List Price: $3.95 million
Sale Price: $3.5 million
The Property: A ten-room condo on the fourth floor of the 12-story 219 East Lake Shore Drive building was sold on January 20th for $3.5 million, the first sale at that prestigious address since mid-2007.

The 4,600-square-foot home combines what were two mirror-image units when the building was completed in 1922. The work of Fugard & Knapp—the architects who also designed such downtown landmarks as 20 East Cedar and the old Allerton Hotel (at Huron Street and Michigan Avenue)—219 East Lake Shore Drive has a limestone Georgian-styled base below a wall of red brick. Today’s property has its master bedroom, paneled library, and 720-square-foot living room strung along the north side of the floor plan to capture the view overlooking Oak Street Beach.

In 2003, Mary Ellen DiMatteo bought the condo for $2.7 million; she was the widow of Dominick DiMatteo Jr., who had been the CEO of Dominick’s, his family’s grocery chain, until his retirement in 1985. He died in 1993. The recent sale, which closed January 20th, was to buyers who are not yet identified in public records.

Price Points: In 2006 and 2007, four condos at 219 East Lake Shore Drive sold for over $3 million. The 2006 sales are: a fifth-floor combo like today’s property, which went for $3.175 million; and the same layout on the eighth floor, which went for $3.573 million. The 2007 sales are: a 12th-floor unit with the same floor plan, which went for $3.712 million; and a similar combo on the 10th floor of the west side of the building, which went for $4.55 million (all of the other sales were on the east side of the building). That 10th-floor sale set a record for condo sales in the building. Not only had nothing sold in the over $3-million range since that record sale, but nothing had sold in the building at lower prices, either. A 12th-floor combo is now listed for sale at $4.1 million. 

Listing Agent: N/A