What is the most anyone has paid for a West Loop condo? This fall's headlines put it at $8.5 million and $10 million, but neither amount has been paid yet. In the recorded sales, the top West Loop price is still the one Crain's reported in May 2024, when a West Loop condo sold for $7.56 million and broke the local record.
Everything above that is a contract or an asking price on space that doesn't exist yet. That matters if you're comparing a West Loop condo with one in River North or the Gold Coast. An appraiser, a lender and a buyer two years from now will all work from closed sales. Recent downtown history shows that a contract price and a closing price can be very far apart.
Two records set by floors that aren't built yet
On September 30, 2026, Crain's reported that a penthouse at Fulton Bond went under contract at its $8.5 million asking price. Crain's said that was a new high for the neighborhoods west of the Loop by almost $1 million. Sulo Development is building the tower at 224 North Elizabeth Street. The penthouse covers the 23rd and 24th floors, has four bedrooms and an 1,100-square-foot terrace, and was sold off market. The Real Deal noted that the building won't be completed in 2026, so the contract can't turn into a recorded sale this year.
Two weeks later, Fern Hill raised the bar. Crain's reported that the developer's planned Marielle on the Park, at 910 W. Monroe St., includes a penthouse offered at $10 million. According to The Real Deal's summary, the unit takes up the top two floors of the 24-story tower and covers 6,300 square feet, about $1,587 a square foot at that price. Its lower level opens onto an 892-square-foot terrace overlooking Mary Bartelme Park. At the time, only seven of the building's 70 condos had been listed. City Council approved the tower on October 1, and Chicago YIMBY reported that pre-sales would begin before a construction timeline was announced.
The site's history shows how much these numbers depend on the plan holding. The parcel has been vacant for more than a decade. Fern Hill got approval for a 19-story condo building there in 2021, switched the plan to apartments, and recently switched back to condos.
| Price | Property | Status as of early November 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| $10,000,000 | Marielle on the Park penthouse, 910 W. Monroe St. | Asking price, tower approved, not yet built |
| $8,500,000 | Fulton Bond penthouse, 224 N. Elizabeth St. | Under contract, building under construction |
| $7,560,000 | West Loop condo, reported by Crain's in May 2024 | Closed sale |
| $7,000,000 | Embry West Loop penthouse, 21 N. May St. | Closed sale, 2023 |
| $5,250,000 | Embry West Loop top-floor shell | Closed sale, September 2025, unfinished |
The top two rows are the ones in the headlines. The bottom three are the ones an appraisal can use.
What a $13.9 million contract turned into
Downtown Chicago already has a test case for how much a presale contract proves. In January 2023, the 73rd floor of One Chicago, JDL Development's tower at 14 West Superior Street, listed at $13.95 million. The Real Deal reported that the 6,085-square-foot full-floor unit went contingent within days. By August 2023, the deal still had not closed. In January 2026, The Real Deal reported that the listing had been taken down more than a year earlier and no sale had been recorded with the county.
In July 2026, Crain's reported that the full-floor unit that had gone under contract at $13.9 million had sold for $5.3 million. That is $8.6 million less, a drop of about 62 percent. For more than three years, the contract price was the number people cited. The closing price is the number that's in the county record.
Not every contract in that building ended that way. The 69th floor went under contract in January 2026 near its $8 million asking price. The Real Deal's weekly roundup of Cook County deals reported it sold for $8 million in filings for the week ending September 21, 2026. So a contract can close right at its price. The difference between the 73rd-floor deal and the 69th-floor deal ties back to how the space was being sold.
Why the finished floor sold and the raw one sat
JDL first marketed One Chicago's top floors as raw space, on the expectation that very wealthy buyers would want to hire their own contractors. The units sat. In The Real Deal's January 2026 report, Jim Letchinger said the firm was now building out the full floors itself and explained why:
"They don't want to deal with the contractor, they don't want to deal with building it. They're all dry-walled now, and delivery is much shorter. That's the other thing, people don't want to wait."
The 69th floor went under contract after more than a year on the market, once JDL had decided to finish it. The 72nd floor had been sold as raw space, but JDL built it out for the buyer, and it recorded at $8.9 million in early 2025. At this price level, buyers have paid for finished space they could move into and avoided the wait and the construction risk.
The West Loop's own top closings show the same pattern. In September 2025, The Real Deal reported that the top-floor penthouse at Embry West Loop, 21 North May Street, sold as an unfinished 5,200-square-foot shell for $5.25 million, or $1,009 a square foot. A buildout at what the outlet called a "low-ball" $200 a square foot would add more than $1 million. The recorded $5.25 million doesn't include what the home will cost once someone can live in it. Anyone pricing a nearby penthouse off that number would be comparing a finished home with an empty shell.
The same building shows where demand in this market is deepest. All 58 condos at Embry had sold or gone under contract, and 48 of them sold for between $2 million and $3.6 million. Pre-sale listings for 36 units started at $2 million. Construction began in 2021, and the first condos were delivered in 2023. Embry's sellout was driven by units under $4 million. Fulton Bond and Marielle are headed toward the same test, but the record prices they're making news with sit well above that range.
Where a presale deposit sits while the tower goes up
Between signing and closing, Illinois law sets some rules for the buyer's money and paperwork. For the first sale of a condo unit, Section 24 of the Condominium Property Act says a deposit or advance paid to the developer must be held in escrow until title is conveyed to the buyer. The money has to be kept in a separate, segregated account at a federally insured bank or savings and loan, in an interest-bearing account. Interest goes to the purchaser unless title transfers within 45 days.
Section 22 requires the developer to give the buyer the declaration, the association bylaws, a projected operating budget for the unit and a floor plan. If any of those items isn't available when the contract is signed, the buyer can void the contract until five days after the last item is delivered or until closing, whichever comes first. If the developer doesn't make full disclosure, the buyer can rescind before closing and get the deposit back with interest. These provisions apply to disclosure. They don't give a buyer the right to walk away for any reason, and each contract's own termination terms still govern.
This is general information, not legal or financial advice. Anyone weighing a pre-construction contract should go over its terms with their own attorney and lender.
What the closed numbers say this fall
Recorded sales give a much flatter picture than the penthouse headlines. Illinois REALTORS' October 2026 local market update shows 633 condo closings across Chicago that month, down 11.2 percent from October 2025. The citywide condo median was $375,000, up 6.2 percent. Inventory across all property types fell to 3,767 homes, 19.1 percent fewer than a year earlier, and homes sold in a median of 26 days.
Those figures cover the whole city, not the West Loop, but they help explain why developers are willing to start selling towers before construction. With fewer homes for sale and prices still rising, it is easier to sell floors that exist only in renderings. For a buyer, the comparable that matters is still the recorded closing, ideally in a finished unit and in a price range where the building has many sales.
A few straight answers
Is $8.5 million the West Loop record? It is the highest contract price reported west of the Loop. The highest recorded closing Crain's has reported is $7.56 million, from May 2024.
Can a West Loop seller use the Fulton Bond or Marielle numbers to price a resale? Appraisers rely on closed sales. Neither of those penthouses has closed, and Marielle's $10 million is an asking price on a tower that has only just been approved.
Did the 73rd-floor One Chicago contract ever close at $13.9 million? No. The Real Deal reported that the listing was removed and no sale was recorded, and Crain's later reported that the full-floor unit sold for $5.3 million.
If you're weighing a new-construction contract in the West Loop or pricing a resale against this fall's headlines, KD Homes can show you the recorded sales for your building and price range. Request a Free Home Valuation and we'll build it from closings.