gateway for German immigration, and the Christmas tree tradition is believed to have started in Germany in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Does that explain why they put a tree up before Turkey Day? No, it doesn't.
When I first saw it, I couldn't help but let out a little groan, because it seemed far too early to be spreading Christmas cheer, but this week it seems slightly less objectionable. I still don't know why that guy was wearing a scarf over his face though; it wasn't at all cold that day.
Inside the building, I took a bunch of photos of the model unit, and I'll post some of those up later this weekend. But for now, have a happy Thanksgiving, Yo readers.
Another North Side development Mark visited last weekend was Halsted Row, Chicago Graystone's five-building, 44-unit development at 2847 - 2905 N Halsted St in Lake View. In this video, Dave Salyers of Jameson Real Estate gives Mark the lowdown on Halsted Row's condos as they walk through a three-bedroom / two-bath unit, one of the few homes still available from the project's first three phases.
As Muscare explains in the video, the "soft loft"-style homes come with contemporary lighting fixtures from Lightology (which can be seen in the photo at right), cherry flooring and they are wired for surround sound. The walls are made of thick concrete, and Muscare told one potential buyer that they could pound away on the walls with a hammer, and the neighbors wouldn't hear a thing. 
