List Price: $2,500,000
Sale Price: $2,299,999
The Property: A 3,600-square-foot condo on the 80th floor of the 87-story Aqua is the latest sale over $2 million in the already-iconic tower. It is only the third condo sold in the building whose reported sale price exceeded $2 million—but there almost certainly are more.

Two other Aqua sales over $2 million have been recorded with the Cook County Recorder of Deeds: a 79th-floor unit that an enterprise called Upil USA LLC bought for the building’s record price of $2.8 million; and an 80th-floor neighbor of today’s property that went for $2.24 million last spring. The deeds for several high-floor condos do not show their sale prices, so they could have gone in the $2 million range. In addition, Sharon Kotas-Auda, the marketing manager for Magellan, Aqua’s developer, says that there has been one sale on 81, the highest residential floor; she would not disclose the price other than to say it did not eclipse the $2.8 million record. I have not been able to find that sale in the recorder’s data; it could be over $2 million. Or maybe not: a neighbor on its floor is now on the market for $1.988 million.

As I reported in the magazine’s July issue, downtown condos priced at $2 million and up have continued to sell well, but the pace has slackened since then, largely because there hasn’t been another large round of closings at the super-luxury Elysian.

Today’s property is a three-bedroom duplex with an in-unit elevator and two of those dramatic curved balconies that help give the building its sizzle. It has views north and west and came with garage space for four cars. It was purchased on November 2nd by Leo Radvinsky, who owns the Glenview company Cybertania; its website says the company operates “a portfolio of popular Internet websites.” Radvinsky declined to be interviewed.

Here is a video from YoChicago that shows the views from Aqua’s 81st floor, its top floor. (Note that while the building is officially 87 stories high, that includes parking garage levels below the first floor but above ground since Aqua is on elevated Columbus Drive.) Last week, the developers began construction on the 334-room Radisson Blu Hotel that will occupy the building’s bottom 18 floors.

Price Points: Unlike the Elysian, its neighbor Ten East Delaware, and other high-end buildings, Aqua has a small proportion of premium-priced condos. The developer’s current listings show condos starting for as low as $279,00 for smaller units on lower floors. Of course, what passes for a “low” floor in the fifth-tallest building completed anywhere in 2009 is pretty high. That $279,000 studio, for instance, is on the 53rd floor. Floors 19 to 52 are rental apartments.

Listing Agent: Magellan Realty; 312-664-3434