Unfinished Penthouse in Chicago West Loop Sells for $5 Million

An unfinished penthouse in the West Loop cleared the $5 million mark last week, leaving the buyers with an unknown final price tag before it’s move-in ready.

The 5,200-square-foot condo is on the top floor of the 16-story Embry West Loop at 21 North May Street. The shell space sold for $5.25 million, or $1,009 per square foot, Crain’s reported. A buildout at a “low-ball” estimate of $200 would cost over $1 million.

Julie Busby of Compass represented the buyers, who she declined to identify. Tim Sheahan and Mark Icuss, the Compass agents who represented all 58 condos in the building, said all units have sold or are under contract. Forty-eight of the units sold for between $2 million and $3.6 million, they said.

The latest trade came at a high price point for the West Loop. A penthouse on the 15th floor of the tower sold in 2023 for $7 million. In 2022, a penthouse sold for $5.6 million at 900 West Washington Boulevard, and another sold for $5.72 million in 2019 in the same building.

Sulo Development started construction on the tower in 2021, and the first condos were delivered in 2023. Pre-sale listings of 36 units started at $2 million, making them the neighborhood’s most-expensive homes.

Sulo also built the Hayden, an eight-story, 28-unit condo building at 1109 West Washington Boulevard. Bucking the apartment-building trend in Fulton Market, Sulo also proposed a three-building, 243-condo project last year at 1325 West Fulton Street.

Sulo acquired that property from Sterling Bay, which had purchased the vacant lot in 2017 with the intention of building offices.

It’s been a few years of rough sailing for the luxury condo market in downtown Chicago, and many developers have shifted to building apartments instead of for-sale products. However, GD Holdings bought Magellan’s unsold St. Regis condos at 363 East Wacker Drive last year and has been offloading them at a good clip. A 79th-floor unit sold for $7.5 million, or $1,190 per square foot, last month.

— Eric Weilbacher