High-End Condo Sellers Crowd Historic Palmolive Building Market

Two condos, both full floor units, in the historic Palmolive building on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile were listed for sale this week, joining a multitude of other high-end offerings in the building as the growing crowd of sellers weighs on prices.

A 22nd floor unit is asking nearly $9 million. It has three bedrooms, three full bathrooms and two half baths, and includes two outdoor terraces. The unit is owned by Kristina McGrath, whose husband, prominent car dealer Mike McGrath, died in December, according to news reports.

A 28th floor unit asking $6 million had a previous listing price of $8.75 million. The 5,500-square-foot condo includes three bedrooms and three bathrooms.

Jeff Proctor’s group with @properties Christie’s International Real Estate is managing both listings.

“So there’s some downward pressure [on pricing], and we made an adjustment on unit 28A to $6 million, which is competitive with the market,” Proctor said. “Then unit 22 is another full-floor residence but it does have outdoor terrace space. It originally sold for around $2 million more than any of the other units without outdoor terraces.”

Only five units in the Palmolive have outdoor spaces, he said.

“And this has two two terraces, one on the east and one on the west. They’re about 1,300 square feet each. So it really offers a pretty huge advantage for somebody looking for outdoor space,” Proctor said.

The 28th-floor unit was designed by Paula Berg and has panoramic views of Lake Michigan, Magnificent Mile and Navy Pier. Amenities include a private elevator, 600-bottle wine cellar, three valet parking spots and ultra-luxury finishes within the home, including Venetian plaster accents and Romanoff wall coverings made of rolled wood.

The 37-story building is a national historic landmark. Built in 1929, it was originally home to the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet corporation and later became the Playboy offices. The 1920s building redeveloped into condos in the early 2000s.

The building was redeveloped in 2002, with the first four floors reserved for high-end office and retail and the rest of the building sold as condominiums, with a residential address of 159 East Walton Place.

Proctor said the previous sale prices for the building are somewhat skewed, because after the redevelopment they were sold unfinished, meaning every buyer absorbed additional renovation costs. That can make setting a list price more challenging, beyond the additional units in the building for sale.

He added that the building is good for those seeking a smaller unit mix, meaning generally full-floor or half floor units.

Listings have been creeping back in the Palmolive this year, as the spring market heats up, despite rising interest rates and a sluggish condo market in and around the Loop. That includes the building’s penthouse that once belonged to Chicago-area native Vince Vaughn, which relisted in March.

That property, on the 36th and 37th floors, is now seeking $10 million, which is a haircut from its asking price when it was relisted last month for $10.5 million. Its previous list price was nearly $12 million, after it last sold for $8 million in 2016.

The condo is owned by an LLC named Tramp Rogers, whose manager is wealth manager Margaret Rowley, according to a 2021 Chicago Tribune report.

Another condo in the building remains unlisted but could be coming to market soon. The condo belongs to David Herro, the deputy chairman at Chicago-based money manager Harris Associates, who paid $6.7 million for the condo in 2014. The 5,500-square-foot condo on the 31st floor has three bedrooms. Herro originally listed the condo in 2020 for $10.9 million. That price likely factored in the renovations to the condo.

Herro has cut the property’s price twice since listing, first to $9.9 million in November of 2022. The property was cut to $8.9 million in June of this year before being removed from the market in September.

The number of bathrooms in the 22nd floor unit has been updated in this story.