The Tribune reported this week that some Trump Tower residents were unhappy to be associated with Donald Trump's recent rhetoric, but that didn't stop investor Frank Kastory from buying big in the River North tower.
Yesterday, Kastory sealed the deal on a pair of 80th floor condos, which he plans to combine into a single unit and rent out for the eye-popping figure of $35,000 a month (that's right, month).
How do you justify that sum? Well, when Kastory combines the units, which he bought separately for $3.2 million and $1.4 million, the new space will reach roughly 5,000 square feet. Kastory's broker, Phil Skowron, says that renting at $6 to $7 per square foot per month is fairly common in the city's top condos (in fact, another unit six floors up in the building is already available to rent for $35,000—it just doesn't have any takers yet).
The larger unit of the two, previously home to ex-Blackhawks center Brad Richards, was listed in May for $3.6 million and went under contract in October; the smaller one, which Kastory closed on yesterday, went under contract without being listed publicly. Once Kastory combines the units, the new condo will take up half a floor, with five bedrooms and extra space for a fitness room, wine cellar, or some other amenity. So far there's no timeline in place for when the unit would be available to rent.
This is not Kastory’s first investment in Trump Tower. He’s owned three other units in the building and is holding on to one as a rental. “I started investing here and in the Elysian (now the Waldorf Astoria) when the world was ending,” he tells me, referring to the practice of picking up places cheap during recessions.
Looking to buy a place in the tower to rent out? Of the 486 units in Trump Tower, 22 are currently for sale. That parallels other luxury condo buildings in the area (for instance, Legacy at Millennium Park has 34 units of 355 available). But you should know that, according to the Tribune, rents could moderate and even decline downtown next year as new apartment buildings are completed.