Tall & Urban News

One of Chicago’s highest-altitude restaurants is for sale, offering the rare opportunity for another restaurant — or a resident — to take over the top of the only high-rise east of Lake Shore Drive.

The owner of Cité wants to sell the circular 70th-floor space atop Lake Point Tower and close the fine-dining restaurant that has operated there for decades.

The top floor is being marketed for sale to restaurant groups and wealthy individuals interested in converting it to a penthouse condo overlooking Lake Michigan, said broker Rick Scardino, who represents restaurant owner Evangeline Gouletas in the sale.

“The term ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ is overused in my industry, but one can make the argument that this truly is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Scardino said. “It’s the only commercial building east of Lake Shore Drive, with a 360-degree view of the city.”

There is no list price, and Scardino declined to estimate its value, but the unique space is likely to attract offers of several million dollars.

A restaurant operator also could buy space on the roof atop the 69th floor from the building’s condo association and create outdoor seating, said Scardino, a principal at Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services. Other potential uses for the longtime Cité space include event space or a boutique office, he said.

The dark, three-winged Lake Point Tower is the only high-rise east of Lake Shore Drive, creating panoramic views of the lake and the city’s skyline. It was designed by architects George Schipporeit and John Heinrich, who studied under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

The building, at 505 N. Lake Shore Drive, opened as apartments in 1968, and construction of the entire structure was completed the following year.

The Gouletas family’s development firm, American Invsco, converted the building to 875 condo units in 1988. There are now 758 homes, after some condos were combined.

Lake Point Tower’s owners last year enacted new bylaws designed to make it harder for an investor to buy up blocks of condos and turn the building back into rental apartments, a process known as a deconversion. They said the defensive maneuver came after Evangeline Gouletas’ brother, Nick, made overtures to buy 100 to 200 condos in the building.

Evangeline Gouletas, who was married to New York Gov. Hugh Carey in the 1980s, formed her own Florida development firm two decades ago, after a dispute with her brother.

She was considering selling the property even before the coronavirus pandemic hit the restaurant industry, Scardino said.

“It’s been in the works for a period of time,” he said. “This is really the last of the owner’s holdings in this market.”

Cité recently reopened to limited crowds as allowed under the state’s reopening plan, and it plans to stay open until the space is sold, Scardino said. Lake Shore Tower’s top floor originally was used as private club for residents, before being converted to a restaurant open to the public.

The space for sale totals 7,536 square feet (700 square meters), including 4,706 square feet (437 square meters) on the 70th floor. Space on the building’s second floor for a kitchen, office and storage is available with the restaurant, or it could be sold separately.

For more on this story, go to the Chicago Tribune.