Sale of the Week

Unfinished Business at the Former Elysian

List Price: $4.795 million
Sale Price: $4.3 million
The Property: A healthcare executive who never got around to finishing the 4,000-square-foot condo he bought in 2010 at the Elysian sold it last Thursday for $4.3 million. That’s a 9.6 percent loss from his $4,785,500 purchase price.

“Life changes, and he finds he spends more time in California,” the listing agent, Caryl Dillon, said of the seller. The Cook County Recorder of Deeds identifies him as James Samatas. At the time he bought the condo, Samatas was a co-owner of Lexington Health Care, based in Lombard. Samatas and his wife, Carlye, have a home in Beverly Hills valued at $5.4 million.

Dillon, who handled sales in the building for the original developer, says that her client bought the condo “with all intentions of putting his own design into the space.” When instead he listed it for sale in June, the fact that the condo was in the same unfinished state in which the developer had sold it “actually worked as a benefit,” Dillon adds. “At this price point, people want what they want. They can create their own masterpiece in there.” She estimates the cost to finish the home would start at $400,000 and goes up from there “depending on [the buyer’s] taste and materials.”

The condo occupies half the 49th floor of the former Elysian (it’s now known as the Waldorf Astoria Chicago), and it has what Dillon calls “sunrise and sunset balconies”—meaning there’s one on the east and one on the west. The unit is on the north side of the floor, which is more desirable because of the views over the North Side to Lake Michigan, as well as the larger living rooms, according to Dillon.

The condo went on the market June 2. Dillon says that a bidding war for this unit ensued between two all-cash buyers. She would not identify the buyers, and they are not yet named in public records. The deal closed September 6.

Price Points: On a per-square-foot basis, Samatas made out better than Igor Chernomzav, who last spring sold two large condos on higher floors at the 60-story building. The sale of his 57th-floor condo broke out to $855 a square foot; the one on the 56th floor went for $991 a square foot. The Samatas sale went for $1,075 a square foot.

Listing Agent: Caryl Dillon of Baird & Warner; 312-981-2352 or caryl.dillon@bairdwarner.com

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