Hotel 71 to Become Condos 71

By Andrew Peerless in News on Apr 1, 2005 2:42PM

One of the big real estate stories out of New York lately has been the controversial conversion of venerable, storied old hotels into condominiums. That city's seething real estate market essentially requires that every available inch of available land be converted into residential space, and while Chicago's market isn't quiiite that intense, one of our own fair hotels will soon be morphing into condos, as well.

Hotel 71, located at 71 East Wacker Drive (oh, clever!) and known for its sleek, stylish and roomy quarters, has reportedly been sold for a whopping $95 million (roughly $209,000 for each of the hotel's 454 guest rooms). Not much is known about the condominium conversion at this time, but since Chicagoist surely won't be able to afford any part of it, we hope the developers at least choose to name the project something dignified.

Hotel 71 is pretty cool, but Chicagoist isn't too worked up about these plans... certainly not as upset as we'd be if the Drake were going condo or something like that. And while Hotel 71 isn't the only Chicago hotel to change hands recently (Michigan Avenue's InterContinental, among others, was sold in late February), the other ones seems like they will actually stay hotels.