List Price: $6.795 million
Sale Price: $6 million
The Property: A two-story penthouse at the top of the Bristol, a condominium building at 57 East Delaware Place, sold Tuesday for $6 million. It was the highest price paid for a condo in the city since a 32nd floor unit at the Palmolive went for $6.35 million last July.
Today’s 6,700-square-foot condo, which shares the 41st floor with another condo but is the only home on the 42nd floor, first went on the market in May 2010 with an asking price of $7.975 million. The final sale price is 75 percent of that. Nevertheless, the price is a record for the Bristol, surpassing even the 2005 sale of this same unit for $4.85 million.
In a neighborhood off North Michigan Avenue that is sometimes known as Connors Park, the 42-story Bristol was designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz and built in 2000 by Golub & Co. While its condos are pricey, there’s nothing in the building like this duplex penthouse, which the developer Eugene Golub originally reserved for himself. It’s the largest and most lavish of the building’s 178 condos, with a 19-foot ceiling in the living room, limestone floors, a custom-built staircase inspired by Art Deco, and two large decks, one looking east and one southwest. Photos that accompanied the listing show that the condo enjoys some dramatic views.
“It’s an extraordinary residence,” said Tere Proctor, the agent who handled the sale. Among the details she was fond of were the “enormously thick solid wood doors. When you find those things in a residence, you can feel the superior quality.”
According to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, Eugene Holland and Jayne Westendorp-Holland bought the condo from Golub in May 2005. He’s the head of a Schaumburg structural engineering firm, and she’s an attorney. I could not reach them for comment. Proctor would say only that the sellers were downsizing.
The buyers, not yet identified in public records, paid cash for the home. Yes, $6 million in cash—think about that for a moment.
Price Points: The penthouse sits atop the Bristol not only literally but also in terms of price. There are ten other units for sale in the building now, ranging in price from $369,000 for a one-bedroom on the 18th floor to $1.775 million for a four-bedroom on the 40th floor. I asked Proctor about the sellers coming down nearly $2 million from their original asking price and nearly $1 million from their last asking price. “When you’re priced at the multi-million-plus level,” she replied, “your flexibility very easily becomes in the millions as opposed to the hundred-thousands. I think it’s a good purchase price.”
Listing Agent: Tere Proctor of Koenig & Strey Real Living, 312-944-8900 or Tere.Proctor@realliving.com