We mentioned last week that developers are starting to kit out their high-rises with flashy and fancy mod cons. It’s a way of differentiating their products in a market that’s getting a bit tighter, particularly as construction costs are causing condo prices to shift upwards.
No one is doing the “Anything you can do, I can do better” thing quite like Emerald in the West Loop, observers say.
Seasoned commentator Charles Huzenis of Jameson Realty Group says Emerald’s sales are “on fire.” Tricks like installing TVs in every bathroom, offering groovy laminated kitchen cabinets and dangling Vespa scooters in front of buyers, are all working.
At the other end of the scale, The Residences at the Ritz-Carlton has been “elegantly styled” by the distinctly Jane Austen-sounding Darcy Bonner and Associates interior design firm, according to the development’s Web site. Kitchen cabinets are by Peacock. “It’s the aura of old money,” says Gail Lissner of housing analyst Appraisal Research Counselors.