For Immediate Release
February 21, 2007
For More Information:
Larry Schaffel/PR Director
Tricia Van Horn/VP Marketing
312/642-8869
Shachi Sharma’s eventual permanent move a swank penthouse condominium at Aqua at Lakeshore East will not be nearly as arduous as her journey from her native India to her current home in Schererville, IN.
That move embraces a globe-trotting adventure that includes homes in Tanzania, Kenya, Fiji Island, and New Zealand before settling in the United States with her physician husband, Shiv, 25 years ago.
The Sharmas already have a taste of life in the burgeoning $4 billion, 28-acre mixed-use development rising near the intersection of Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. They now own an “in-town residence” at The Lancaster, the first condo tower completed in the award-winning community.
“I actually spend more time now in Chicago than I do in Indiana since our son Shravan, 16, is a junior at the University of Chicago lab school. My husband does more of the commuting to our home in Indiana where he has his medical practice,” explained Sharma.
Living at The Lancaster has done more than whet her appetite to own a home at Aqua, a critically acclaimed design created by rising architectural star Jeanne Gang.
It prompted her to change jobs after recently changing careers. For the past dozen years she had been the business manager for her husband’s multi-office Medical Care Centers, P.C. in northwest Indiana. Last February she decided to become a Realtor and after earning her license as a real estate sales agent she went to work for Koenig & Strey Real Estate.
Then, she says, she fell in love. With Lakeshore East.
“We love the neighborhood, its location, the services and the convenience and when we heard about Aqua we decided that we should live here permanently,” she recalls.
She also decided to enlist with Magellan Realty LLC, one of downtown Chicago’s most successful real estate sales teams, as a Realtor associate.
“Why wouldn’t I want to concentrate my effort and energy on selling Lakeshore East, which is probably the most remarkable new community in metropolitan Chicago?,” she offers.
Sharma says that in addition to her son she has two daughters, Sonia, 23, a recent graduate of the University of Michigan who is planning to become a dentist, and Shivani, 21, a pre-med junior at the University of Illinois/Champaign.
She observes that all three heartily endorse the decision to move permanently into the 3,600-square-foot single-level residence on the 80th floor of Aqua, when it is built.
“Given our proximity to Lake Michigan, Millennium Park, Michigan Avenue and all that downtown Chicago has to offer in the way of culture and entertainment, I expect that they are even more enthusiastic than we at the prospect of calling this home,” said Sharma.
Sharma’s voyage to Lakeshore East began in a small town in India, where she was born and lived for 10 years before moving to Tanzania in East Africa with her father, an industrial engineer employed by the United Nations. From there it was Kenya for about five years, Fiji Island and back to India for undergraduate work and excursion to New Zealand for several months of exams before returning to India where she earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Delhi majoring in biology.
Subsequently she moved to the U.S. where she married and operated her husband’s healthcare clinics and once more contracted an education itch. It took her briefly to Purdue University and eventually to Northwestern University where she earned a master’s of management degree at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management in 2000.
The unique Aqua design that the Sharmas have fallen in love with has been praised by one architectural critic as “dazzling” and possibly “Chicago’s most sensuous skyscraper,” and by another as “a new kind of skyscraper (that) heralds a new kind of Chicago architecture … Aqua is going to be one of the most striking buildings in the city.”
Aqua is Chicago’s first high-rise specifically created to blend condominium residences, luxury rentals, deluxe hotel and retail spaces. It will combine 264 condominiums starting on the 53rd floor with luxury rental residences on floors 19 through 52, and hotel rooms below with separate entrances and elevators. It is notable that the lowest of the condo floors are actually among the highest in the city, in many cases they are higher than most penthouses in the city. The building also will include more than 36,000 square feet of first and second floor retail that will connect to the underground pedway system.
Leila Zammatta, senior vice president of sales, reports that as of mid-December 77 percent of the Aqua condominiums have been sold. Occupancy is projected for 2009.
The rapidly growing development incorporates all the elements of a traditional city community, a lifestyle center that includes homes, retail, recreational opportunities and community amenities such as a lush 6-acre public park and a planned elementary school.
“It is,” observes Sharma, “a preview of the future, a mixed-use development where people can live, work, shop, eat and pursue whatever interests them without having to get into a car. The award-winning plan calls for the construction of up to 4,950 residences, a magnificent 6-acre public park that has also won several awards , 2.2 million gross square feet of commercial space, 1,500 hotel rooms, 770,000 square feet of retail space and a proposed elementary school. We’re overjoyed to make this our home.”
For additional information, please telephone the Lakeshore East Sales Center at (312) 540-9891 or visit the Web site, www.Lakeshoreeast.com.