List Price: $3.25 million
Sale Price: $3.15 million
The Property: This lavish townhouse has splendid views across the street into Lincoln Park, a nice perk for a house that itself was built to block an unsightly view. In this case, it’s the view of a two-story parking structure on a block lined with handsome old co-ops and apartment buildings.
The association of owners in the vintage condo building immediately north of this house had a slim ground-level parking lot that they wanted to expand without fouling up the block. They enlisted the architect Lucien Lagrange to design the parking structure with two townhouses hanging on its street frontage as both a mask and as a way to cover some of the cost of building the parking structure. They completed the complex in 2002.
Lagrange’s design for the almost-twin four-story townhouses put most living spaces on the second and third floors—the better to capitalize on those lush park views—and gave them lots of terrace space on three levels in the back. This newly sold townhouse has ten rooms and four-plus baths, ten-foot ceilings, a solarium, and two wet bars. The sellers, who were the original owners, had the A-list designer Holly Hunt work with Lagrange’s firm to create “an exquisite, New York sophisticated feeling,” says Susan Miner, the sellers’ agent.
The sellers, whose names are not in public records, paid about $2.3 million for the home but, according to Miner, never moved in. They rented it out for something over $10,000 a month, she says, and had one renter who was planning to buy the home but ended up moving. They listed it for sale in March 2006 and closed on the sale on October 13, 2007.
Price Points: The original asking price was $4.2 million, although this year it was cut to $3.25. The sale price of $3.15 million represents a 25 percent reduction from what the sellers originally wanted. The buyers “got a great bargain, a great bargain,” Miner says.
Buyers: Not yet identified in public records
Listing Agent: Susan Miner, Premier Relocation, (312) 397-1923