Ultra-luxury buyers spare little expense or imagination in custom build-outs
Now that corporate lawyer Jim Jacobson and his wife Mindy, a nurse, have purchased a luxury condo at The Elysian, they can finally pull out their bulging folder of Architectural Digest clippings and get to work.
The empty nesters from suburban River Woods are customizing their three-bedroom condo into an urban home that will perfectly suit their lifestyle when The Elysian is complete, sometime in the next two to three years.
Mindy, a gourmet cook, will bring in her own designer to install the kitchen, and the pair will enjoy a state-of-the-art, home theater system with a 100-inch screen.
From the remote-controlled TV that will flip out of a cabinet at the foot of the master bed each night to the mechanized blinds that the couple can control from anywhere in the world via the Internet should they forget to close them before going on vacation, customization will make life that little bit easier, Jacobson says.
The Elysian’s architect, Parisian-born Lucien Lagrange, has personally helped the Jacobsons reconfigure their floor plan, switching the positions of the kitchen and living room so that the kitchen will open onto the balcony. The famed Lagrange has been the mastermind behind a number of Chicago’s luxury highrises, including 65 E. Goethe, The Pinnacle and 840 N. Lake Shore Drive. Lagrange gave in-depth design advice to many buyers customizing at The Elysian.
“We are lucky,” Jacobson says. “[Lagrange] is a big name in town, and he was generous with his time. The Elysian has been very helpful.”
The couple is typical of many buyers in the ultra-luxury market. They want homes that offer quality, convenience and a showcase for their personal style. And like many empty nesters buying city homes – a major part of Chicago’s luxury market – they plan to keep their suburban single-family while they craft a new condo in the city.
Options available
Developers vary in their approach to customization in high-end housing. Some provide direct assistance, making their own in-house architects and design teams available to buyers. Others don’t supply this service but will happily agree to room reconfigurations completed by the buyer’s own contractor.
As a general rule, buyers wanting to alter floor plans, convert a bathtub to a Whirlpool or install recessed lighting are more likely to get their way when the project is in the pre-construction stage. At that point, architects still have a chance to factor in the changes and ensure that they don’t negatively impact other units in the building.
Many developers will not alter the building’s plumbing because it is difficult, time-consuming and expensive, and many will not consider making fundamental structural changes once the building is framed, and construction is underway.
Hard labor
Those who do forge ahead with full-blown customization should be ready for a “challenging task,” as Jacobson puts it.
The hurdles include everything from finding the best contractors for the job to working out when each will get access to the elevator. Many homeowners spend a year or more – and $1 million-plus – building out their space.
Businessman Jon Butcher knows just what it takes to successfully complete a build-out. He has done his share of customizing and is planning the mother of all makeovers when he takes possession of a penthouse at Waterview Tower in 2008.
Butcher’s hobby is creating Japanese gardens. He has built three intricate landscapes inside and on the terraces of highrise condos he has owned over the years, and so far, has sold two for a modest profit.
Butcher plans to enlist the help of Portland-based Japanese designer Hoichi Kurisu, who will create a garden inside the penthouse that will include granite boulders and black bamboo. Mood lighting will be computer-controlled and aromatic woodland scents will be pumped throughout the penthouse.
“I’m definitely going to do a pond and waterfall, if not two or three,” Butcher says of a process he estimates will take two months to actually build. Butcher has not finalized his project so he cannot estimate the cost, but a much smaller project he completed in another condo cost him $60,000.
“The first thing I look at [in a potential condo] is how big is the freight elevator,” he says. Getting the necessary city permits to build his masterpieces adds paperwork to the already stressful process of buying a new-construction home, but for Butcher, creating the sort of serene aesthetic he likes is worth the hassle.
“You walk in and see what looks like Kyoto, and behind it is the Sears Tower and Merchandise Mart, and it’s just surreal,” he says of previous projects.
Ready-made package
While such radical customization is an option with some developers of ultra-luxury housing, others have begun limiting customization in all units, or allowing it only in penthouses.
These developers say their floor plans are so flexible and their standard finishes of such high quality that upgrades and build-outs are not necessary. It’s an approach that other developers may well envy. While upgrades are often profit centers for developers, allowing heavy customization at the highest end of the market can add to costs and cause project delays as builders try to accommodate demanding buyers.
At 30 W. Erie, developer Peter Birmingahm, of Schillaci Birmingham Development, says he’ll agree to small changes, such as construction of bookcases. But buyers won’t have to “go ballistic with designers,” Birmingham says, because he has anticipated so many of their needs. Standard features at 30 W. Erie include oversized crown moldings, top-notch appliances and two balconies per unit, one with a gas grill hook-up.
Trump is also not offering customization. The developer offers generous floor plans, high ceilings and a wide palette of choices for cabinetry and flooring, says sales director Tere Proctor. Buyers can’t move walls or make big changes, at least not before closing, but this approach hasn’t deterred them. At press time, more than 70 percent of the 92-story building, currently under construction at 401 N. Wabash Ave., was sold.
“They are happy because they are getting so much,” Proctor says.
At 340 on the Park, the focus is on maintaining a cohesive design throughout the building, says LR Realty’s Laura Molk. The first 42 stories of the environmentally-friendly development are not open to customization but offer a unified aesthetic, with natural woods and stones, and bamboo flooring. Buyers can’t choose finishes the way they can at some projects, but according to Molk, they’re also paying less for top-quality products, such as General Electric Monogram appliances, because the developer is buying them in such quantity. Penthouse buyers, however, are given great flexibility in customizing, Molk says. Their new homes could be inspired by anything from “French country to southwestern Santa Fe,” she says.
Battle of the bathrooms
Developers of luxury housing are increasingly likely to leave their calling cards in rooms that are essential in every house rather than dictate to people how to use the space in their living rooms. Why build out an extra room as a home theater when the buyer might turn out to be more the knitting type?
“People are trying to outdo each other in the kitchens and the bath,” says Jim Kinney, of Rubloff Residential Properties.
It’s here that top brand-names feature prominently. Sub-Zero refrigerators, Miele dishwashers, Grohe and Kohler fixtures and Snaidero cabinetry are common in the toniest projects. And kitchen countertops are invariably made of granite.
“Remember when we went from Formica to Corian?” says Kinney of the brand-name laminate and acrylic or polyester countertops that once battled for supremacy in the kitchen countertop market. “When Corian came in, you saw Formica and you couldn’t have it, it was terrible. Then came granite, and the Corian had to be thrown out.”
This, by the way, is not the same granite you’re likely to find in a one-bedroom condo in an up-and-coming neighborhood. This granite is thicker (usually ¾ inch), and shades are consistent, not mismatched.
So looking into the Swarovski crystal ball, what’s the next big thing? Anything’s possible. And granite already has some competition in the kitchen. “The newest trend we are working in is composite stones – 95 percent quartz and 5 percent resin,” says Laura Molk, of LR Realty, describing the countertops at 340 on the Park.