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There’s still one Alison Victoria home featured on ‘Windy City Rehab’ remaining — and though the price has plunged, it will still cost you
And then there was one. With the sale of a brick three-flat in East Ukrainian Village earlier this week, only one of the 16 homes featured on the first two seasons of the HGTV show “Windy City Rehab” remains unsold.
That single-family home, at 1924 W. Berenice, is on the market for $1,495,000. The North Center home has 5 bedrooms, 4.5 baths and 3,850 square feet. It has a custom coffee and wine bar with an antique hutch and brass shelving.
Like many of the homes featured on the show, though, the property has remained unsold for months or longer, and the price tag has plunged — in this case by $155,000 since October.
Host Alison Victoria Gramenos purchased the home in April of 2019 for $487,500 and, according to the show, spent more than $1 million to renovate it — for a total outlay of $1,517,250.
Going by those figures, if the home sells for the current asking price, the project would result in a $22,250 loss. It wouldn’t be the first home featured on the show to result in a loss or barely breaking even for the developers — again, if the show’s estimates of rehab costs are accurate.
Listing agent Vincent Anzalone declined to comment on the Berenice home.
Other Windy City homes that sold in the last several months saw similar price drops, including one at 1815 W. Augusta Blvd. that closed Monday for $1,375,000 — $74,000 less than the original asking price.
In October, a home at 1635 W. Pierce St., featured in an episode from the first season that aired in February 2019, finally sold to a buyer in October for $1,231,500 — hundreds of thousands less than developers wanted.
The home had initially been listed as a duplex with two separate units for sale for $780,000 and $750,000, respectively. The home had been purchased in 2017 for $650,000, and Victoria and Windy City Rehab co-star Donovan Eckhardt said they put $500,000 into the renovation.
Another home that sold in October, a two-level Gold Coast condo at 200 E. Delaware Pl., fetched $1.3 million. Purchased for $775,000 and renovated for an additional $752,000, it was originally listed for $1.6 million.
But as has happened with some other homes from the show, the buyer says she found problems after she moved in.
When she first laid eyes on the place, buyer Karen Fox tells the Sun-Times she was “like, wow!” But Fox, who runs an executive search firm, has since come to find the pipes need to be redone in the master bathroom, where the water takes five minutes to heat up; a cabinet unit is pulling away from the ceiling; and rewiring was needed.
“The general contractor who worked on the project ... was over in the beginning and tried to be very helpful, and then all of the sudden, he totally evaporated and wouldn’t respond to my calls,” Fox said.
Problems with permitting, construction and other violations at worksites led both Victoria and Eckhardt to see their permitting privileges with the city suspended in 2019. But Victoria announced on social media earlier this month that the city is once again allowing her to apply for permits.
A spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Buildings confirmed her permitting privileges had been restored, but said Victoria won’t be able to be listed on more than 10 active permit applications at any one time for a period of one year from the date of reinstatement.
Even though only one home remains for sale, anyone still interested in snatching one could be in luck soon.
HGTV announced last month that fans of the show can expect new episodes to begin airing some time later this year.