Sale of the Week

A Big Breakup at the Elysian

Two years ago, an options trader bet big on the super-elite condos at the then-new Elysian Tower. This week his bet paid off, though not quite as handsomely as he had hoped.

Igor Chernomzav paid $7.25 million in May 2010 for what was described as a 12,000-square-foot, five-bedroom condo on the 56th and 57th floors of the 60-story tower. At the time, Tricia Fox, the Keller Williams agent who brokered the deal, told Crain’s that Chernomzav expected to flip the condo with an asking price of between $10 million and $11 million.

On April 30, Chernomzav closed on separate sales of the 56th- and 57th-floor sections of the condo. On 56, he sold 6,000 square feet for $5.95 million; that’s 93 percent of the $6.35 million he wanted for that four-bedroom space. On 57, he sold 4,500 square feet for $3.85 million; that’s 97 percent of the $3.95 million he was asking there. (It’s not clear whether Chernomzav retained 1,500 square feet and sold off 10,500, or if the original description of 12,000 square feet was incorrect.)

Together, the two sales brought in $9.8 million, not far below what Fox said Chernomzav hoped to get. He had already profited, in a way (according to Crain’s), by paying about one-quarter less than a prior buyer had contracted to pay for the two-story penthouse.

The two condos were previously listed for sale as one. “The buyer pool was small for [a home] of that magnitude,” says Nancy Tassone, who, with her Jameson Sotheby colleague Tim Salm, got the listing for the two separated spaces late in 2011. “The pool was obviously larger when we split them,” she adds. “There was multiple interest levels from many parties,” and both units were under contract within several weeks.

Chernomzav also bought a 52nd-floor unit at the Elysian for $8.18 million; it was the most-expensive piece of residential real estate sold in Chicago in the 12-month period ending June 30, 2010.  (He paid more on that lower floor because floor plates become smaller as you go higher in the tower.) That unit has not been resold. Chernomzav did not respond to a request for comment.

In February, the Elysian Hotel in the lower floors of the building became part of the Waldorf-Astoria brand.

Photograph: Todd Urban

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