Just about this time last year, as the economy was racing downhill faster than an Olympic skier, the promoters of the Chicago Spire announced that Ty Warner, the reclusive founder and chief executive officer of Westmont-based toymaker Ty Inc., had signed a contract to buy the sprawling 10,000-plus-square-foot penthouse on the Spire’s 141st and 142nd floors.
The asking price was $40 million, though the actual sales price was not disclosed.
Here are the basics: The penthouse, now nothing more than windows, walls and raw concrete floors, occupies the entire 89th floor of the skyscraper. It has 14,260 square feet and seven bedrooms. There are 16 foot ceilings. And views, views, views in every direction. And what these pictures can only hint is the feeling of enormous space. The place feels like a private skydeck.
To the south, you can see Soldier Field, which, from 89 floors up, doesn’t bother me as much as it does at ground level. To the north is Wrigley Field. Throw in a telescope, and “you can watch a Cub game and a Bear game at the same time,” promises T. Colm O’Callaghan, the skyscraper’s managing director.
Oh yes, I left something out: the price.
$30 million.
And is anybody ready to buy?
There has been interest, ”but we haven’t made a deal,” Donald Trump told me in a telephone interview.
Which means, given the lousy state of the economy, that the price is negotiable?
Yes, Trump said.
By: Blair Kamin
