Asked if he was worried about the prospect of trying to sell more than 100 condos at Mondial last spring, architect-developer Jack Berger was candid: "If diarrhea and not sleeping at night is trepidation, yes." Fast-forward six months, and after slashing the prices almost 30 percent across the board, Berger has succeeded in selling 17 new condos. But it doesn't sound like that has settled his stomach. A new story from Crain's Chicago Business reports that just 25 of the 141 condos in the new River West development have been sold (that's about 18 percent). "The market is just brutal," Berger told Crain's. Part of the reason for the low tally is that a year ago, Berger ripped up the contracts of 48 sold condos in hopes of converting the building to rental apartments. But he was unable to find financing for the conversion and had to revert to condo sales, retaining only 8 of the original buyers. The Crain's story says that Berger is thinking about lowering the prices again, but he wouldn't say by how much.
· River West condo project mulls more price cuts [Crain's]
· Discounting boosts first-quarter downtown condo sales [Crain's]
Filed under:
Loading comments...