OUR APPROACH

Corwin Partners was engaged on this development after a previous local real estate agent failed to achieve the required construction loan presales following an unsuccessful, year-long campaign with a building and unit design mix that was not accepted by the market.

The initial design proposed 32 smaller units with primary frontages to the North and South, facing undeveloped, privately-owned properties. After a large, new apartment building was announced to the South, the few presales immediately evaporated.

Our team’s first step in the turnaround required a new market analysis to identify unmet demand. Our analysis determined that the existing housing stock did not serve the area’s growing empty-nester buyer profile. Despite the absence of any condo activity over $600K in Elmhurst, Corwin Partners demonstrated to the developer and the construction lender that the market would absorb $800K to $1.2M condo product – if the product was designed for the identified buyer profile.

Additional research supported a product reorientation and floorplan redesign. We led the redesign process to achieve 3 Bedroom + Den product with an open-concept kitchen, dining and living room scaled similarly to the single-family homes our buyer profile would be exiting – and easier to accept for a transition to condo living. By enlarging the units and reducing the overall count from 32 to 20, the main living spaces also reoriented East and West, also viewed more favorably to our buyer profile.

Our team introduced in a new general contractor with additional midrise expertise the developer needed to address the changes. To minimize operational costs, we leveraged our relationship with a nearby mortgage lender. The lender’s long-term rate lock product proved perfect for our new construction buyers and the shared office provided the necessary space for presales activities.

After implementing our full-time sales and marketing team, Corwin Partners applied a penetration-pricing model to achieve the required bank presales with the new product in under five months. In fact, the product proved in such high demand that despite the later COVID-19 pandemic, the entire presale buyer pool stayed in their contracts. With targeted buyer profile digital campaigns and local brokerage outreach, Corwin Partners successfully sold 85% of the building prior to construction completion and 100% shortly afterwards.

The development finished 22% higher than the revenue projections with the original design. Elmhurst One95 set records for $/SF for condo product that remain unsurpassed years later. In 2021, the building’s most expensive closing held a $/SF that was 43% higher than the next most expensive residential closing in Elmhurst (a single-family home). The entire building recorded the highest overall condo chunk price points for Elmhurst in 2021 with 9 of the 20 residences sold/closed for $1,000,000 or more.