Remember hotel condos? Many in Chicago real estate would rather forget them. Nevertheless, you can still find these homes on the market — just look to Trump International Hotel & Tower, where 15 studios and one-bedrooms on the high-rise’s hotel floors (17 to 27) are listed for sale.
We know that prices in Trump vary a lot depending on homes’ views, and for the most part that’s true with these units. Most of the hotel suites facing west and northwest are priced between $550 and $750 per square foot; prices rise the closer units are to the river, and get as high as $950 a square foot for units with views to the east.
Among these 15 units is one big outlier: unit #2220, a 604 square-foot studio on the 22nd floor, priced at $779,900, or $1,291 a square foot. That’s not just the highest-priced studio in Trump’s hotel, and not just the highest-priced studio in the entire building — it’s the highest-priced studio in the entire city.
By comparison, an identical unit one floor down is priced at just $450,000, or $745 a square foot. On the 18th floor, you can get 50% more space for almost $230,000 less — a 907 square-foot studio is priced at $550,000, or $606 a square foot. And only one hotel condo shows up in Redfin’s records of sales at Trump from the past 12 months — a foreclosed 609 square-foot studio that sold in February for $200,000. (It’s already back on the market at $349,770.)
I looked to unit #2220’s listing in hopes of learning what set this particular studio apart from its neighbors, but all I saw was some stock language about the building and its amenities. Anyone have an idea?