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South Africa: Steep Price for Chicago Spire View
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
14 May 2008
Posted to the web 14 May 2008
Nick Wilson
Johannesburg
WELL-heeled South African property investors now have an opportunity to buy luxury apartments in The Chicago Spire, the world's tallest residential-only building under construction.
Yet with apartment prices starting at $800000 and the penthouse suite going for a hefty $40m, would-be "trophy" buyers will have to dig deep to get a luxury slice of the Chicago skyline.
The $3bn project, being developed by Irish company Shelbourne Development Group and designed by renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, is being marketed in SA by Pam Golding Properties' international division.
With 150 storeys and reaching more than 600m into the sky, the building, with a unique corkscrew shape, will be on a site where Lake Michigan meets the Chicago River in downtown Chicago. It has 1200 units.
Ivan Murphy, president of Shelbourne, said Chicago was the "home of the skyscraper" and had the ability to "sustain what will be the tallest building in the US".
Murphy said one person had said that buying an apartment in the Spire was "like buying apartments in the Eiffel Tower".
He said the company had received a "phenomenal" reception from its global road shows to market the property, but about 50% of interested buyers were from Chicago.
Murphy said they expected to sell at least a third of the apartments by September this year.
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Construction has already begun on the development, with the project due to be completed by 2012.
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