SOUTH LOOP
FROM $169,800
TO $1.2 million

Outdated maps that misidentified the locations of some nearby underground caissons pushed back construction on the new Astoria Tower by a year. That may have been a good thing: If work had proceeded as scheduled, the building would have been completed just as downtown condo sales were starting to fizzle.

“Our buyers couldn’t have sold their [former homes] as easily then,” says Jim Psyhogios, the Weichert Realtors–Frankel & Giles agent handling sales for Provence Corporation, the building’s developer. “Now there’s less competitive inventory because some buildings have gone to rental, and financing is finally getting easier.”

Completed in the fall of 2009, the 30-story tower—at 8 East 9th Street in the South Loop—has 248 condos, of which 175 had been sold at presstime. The 73 remaining units range from a 527-square-foot studio priced at $169,800 to a 1,900-square-foot penthouse (the last of four in the building) priced at $1.2 million. Indoor parking spaces cost an additional $37,000 each.

Send tips about high-end home sales to dennis@rodkin.com.

Photograph: Courtesy Weichert Realtors–Frankel & Giles