East Randolph Street

Observations and insights into real estate happenings along E. Randolph St. in downtown Chicago


Rental showings at 8 E Randolph and 222 Columbus Dr.

March 9th, 2010 · Uncategorized

I had a few showings at 8 E Randolph and 222 Columbus Dr, some one bedroom units and some 2 bedrooms units. My client likes both buildings and prefers with one unit. The rental price is ranging from $1, 685 to $1,875. But these prices are a lot lower than 2 years ago.

8 E Randolph is a new building, built in the heart of downtown, really central location, close to the train, the buses, the malls, the movie theaters and all the restaurants. The one bedroom units are very large, they are around 875 to 925 square feet depends on facing west or east. The kitchen all has granite counter tops, nice cabinets, washer and dryer in the unit, nice bathroom with granite floor, great closet spaces and a balcony…

222 Columbus has pedway underneath the building, cross the street from the big bean and the Millennium park, grocery store in the building, nice indoor lap pool, sundeck, grill and party room, basic cable is included in the rent, granite kitchen with lots of closets…

Both buildings are still have some studio to 2 bedrooms available.

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Roundy’s has broken the dirt at the new eastside

March 8th, 2010 · Uncategorized

I noticed that the Roundy’s has started to dig the dirt on Friday, there were lots of trucks parked next to the new lakeshore east park, behind the 340 Randolph and the 360 Randolph building. So I hope this is great news for everyone. Since we have lived here for a few years, from 2005, I have heard about they are going to build a new grocery store, at that time, they were talking about Treasure Island, but then since the economy go west, we heard that the store has backed out, so now we are so happy to see that Roundy’s is finally coming, we do not need to go so far any more. This grocery store has around 55,000 square feet, also has some restaurants!

Normally we would go to Trader Joe’s or Dominicks once a week, since the grocery store in the neighborhood is not big enough. Now we can save the trip!!!

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The cheapest one bedroom at the new east side

March 4th, 2010 · Uncategorized

New east side is a new name for the neighborhood east of the millennium park, next to the lakeshore dr, south of the Chicago River and north of the Randolph street. This neighborhood has mixed age of buildings, the oldest one is 400 E Randolph, the outer drive east building which was built in 1963, the Buckingham was built in 1982, the Harbor Point was built in 1973, the Parkshore was built in 1991. Then there are all these new develop building started from Lancaster, to Aqua which has just been finished. So the cheapest one bedroom in this whole neighborhood is at the 400 E Randolph, which was listed for $155,900, you do have some view to the new lakeshore east park. So if you want to live in this neighborhood and do not have so much money to invest, here is not a bad choice.

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One bedroom for rent at the 400 E Randolph just got contracted

March 2nd, 2010 · Uncategorized

So my client decided to pick the outer drive east building – 400 E Randolph, since this is a great central location, next to the new lakeshore east park, the grand park and the millennium park. Walking distance to the Michigan avenue and the lake front too. When summer comes, there are free concert at the millennium park almost every night, I saw lots of families, young gatherings are sitting on the grass, enjoying the nice music. At the new Lakeshore east park, in the summer, at the kid’s playground, there is water shooting out of the ground, so we call it a small water park. You would see kids running around sometimes young adult too in the hot summer days.

The 400 E Randolph building offers free shuttle service to a few downtown locations every half an hour, this is very convenient for people wants to do grocery shopping. Or just go to work or catch a bus on Michigan Ave. The building has just finished remodeling the gym and the swimming pool. Right now it has all the new equipments in the nice looking gym, the pool is even more spectacular, the lights on the doom are changing automatically in the evening, this is one of the scenery in the neighborhood. They have also added a kids’ play room, which helps a lot of the moms especially in the winter, when it is hard to go outside to play. The building committee has also decided to reduce the monthly assessment for the year of 2010, this is never heard of in all the other buildings, that means they have a strong reserve. The building also offers a restaurant on the 7th floor, called the Seven, it has great pizza and chicken wings. So if you do not want to cook dinner, you will have some choices there.

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Registration classes at the Daley Bicentennial Plaza

February 24th, 2010 · Uncategorized

Feb 22 was the online registration date for classes, I was so lucky to get to register a couple of classes for my daughters. I can see that the number is changing very fast during the registration. That means the classes are so hot and the price is so reasonable, that’s why there are so many people like to register classes here. Also I would like to point it out that there are more kids in this neighborhood compare to years ago.

This Sat the park district is still open to walk in registration, that means for people who would like to register to classes can go there to check it out. I still like one music class, so maybe I will go there to see if we will get a chance to register.  The classes include preschool, tennis, ballet, tumbling, basketball, moms and pops. I remember that we started to come to the moms and pops classes while our older daughter was 9 months, I got to know lots of people in the neighborhood, our kids get to have lots of friends, so thanks to this program. I always recommend this program to new moms and they all love it.

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Swimming at the North Harbor Tower – 175 N Harbor Dr

February 24th, 2010 · Uncategorized

We went swimming at the North Harbor Tower, this is a very nice indoor pool. The temperature feels very comfortable, we have really enjoyed it. We used to live in this building, this is one of the amenities that we miss very much. Although we have a roof top pool, however, we could not use it during the winter time since our winter is so cold. Actually our pool is heated, but I still could not have the courage to jump in:-)

North Harbor Tower currently have one bedroom available starting from $1,315, this is a great deal in this neighborhood, some of the units do have washer and dryer just being put in recently.

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Rental showings at the 222 Columbus Dr and 400 E Randolph

February 24th, 2010 · Uncategorized

Today I was represent the potential renter to show a couple one bedroom unit at 400 E Randolph and 222 Columbus Dr. These two buildings have big difference, 222 columus dr is a new building so everything in the unit is quite new, updated kitchen and updated bathroom, the view is looking a the Illinois center, when you go to the window, you will be able to see the Chicago River and the Lake.  The unit at the 400 E Randolph is not very updated but usable, the view is very nice to the like. The building has lots of amenities, such as new gym, indoor pool and shuttle bus to downtown. The price is around $300 difference, so it is a hard decision. I like both units and I am sure they will both be rented soon.

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Just listed – 195 N Harbor Dr unit 1907

February 19th, 2010 · Uncategorized

This is just listed for $240,ooo. One bedroom one bath with around 700 square feet, washer and dryer in the unit, the view is to the new designer park, the new lakeshore east park. This building is located at the new east side which is new area including two parks, lake front trail, a new grocery store is going to break ground in the next of couple weeks!

The building offers full amenity which includes a grocery store, a nice gym, a roof top pool and 24 hour doorman, a spa, two party rooms etc. This is a very pet friendly building, it allows all kinds of dogs and cats to come here to live. Also, there is outdoor grill and tennis court! Any showing appointments, please contact Kristine Frost from @properties at 312 933 1894.

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The south loop deals – 565 Quincy

February 15th, 2010 · Uncategorized

I noticed there are some developers are cutting their prices as earlier as Jan this year, such as 565 Quincy, which is next to the union station, the price has been cut for 30%. The one bedroom price starts from $170,000 with has very nice interior design and nice wood floor, marble bath, SS appliances in the kitchen, granite counter top. I went with a client to check out some of the units, there are lots of different floor plan for us to compare. I like that all the units has a balcony, there are lots of sun lights in most of the units. There is also a nice Q room which includes Balling, Darts, poll tables, ping pang table, nice theater, mini golf, nice size gym.

This is being listed with my company @properties. It will be a good place for living or investment.

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400 E Randolph sold units in the last three months

February 9th, 2010 · Uncategorized

This building has sold the most units in the last three months at the new east side neighborhood. There are totally 9 units sold in the last three months, which is a very promising especially in this market and in the winter plus 8 of them are regular sales not short sales or foreclosures. Currently there are 17 listings from $159,900 to $875,000. The price is really reasonable now for a full amenity building at the great neighborhood.

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222 columbus sold units in the last three months

February 9th, 2010 · Uncategorized

There are total 5 units sold within the last three months, there are two foreclosures units and two shortsale units and one regular sale unit. I have a client who was bidding on unit 3810 and did not get it. This is a great price unit as it is larger than the 07 unit and it has some good views to the new lakeshore east park, the millennium park, etc. This is really a good buy. There are currently 24 units listed on the market.

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360 Randolph last three months sold units

February 9th, 2010 · Uncategorized

I was searching to see how many units are sold at the 360 Randolph and found out that nothing was sold in the last three months. As we should know that it was winter time and this is not a big building, but the result still surprised me a little as I thought there might be a couple of sales in the last three months. Currently there are 12 units on the market starting from one bedroom of $255,000 to three bedrooms unit of $1,000,000. All the units are having very good views here especially the three bedrooms unit which has great views to the lake, the Grand Park, the south shore line and the Chicago city skyline. The building offers full amenity, I love the rooftop indoor pool. An out door garden is very inviting on the first floor with grills in it.

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Sold in the last three months at the 360 Randolph, the Buckingham

October 28th, 2009 · Uncategorized

There are two units sold at the Buckingham building in the last three months, unit 603 which was for sale by owner ( you can tell from the listing agent ID) for $358K, the other one is a similar one bedroom unit 1202 sold for $445,000. So the difference is quite big for both remodeled with the same view to the grant park and the south shore line. That means if you want to sell, you should better use a good agent especially in the bad years like now, let’s say that unit 1202 has to pay 6% commission, that is $26,700, the net proceed is $418,300. Then for unit 603, although it is for sale by owner, they still has to pay the 2.5% to the selling agent, that is $8,950 plus the fees to Scott Berg which would be around $500, the total net would be $348,550, the difference between the two unit would be quite significant, which is $69,750. So that means yes you save some on the listing agent fees but what is the final result, you lost almost $70,000! As right now it is buyers’ market you need professionals to help you out to get your unit sold in the price range that you were thinking!

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8 E Randolph, Joffrey Tower unit 2107 just rented

October 28th, 2009 · Uncategorized

This is large one bedroom unit with large balcony, never lived in, wood floor in the living room and kitchen, open kitchen with great cabinets and granite counter tops, rented for $1,550 per month. Currently there is one bedroom 1007 listed for $1,800.

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The last three months sold at the 155 N Harbor – Harbor Point

October 28th, 2009 · Uncategorized

There are totally 8 units sold at Harbor Point in the last three months, there are 3 one bedroom units, 4 two bedrooms unit and 1 three bedrooms unit, that means the marking is still moving pretty nice. Such as unit 5008, it has a contract within in 34 days, that is not bad for this market, and the sold price $537,500 is higher than the last year sold price which is $512,500. There are no short sale or foreclosure sale in this building.

MLS # Stat Street # CP Str Name Sfx Unit # LP/SP # Rms Beds
07214267 CLSD 155 N Harbor Dr 2404 $310,000 4
07100212 CLSD 155 N Harbor Dr 3307 $343,000 5 1
07186360 CLSD 155 N Harbor Dr 3913 $492,000 4 1
07005009 CLSD 155 N Harbor Dr 2002 $535,000 5 2
07255896 CLSD 155 N Harbor Dr 5008 $537,500 5 2
07041974 CLSD 155 N Harbor Dr 2808 $590,000 5 2
07186268 CLSD 155 N Harbor Dr 5408 $599,000 5 2
07208605 CLSD 155 N Harbor Dr 3012 $980,000 6 3

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The last three months sold at the 195 N Harbor Dr – the parkshore

October 28th, 2009 · Uncategorized

There are four units sold in the last three months at the 195 N Harbor Dr – the Parkshore, there are three 2+dens and one 1+den which is a foreclosure sale. Unit 808 and unit 1108 both has a parking space, unit 2408 does not have a parking space, the unit 709 is a short sale with a cash purchase.

The most recently closed is the unit 808. That means the price did drop around 10% compare to the peak.
MLS # Stat Street # CP Str Name Sfx Unit # LP/SP # Rms
07301827 CLSD 195 N Harbor Dr 709 $270,000 (F) 5
07241029 CLSD 195 N Harbor Dr 2408 $430,000 6
07281129 CLSD 195 N Harbor Dr 808 $455,000 6
07152330 CLSD 195 N Harbor Dr 1108 $495,000 6

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3055 N Seminary 4S, very nice 2 units floor!

October 15th, 2009 · Uncategorized

Top floor condo with only 2 units per floor. This unit features 60K in remodeling including large windows with great natural light in every room, bay windows in living and master bath, Brazilian cherry hardwood floors, tumbled marble wood-burning fireplace, concrete countertops, stainless steel appliances, slate flooring in kitchen/dining/bath, air-bubble tub, separate dining, large bedrooms, living room nook for office space or second dining area, in-unit washer/dryer, and more. 

Contact info for showing/questions 3055nseminary@gmail.com or 312-497-0854

Posted by owner.

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130 Garland Ct.

October 15th, 2009 · Uncategorized

There are currently 53 listings on the market for this building. This building was built in 2003, we checked out this building around 3 years ago, now I think it is so good that we did not buy a unit here at that time, but right now it is a great time to buy since the market has dropped so much! There are some great units in this building with tons of upgrade in it!

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