In the days when stocks were used to subject offenders to public humiliation and mockery, “passers-by were encouraged to throw mud, rotten eggs, moldy fruit and vegetables, smelly fish, offal, and excrement (both animal and human) at those being punished.”
There are some among you, I have no doubt, who believe that anyone who bought a townhome in the early to middle part of the last decade ought to be placed in the stocks. Others among you perhaps believe that owning a townhome bought during that period is sufficient punishment and a badge of public humiliation.
The sculpture pictured above hangs on a corner townhome at Tuxedo Park, a luxury development in River North. Make of it what you will – but hold the eggs, fruit, etc. as you pass by.
Tuxedo Park was a pioneering development in River North when it broke ground in 1996, at prices ranging from $259,900 to $559,900. It was one of only a very few residential developments west of Orleans at the time.
A 3-bedroom, 2 ½ bath townhome in Tuxedo Park at 716 N Orleans that was purchased for $850,000 in March of 2007 resold in February of last year for $544,500. Unit B at 712 N Orleans sold in March of this year for $735,000, well below its $920,000 purchase price in January 2006.
In contrast, Unit A at 367 W Superior closed a month ago at a purchase price of $465,000, slightly above the October 2002 purchase price of $445,500.
Unit A at 712 N Orleans is the only unit currently for sale in the complex. It’s listed at $525,000, and was purchased for $490,000 in 2004.