Magellan Development Group stands to record the fifth-most expensive home sale ever in the Chicago area if a Vista Tower condo sells at or near its asking price of $18.5 million.
The two-story, 10,600-square-foot condo is under contract to a buyer, according to Crain’s. The condo won’t be delivered, and the final sale price won’t be known, until construction on the building is complete in 2020.
The unit will occupy the entire 71st and 72nd floors of the 101-story skyscraper at 375 East Wacker Drive and would have an 8,000-square-foot outdoor terrace, according to information from Magellan.
It was marketed as separate one-story condos that the buyers wanted combined into one home, Magellan’s Lelia Zammatta told Crain’s. She declined to identify the buyers.
The record Chicago-area home price remains $58.75 million, which billionaire Ken Griffin paid late last year for the top four floors of 9 West Walton Street, also known as No. 9 Walton.
A Winnetka home traded between members of the Crown family in 2015 for $25 million, Groupon CEO Eric Lefkofsky paid $19.5 million for a Glencoe estate in 2014, and a firm with ties to “Star Wars” creator George Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, head of Chicago’s Ariel Investments, paid $18.75 million for a Park Tower condo in 2015, according to Crain’s.
The top residential unit at Vista, a 6,800-square-foot condo on floors 91 and 92, is priced at $17.4 million, according to Jim Losik, Magellan’s marketing director. Overall, the building has 396 units, with about 40 percent sold and 222 still for sale, Losik said.
Magellan listed pending sales of 13 units with asking prices of $7 million or more, including two on the 75th and 87th floors that were priced at $10.2 million each.
The Chicago area has seen a surge in pricey home sales recently, including an unfinished penthouse at the Ritz-Carlton Residences on Michigan Avenue that sold for $8 million in June, the seventh Chicago-area deal this year to reach that number.
Overall, Chicago lags far behind its big-city counterparts in terms of $1 million-plus home sales, standing 18th nationwide of the top 50 largest cities, according to a recent report. [Crain’s] — John O’Brien