This summer we learned that Devon Avenue was a street straight outta Mumbai, so that means we’ll see something like this on the Far North Side once the market turns around, right?
According to the Daily Telegraph, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani just built himself a 27-story home in Mumbai for a modest £630 million, or $1.08 billion. He could have saved more than 97 percent of that cost by buying Chicagoland’s most expensive listing, a 27,000 square-foot mansion at 68 Locust Rd in Winnetka, priced at a cheap $28 million.
EDIT: Lynn Becker localizes the story — the building was designed by Perkins & Will.
I remember reading about this a couple years ago… I forgot how ugly it was… Good luck on the re-sale. This guy’s gotta hate money.
I hope, for his heir’s sake, that it was designed in a way to be easily converted into condos at a later date. Of the few hundred people on the planet who could actually afford a $1B home, I’m guessing there is exactly 1 that would want to live in Mumbai.
Lynn Becker just reminded readers of this building’s real tie to Chicago — it was designed by Perkins & Will (and LA-based Hirsch Bedner Associates, too). Forbes shares some early renderings.
If I remember correctly, every floor of the building is different so, a conversion down the road would probably be somewhat of a challenge.
There is a long tradition in India of nobility building palaces partially as make work projects for their subjects, I’m wondering if there was something of that involved here, though one would have thought he would have engaged an Indian architect who could certainly have equaled this.