New Optima Condo Sales Angling for Suburban Sales Records

One condo building in Wilmette could serve as a bellwether for what potential buyers are willing to pay for luxury in the area.

Condos in Optima Lumina, a six-story 133-unit building at 721–739 Green Bay Road are hitting the market at $4.6 million this week, according to Crain’s, a price point that’s half-a-million above the previous record.

If the village’s richest residents show signs of willingness to shell out for the condos, like their neighbors in Highland Park and Lake Bluff, owner Optima Real Estate can combine multiple lower-priced condos to meet demand. They were designed to be modular, David Hovey Jr, Optima president told the outlet, and could end up spanning as wide as 5,000 square feet if the demand is there.

Hovey told the publication that he’s confident that at least a few of the upper floor units with terraces will go at the expanded size. It’ll take a few months to figure out how hungry Wilmette is, exactly, but Optima will be prepared no matter what locals want. The lowest priced units in the building are one-bedroom condos, starting at $595,000. Three-bedroom condos start just under $2 million.

Sometime in the fall, the record suburban condo price could be smashed before ground is broken on the building. Optima expects to begin construction later this year and welcome their first residents in summer 2028, according to the outlet. They’ve added a number of amenities to the plan, including rooftop cold plunges and cooking stations, an indoor pool and courtyard spaces.

Optima Lumina is phase two of the Optima condo project in Wilmette. They recently refinanced the first phase, a 100-unit mixed-use apartment development called Optima Veranda, in late April. A $60 million loan from Freddie Mac replaced a $58 million 2021 construction mortgage issued by Village Bank & Trust.

— Hunter Cooke