Deal of the day: Hyde Park's Silver Cloud
Posted 6/6/2008 by Mark Boyer
With prices for new condos at Solstice on the Park starting in the $500s, some of Hyde Park's other condo developments are starting to look more affordable.
Take the Silver Cloud Condominiums, for example, a 13-story vintage high-rise at 5346 S Cornell Ave. Prices for two-bedroom condos in the 1920s apartment tower have started in the $230s since rehabilitation started more than a year ago, but this morning I noticed a two-bedroom unit listed at $217,900.
Century 21 Sussex and Reilly's Arsiak Raffaelli says the listing prices aren't coming down, but developer Creative Designs Builders will pay six months of mortgage payments, assessments and property taxes for buyers who sign contracts in the next three weeks.
A year of free parking is also offered with the deal. (Rental parking at the Silver Cloud is $125 per month.)
Raffaelli says the 72-unit high-rise is currently 40% sold, which seems low, considering that these units have been on the market for almost two years, but she is optimistic that there's still a market for this vintage conversion.
"It's going to be the next Edgewater," Raffaelli says of Hyde Park. She points to the city's Olympics bid and the stadium proposed for neighboring Washington Park as signs that Hyde Park isn't just a university neighborhood, and that it can still attract luxury buyers.
Comments
6/6/08
Local Realtor said:
I lived on Cornell Ave. in the 90's when Silver Cloud was still a rental. One of the nice things about the building back then was the unobstructed view from just about every apt - granted, the view was a parking lot, but at least the resident could get some fresh air and sunshine! Unfortunately, in the years between my time on Cornell and the recent conversion of this building, the Catholic Theological Union built a hulking (only printable word I can think of) new facility that took up ALL of the parking lot south of Silver Cloud! As a result, many units on the lower floors have NO view to speak of, besides a narrow shaft of air beween their unit and the CTU walls. This turned off one of my potential clients last year and I imagine that's been the case with others as well.
For the lower-floor south-facing units of this building, the only "target market" I can imagine would be bohos and artist/loner types who really cherish isolation, darkness, etc. (Maybe if the Goth Kids from Saturday Night Live are now enrolled in UC…)