This has been the year of price cuts for a lot of South Loop projects, and who doesn’t want to be left out at this point? New West Realty, that’s who! It’s taken a while for the developer of 1555 Wabash to come around, but it looks like the company is joining the class of ’09 with just a couple of weeks to spare.
New West cut prices on most of its listings at 1555 Wabash a couple days ago. (FYI: New West doesn’t list every home available in the building.) A few reductions look like small tweaks — a one-bedroom cut by 6 percent here, a two-bedroom cut by 4 percent there — but many reached well past 10 and even 15 percent. Unit #302, the one-bedroom / one-bath you see in the floor plan at right, took the biggest tumble by falling from the $310s to the $230s, a reduction of about 32 percent.
The developer is also facing resales at the building, at least one of which is priced rather aggressively. Unit #314, marketed by Coldwell Banker, has been on the market for 10 days at $225,900. New West’s lone listing in the same tier, unit #714, is priced for $33,000 more.
It’s hard to tell how many homes have closed in the tower to date. The Tribune’s database of Cook County records show just one sale at the development dating back to September, but the usual caveat about the archive’s currency applies. Redfin shows another eight sales — all homes that would have been listed at some point on the MLS, which, as I’ve noted already, probably isn’t going to happen with every unit in the building. None of the three resales are units listed in either set of sales records, so it’s likely that even more closings occurred in late summer or early fall.
As I noted in a post last week, 1555 Wabash is one of several South Loop developments to have approval for FHA-backed loans.
Shotty building materials, questionable craftsmanship, and an absolutely irresponsive staff! Stay away from this building, or anything that has New West Realty/New West Construction’s name on it! I recently bought in this building, and have nothing but regrets. I am considering forfeiting the first time home buyer tax credit and putting this thing back on the market. The so called “property manager” Christina, shows blatant disregard to the concerns of the residents…that is until she sells you on the unit.
I recently heard that 1555 Wabash was going to be on the Do it Yourself Network. Hmmm…makes sense considering that you have to do everything yourself if you want a habitable living space.