Penthouse No. 1 at the Residences of RiverBend has 4,057 square feet, a “great room” truly worthy of the term and a stunning view from the 37th floor of the Chicago River dividing into the North and South branches. All for $2.6 million. It is but one of the top-of-the-building, top-of-the-line residences available in what has become a well-stocked subcategory of Chicago housing.
Traditionally the rarest and most prestigious of urban residences, Chicago penthouses are plentiful thanks to the downtown building boom that began in the 1990s and a shift in what defines a penthouse.
Once a term reserved for only the top one or two floors of a building, penthouse “residences” or “suites” now are regularly advertised on as many as the top six floors. And while in the past, most tended to be strung like pearls along Lake Michigan with a concentration in the neighborhoods around North Michigan Avenue, today’s versions may be elsewhere.
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“We have significantly more today than in the past,” says Gail Lissner, vice-president of Appraisal Research Counselors, an appraisal and consulting firm active in the downtown residential market.
Lissner says penthouses typically are “larger in size” than most other building residences and have “outdoor space, more luxury finishes and a view, of course.
“Even in buildings built in the 1980s, there was never the concept of six floors of penthouses,” she says. “There wasn’t the focus on penthouse product that there is right now.”
They are likely to overlook the Chicago River, as is the case at RiverBend at 333 N. Canal St., or the Kennedy Expressway, as do the penthouses, all sold, at SkyBridge, 737 W. Washington Blvd.
About 400 addresses came up under a recent “penthouse” search in the Multiple Listing Service, although a cursory check indicates a number are likely garden-variety top floors in low-rise and mid-size buildings.
Among residences priced at $1 million or more, more than 50 penthouses were listed.
There are about “100 percent more” than five years ago estimates Michael Golden, co-founder of @properties, a Chicago real estate brokerage.
Chicago developer Christopher T. Carley is credited — or blamed — by some in local real estate for popularizing the now common concept of multiple floors of penthouses. Carley is founder and head of the The Fordham Co., which has two residential towers — the 50-story Fordham, 25 E. Superior St., and the 49-story Pinnacle, 21 E. Huron St. — just blocks west of North Michigan Avenue.
The Fordham combines 245 condominiums, six townhouses and 20 penthouse residences. The penthouses on several upper floors range from 3,066 to 6,128 square feet and prices begin at $2 million. Nine remain for sale.
The 4,400-square-foot model, available for $3.5 million including furnishings, showcases the 47th-floor views along with a posh style of living, where it wouldn’t be unusual to enjoy warm summer breezes at sunset, sipping champagne on a terrace in the sky.
The two-bedroom, 3 1/2 bath residence has a dining room lined with rich wood shelves and cabinets, a state-of-the art kitchen with a Wolf range and double oven, marble-laden master bath, terrace and two balconies.
Across the street, the Pinnacle has 213 condos base-priced from $485,000 and eight penthouses, including four full-floor units, that range up to 5,000 square feet in size. Prices begin at $2.4 million and range up to $5 million.
Carley has bet that amenity-rich buildings near North Michigan Avenue will woo in-town buyers and a stream of affluent suburban empty-nesters.
A concierge, indoor pool, private movie theater and wine storage in a lower level cellar are among the Fordham’s features. Those paying for the penthouse residences get a separate lobby, a private garage and a private express elevator.
Owen Deutsch is one of those penthouse buyers. A commercial real estate developer, Deutsch has lived in a single-family, three-story building with courtyard in Old Town for the last 30 years.
Although strictly speaking he’s not downsizing — at 3,400 square feet the unit he is buying is about equal to the space he has now — Deutsch says he is ready to give up worries about roof repairs and is ready for all-on-one-level living. He says in addition to the location and high quality of building, he was lured by “two fabulous terraces,” one of which he will “enclose in glass into a greenhouse dining room.”
He also likes having a private garage as well as the elevator that “takes me straight up to my apartment.”
Bob and Deborah Cornella live at a gated golf course development in suburban Lemont. A year ago, they began looking for a large house in the Barrington Hills area as well as a two-bedroom, in-town place in Chicago.
The more they shopped, the more convinced the couple became that they would like their main residence to be downtown.
The couple initially looked on the Gold Coast because of proximity to North Michigan Avenue. Unable to find the unit size and the options they wanted, they expanded the search north along the lakefront and west of the Chicago River.
“I must have looked at 100 buildings,” Deborah Cornella says, before she and her husband bought the 22nd floor, about 6,000 square feet, at Grand on Grand, developed by Sutherland Pearsall.
The 105-unit building at 200 W. Grand Ave. is within walking distance of the Merchandise Mart and its decorator showrooms and a host of River North restaurants. But what convinced the Cornellas were the views, the ability to combine several units into one sizable residence and a private terrace across the entire east side of the building to ease the suburban to urban transition.
The building’s indoor dog run, an increasingly common amenity in residential high-rises, was a nice extra.
“We preferred looking into the city at night,” Deborah Cornella says. “We weren’t wild about Lake Shore Drive because at night you are basically looking at black water and sand.”
At RiverBend, the appeal is the panaromic view of the city skyline in addition to the river divide, says Eileen Crosson, sales manager for Garrison Partners, which is marketing the development for The Radco Cos. In addition, some prefer to be away from the congestion of the Gold Coast and closer to the expressway, she says.
Penthouse space in River North and the West Loop can be found in the $400 to $600 a square foot range, compared to $700 and more a square foot for many closer to the lake. Those prices usually are for “raw space,” meaning many penthouse owners spend thousands, even a million or more, to finish out, decorate and furnish a residence.
Nevertheless, the uppermost units are among the first — and last — sold in a building.
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“We sold a couple of high units early on” including the top floor to a Chicago buyer who wanted 360-degree views, says Ron Ruby, managing broker of First Chicago Realty, which is marketing Grand on Grand. “Within the last four to six months, we had a surge of people.”
“One or two might sell early,” says Lissner of Appraisal Research Counselors, but the high price of such luxury units means that not many are the first to go.
“It is the old pyramid story: the number of buyers is smaller as you go to the top,” Lissner said.
The question looms above these aeries–is it too much? Are there enough buyers to support all this splendor?
With many such expensive properties already on the market, including the $8.9 million penthouse advertised by LR Development at 840 North Lake Shore Drive, some wonder if the market is glutted.
More buildings, such as Trump International Hotel & Tower, have yet to break ground. And in real estate, as in musical chairs, it is not good to be the last one standing when the music — or a buying cycle– stops.
“It’s a different market” than it used to be and far less limited, says Carley. There are more than 7 million people in the metropolitan area, he says, and “only one relatively small downtown.”
He predicts demand will continue as Baby Boomers, one of the nation’s wealthiest and most convenience-oriented groups, continue to age.
“You just wait for 10 years. We are just on the edge of the Baby Boom,” he says. “It will be like Manhattan.”
“There are plenty of choices,” says Golden of @properties, which is marketing a $5 million, 7,000-square-foot penthouse with exclusive roof access to be atop 30 W. Oak by Smithfield Properties. “Some people might say it (the market) is glutted. It is going to take some time to absorb.”
The situation can only benefit buyers, however, he suggests:
“If a building doesn’t have something unique or different, it may be hard to remain competitive.”
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Past House Hunter columns: CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COM/HOMES