ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | Chicago Cubs outfielder Kosuke Fukudome and his wife have paid $1.44 million to buy a three-bedroom Streeterville condo.
Fukudome, 33, has played for the Cubs for three seasons as part of a four-year, $48 million contract.
Now, Fukudome becomes a first-time Chicago homeowner. His new 30th-floor corner unit is in a new Streeterville high-rise that faces Lake Michigan and includes three baths and track lighting.
The unit had been on the market for just over $1.3 million. He paid $1.44 million, including two parking spaces, said a representative for the building’s developer.
Fukudome closed on the purchase Oct. 27. A report that Fukudome had paid about $1.32 million for the unit and parking was inaccurate, according to the deed filed with the Cook County Recorder of Deeds Nov. 5.
Fukudome is just the latest Cub to become a Chicago-area homeowner.
He joins pitcher Carlos Zambrano, who paid $1.199 million in 2006 for a River Forest home and $2.66 million in 2008 for a house in west Lake View; Ryan Dempster, who paid $2.69 million in late 2008 for a house near Wrigley Field and currently is trying to sell another he owns near the ballpark for $2.25 million; Jeff Samardzija, who owns a Southport Corridor condo that he bought for $710,000 in 2008; Aramis Ramirez, who owns a Gold Coast condo that he purchased for $937,500 in 2005; and Alfonso Soriano, CQ who paid $2.65 million through a trust to buy a 44th-floor Streeterville condo in 2006.
The timing of this purchase is interesting, since rumor has it that the Cubs are hoping another team will take Fukudome off of their hands.
Does this mean he’s staying? I didn’t know the Cubs were looking for a new bat boy.
Fukudome should have his translator read the sports page to him before he buys a house. The Cubs are trying unload him before next season.
Oh well, he can always flip the condo right? it should only take a couple of years.
Fukudome has the same problem buying real estate as he does at the plate : timing.
It doesn’t matter if they unload him, thanks to Hendry that ’s just pocket change to him.
“Fukudome, 33, has played for the Cubs for three seasons as part of a four-year, $48 million contract.”
Even if the Cubs don’t dump him this year, as the prior posters implied, one would wonder if he isn’t heading somewhere else in 2012, maybe to Japan. So, the timing is an issue, but the Japanese got burned on U.S. real estate in the late 80s.