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A pair of luxury penthouses in downtown Traverse City, Michigan, that launched on Wednesday are poised to become some of the priciest condos ever sold in the city and among the most expensive in the entire state.
The Penthouses at 111 State include two full-floor residences in the first completely electric building in Traverse City’s burgeoning luxury market. They are scheduled to be completed in late summer 2025.
Andrew McCarthy
The third-floor Penthouse A, asking $3.25 million, and second-floor Penthouse B, asking $2.95 million, span nearly 3,500 square feet of combined interior and exterior space. Each unit includes five bedrooms and three bathrooms, a library, an open kitchen and dining area and a great room with large corner windows.
The apartments are accessed via private elevators, include private parking with EV charging stations, and boast views of Rotary Square and the Boardman River. A Christie’s International Real Estate office is located on the building’s first floor.
“We’re super excited because there is not a product in the market — I can say, from working in New York — that I’ve never seen this built where it’s for all purposes,” project developer and founder of Freshwater Development Andrew McCarthy told Inman. “It has all the services of a larger building, but you have your own 1,100-square-foot private roof deck that’s just yours. You have your own elevator that goes down to the ground floor that’s just yours.”
McCarthy sees the penthouses as an alternative to purchasing a second home for out-of-state luxury buyers from popular feeder states like Florida and New York.
“It’s the alternative for perhaps somebody that wants a second home, but they want it turnkey,” McCarthy said. “The location is at a prime corner of downtown Traverse City. You’re two blocks from the marina and the beach, and you’re right next to all the restaurants and retail and all the amenities. You’re a few blocks from all the trailheads that can go 100-mile bike rides up the shoreline, up through Leelanau County, through different areas of national parks and protected areas. So that’s really the investment thesis for the project.”
The penthouses feature 10-foot ceilings, European white oak hardwood floors, full-home air purification systems, double-paned Kolbe windows and doors, natural marble walls and heated floors in the bathrooms, advanced soundproofing insulation, designer light fixtures and dedicated laundry rooms.
McCarthy previously worked on developments in New York City at JDS Development and Avery Hall Investments, alongside other firms, for about 15 years. But he went to school in Ann Arbor and, about two years ago, decided to return to Michigan to launch his own firm with a focus on building up Traverse City’s luxury market.
The priciest condo sold in Traverse City to date was a unit at 101 North Park that sold for $2.8 million in 2022. There are currently eight condos actively listed in the city priced between $3.15 million and $3.85 million, all of which are new developments.
In Michigan more broadly, some of the state’s priciest condos to have ever sold are largely concentrated in Birmingham, a northern suburb of Detroit. The suburb’s top condo sale closed at about $5.6 million, but the majority of condo sales in recent years that exceed $3 million are concentrated between $3 million and $3.75 million.
There are a couple of other luxury developments currently in the works in Traverse City, which are helping the luxury market to grow, McCarthy said. One slated for construction in the near future is a Marriott Autograph and a neighboring condo building, which would share the hotel’s amenities. Another is Peninsula Place, a five-story, 35-unit condo building in downtown that includes a mix of units ranging from one- to four-bedrooms, asking between about $350,000 to $3.7 million.
“But no one’s really built something that’s truly luxury, in my opinion,” McCarthy said. “What I mean by that, when I say it is, we’re using quartzite Taj Mahal countertops, which is a beautiful countertop, and they’re very expensive. We’re using all custom, solid wood kitchen cabinetry … So I think it hasn’t really been tested, in my opinion … And that’s why I see it as an opportunistic market.”
Correction: The Penthouses at 111 State span nearly 3,500 square feet, not 3,000 as stated in a previous version of this story.
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