All right, we jumped the gun a little by showing off one of 1000 West Washington‘s showcase homes — a 4,000 square-foot triplex loft — before giving the development a proper introduction. In this video, “Chicago Loft Guide” Ted Guarnero does just that, focusing on both the lofts themselves and the riches of West Loop living just steps away from the building’s entrance. Oprah fans take note: this development’s right across the street from Harpo Studios.
Always has been interesting units and it looks like they are doing a nice reboot on the marketing and website even though this is an old building.
The one thing that has always worried me about this place was the historical lawsuits and mold issues that the building has had. Have they finally settled and resolved all those problems and if so how much did all of that end up costing the association?
More background can be found at
http://www.1000westlofts-lawsuit.com/site/
Although it seems that site has less information than it used to which makes me think that the issues may have finally been dealt with (if so, that’d be great, seemed like a cool building).
Kp – Unfortunately, the lawsuits my neighbors have filed have not been settled yet. In fact, the number of lawsuits have increased exponentially. Currently, besides the City’s lawsuit against the Association for a seeming long laundry list of code violations, there are also ~18 different unit owners (10% of the ENTIRE BUILDING) who are also suing the Association and the individual Board members! On top of that, the Association has, in 2010 alone, filed lawsuits against 8 different unit owners. On a positive note, 2 other unit owners have WON their lawsuits against the building but I don’t know if the Association is going to be liable for their legal fees yet. Either way, based on my count, the Association has already spent over $400k in legal fees and over $350k in “code violation repairs” yet still faces on-going potential liabilities in damages, legal fees and code violation fines in excess of another $10 million. Per the Association’s own CPA audit, “there is significant doubt as to whether the Association can meet either its current or future financial obligations” so I have started to hear rumors, due to all the damages, code violations and lawsuits, that the Association is about to levy yet another massive multi-million special assessment to cover the Association legal fees, costs and damages. Unfortunately it is not possible to answer your question as to how much this is “costing the Association”, as there is also some talk about whether or not the Association and/or Board breached their insurance policy terms thus voiding the policy coverages. Eitherway, I would guess, based on the last 5 years of legal and other expenses the Association has spent, I would guess, at a minimum, $1M in more costs but, If, in fact, the Association’s insurance carriers deny coverage, then, I would guess, the final bill would end up in the high 7 to low 8 figure area. I hope this answers your question.
A very frustrated and worried 1000 West Lofts Owner