Condo Conversion

With the original arch-top entry door, decorative masonry and period windows, the façade is as eye-catching as it was 90 years ago.

But she didn't get far down the road before realizing that she was making a big mistake. That's when J.R. Graves of CMS Consolidated in Skokie, Ill., took the wheel.

Before

The original lobby was in great shape; Graves cleaned the floor tile, refinished the oak door and stair rails, and cut a stair opening to the garden level.

He told her to sell the place. His reasons: It would be expensive to rehab, and managing the project while running her real-estate business would be too difficult. "I was stubborn and said absolutely not. I always acknowledge when I'm wrong," she laughs.

Instead, she urged Graves to rehab the building himself. She accepted his $1,169,884 estimate without hesitation — "I trust him 100 percent," she says — and Graves got started in October 2004.

Picking up where Brown left off, "I called every contractor she'd called," Graves says. Most were subcontractors she'd encountered at residences she'd sold. "Half were out of business and most of the others didn't call back. Nailing the right contractor for the job was important, too.

" It's important to ask contractors if they've done eight-unit buildings versus $1 million houses. They are two different animals. If the subcontractors are not used to doing this work it becomes a problem," he says, because they need bigger crews and a production-oriented approach to sweep through a condo building, taking care of multiple units at once. Graves lined up a plumber, a roofer and an HVAC company that he uses regularly in his multifamily projects. His son, an electrical contractor, does all the CMS Consolidated electrical work, and Graves' crew handles the rest of the interior work, from carpentry to painting. "We do pretty much all categories" of interior work, says Graves.

Unoccupied for years before Brown bought it, the building was a mess. Graves' crew completely gutted the inside of the building, with the trash being hauled away in wheelbarrows.

Having worked with Chicago architect Patrick Thompson of Manske Dieckman Thompson on several six-flat condo conversions, Graves naturally recommended him to Brown to design the Crandon Park Condominium. "What we tried to do is keep things simple," Thompson says. He removed a few bumps and bends in the six 2,000-square-foot, three-to-four bedroom units to turn irregularly shaped rooms into large, versatile rectangles. He added generous closets and bigger bathrooms and removed pantries to enlarge the kitchens. And he arranged the floor plans to allow flexibility so "the building is able to satisfy a lot of different kinds of buyers."

Partial walls separate the front rooms designated on the plans as living room, dining room and sunroom. Graves installed gas fireplaces in all the living rooms.

Once Graves had gutted the building he faced some structural challenges. The main 6 by 6 wood beams in the basement were completely rotted. Graves removed them and inserted a steel beam to raise the sagging floor overhead. And because each condo got its own heating system, a 7- by 7-foot-wide chimney shaft rising from the boiler was no longer needed. It hogged bedroom space, so Graves removed it.

The building façade retains its vintage charm, as does the lobby. CMS repaired and refinished the original arch-top front door and cleaned up the lobby's tile floor, cutting into the concrete and tile to create stair access to the garden units. He painstakingly stripped and refinished the original oak stair rails to the upper floors. "It would be too costly to duplicate the woodwork at today's prices, especially for an eight-unit condo," says Graves. "The quality workmanship was worth saving."

The six apartments of the first through third floors were gracious by 1917 standards, but the kitchens and bathrooms were small, the closets were almost nonexistent and the bedrooms sprawled across the units. Architect Patrick Thompson redistributed the space, clustering the bedrooms - including a master suite - in the back, enlarging the baths, almost doubling the size of the kitchens, and creating a versatile den/dining room/office space where one bedroom had been. Each garden unit picked up 600 square feet of excess basement space, and there still was room for eight storage closets.

When only two units remained unsold, the company was able to finish them and turn to other projects. "We completed them to meet the needs of potential buyers based on the information we had learned from the previous condo buyers," says Graves.

Condo shoppers "love the building," says Brown. "There's so much space; it's so versatile, everything is new and the layout is gracious, with all the living space up front and the bedrooms in the back." The garden condos were originally priced at $159,000 but with the extra 600 square feet sold for $179,000. The larger units started at $259,000 and sold at $279,000 in part because of luxury features such as granite counters, stainless steel appliances, gas fireplaces and an additional half bath that Brown decided to add. Also, says Graves, "our workmanship proved to be superior when compared to other condominiums on the market, increasing the value of our condos."

Both Brown and Graves are happy with their numbers on the Crandon Park project. But neither is anxious to jump into a similar project. Says Brown: "I'd do it only if it were my full-time job." Says Graves: "Right now it is not a good condo market. With selling prices not going up, you can only mark up your costs so high. Materials prices are wiping out the profit." Graves's advice to remodelers is to do more than just construction. I've always told my crew to diversify and invest: buy real estate, invest in projects and master the craft of remodeling. Take the ability you've developed and capitalize on it."