Sulo Development opened the sales center for Fulton Bond in late February 2026, and the two towers going up at 1325 West Fulton Street are already testing what a Fulton Market condo can be worth. Two penthouses are priced above $7.6 million, aiming to beat the record Sulo set with its own earlier building, the Embry at 19 North May Street. If you're touring a sales center like this one, the number that grabs your attention is usually the purchase price. The number that should worry you more is smaller, sits lower on the price sheet, and is far less trustworthy: the projected monthly assessment.
That number is not a forecast. It's a marketing input, and understanding why changes how you should shop new construction in this neighborhood.
The assessment on the price sheet isn't the one you'll pay
Every new condo building in Chicago starts life under the developer's control. The developer sets the initial HOA assessment, and that figure gets built into the sales pitch alongside the price per square foot and the amenity list. The problem is incentive, not dishonesty. A lower assessment makes the monthly carrying cost look better next to a resale unit down the street, and it helps close units faster during presale.
The assessment the developer sets rarely reflects what it actually costs to run the building. Once roughly 75 percent of units sell and control transfers to a homeowner-run association, that association inherits the real operating costs: staffing, insurance, utilities, elevator contracts, and a reserve fund that has to be built from scratch. Industry reporting on Chicago condo purchases puts the typical post-turnover jump at 20 to 40 percent over the developer's original number. On a $600 assessment, that's the difference between $720 and $840 a month, arriving after your closing, not before it.
This isn't a reason to avoid new construction in Fulton Market. It's a reason to ask a different question at the sales center than most buyers ask. Instead of "what's the assessment," ask for the developer's projected operating budget and compare the two figures yourself. The gap between them is roughly what you should expect your monthly cost to grow toward once the building matures.
What Sulo's own track record tells you, and what it doesn't
Fulton Bond isn't Sulo's first Fulton Market project, and that history is useful context, just not for the reason the sales team will lead with. In 2017 the firm's Hayden West Loop, at 1109 West Washington Street, topped out at $4 million for its top unit. Its follow-up, the Embry, doubled in scale from the original plan to 73 units across 18 stories and set the current West Loop penthouse record at $7.6 million. Fulton Bond is a bigger swing again: two towers, 149 units, with pricing aimed at clearing that same $7.6 million bar.
That trajectory tells you Sulo's buildings have held resale value and that Fulton Market's ultra-luxury tier is real. Real estate coverage of the Fulton Bond launch noted that in the past five years, only 18 Chicago condos sold for $7 million or more, and 17 of those closed east of Clark Street near the lake. The Embry was the lone outlier west of the Kennedy Expressway. That's a meaningful signal about neighborhood demand.
It tells you nothing about what your assessment will look like in year three. Price appreciation and operating cost trajectory are two different mechanisms, and a developer's success at the first is not evidence about the second. Ask about them separately.
The price-per-square-foot number hides the part that costs you monthly
West Loop's median price per square foot ran about $408 in early 2026, compared with $263 for Chicago overall. That gap gets cited constantly as proof of the neighborhood's premium position, and it is. It's also incomplete, because price per square foot measures what you pay once, not what you pay every month for as long as you own the unit.
Two buildings a block apart can carry the same per-square-foot price and wildly different assessment structures. A boutique loft conversion with a small footprint of shared space, no full-time staff, and a modest amenity package might run $300 to $500 a month. A new tower with a doorman, pool, fitness center, and a rooftop deck can push past $1,000 a month before the post-turnover adjustment even happens. Neither number shows up in the price-per-square-foot figure that gets quoted in market reports.
If you're comparing a resale loft to a new tower on entry price alone, you're comparing the wrong column. The honest comparison adds five years of assessments to the purchase price and looks at the total.
The paperwork problem: new construction gives you less to check
For a resale condo in Illinois, the law is on your side. Under the Illinois Condominium Property Act, buyers have a right to a full disclosure packet before closing that includes the declaration and bylaws, reserve fund details, anticipated capital expenditures for the current and next two fiscal years, the most recent financial statement, and disclosure of any pending litigation. You can read a board's actual decisions in the meeting minutes and see whether the reserve fund is genuinely healthy or quietly thin.
New construction doesn't give you that history because it doesn't exist yet. There's no financial statement, no track record of how the board handled a leaking roof or a broken elevator, and no percent-funded number to check against the usual benchmark, where 70 to 100 percent funded is considered strong and anything under 30 percent is a red flag for future special assessments. You're underwriting a building with no operating record, based entirely on projections the developer wrote.
Here's what that means for your due diligence, building type by building type:
| Question | Resale building | New construction (pre-turnover) |
|---|---|---|
| Is the assessment realistic? | Check 2+ years of financials against the reserve study | Compare developer's assessment to their own projected operating budget |
| Is the reserve fund healthy? | Ask for percent-funded figure and funding plan | No reserve fund exists yet; ask how it will be seeded |
| Any pending special assessments? | Section 22.1 disclosure will show this | Not applicable until after turnover |
| Litigation history? | Disclosed in Section 22.1 packet | Check the developer's history on prior buildings |
A special assessment in an existing Chicago building typically runs $5,000 to $50,000 or more per unit, depending on project scope. A new building doesn't erase that risk. It just delays your ability to see it coming.
The FHA timing gap that catches new-construction buyers off guard
As of 2026, roughly 35 percent of Chicago condo buildings carry active FHA project approval, and that approval process itself takes two to six months once a building applies. A brand-new tower can't apply until it has functioning finances to review, which means FHA-financed buyers touring a sales center in year one may be looking at a building that won't clear approval until well after their target closing date. If your financing depends on FHA, ask the sales team directly where the building stands in that process before you fall in love with a floor plan.
What this actually changes about how you shop Fulton Market
None of this argues against buying new in Fulton Market. Fulton Bond and buildings like it are delivering real product at a moment when Chicago condo inventory citywide was down 26 percent year over year as of spring 2026, with well-priced luxury units in the neighborhood drawing strong buyer attention. It argues for treating the sales center's assessment figure as a starting point for a conversation, not as the answer.
Before you write an offer on anything new in this neighborhood, ask for the projected operating budget in writing, ask where the building stands with FHA approval if that applies to you, and run the five-year math on carrying costs the same way you'd run it on price. The unit is the easy part to evaluate. The building's future finances are the part that determines what you're actually signing up for.
If you're weighing a new Fulton Market tower against a resale loft or a boutique conversion, The Jerry Cox Group can walk the numbers with you before you're standing at a sales center whiteboard making a decision on the spot.
FAQ
Is the assessment I'm quoted at a Fulton Market sales center legally binding? No. The developer sets the initial assessment while they control the association, and it can change once the building turns over to owner control, typically after about 75 percent of units sell.
How do I check a new building's reserve fund before it exists? You can't check what doesn't exist yet. Ask instead for the developer's projected operating budget and how the reserve fund will be seeded once the association forms, then compare that plan to the initial assessment they're quoting.
Can I use an FHA loan on a brand-new Fulton Market condo? Only if the building has active FHA project approval, which a new tower typically can't obtain until it has an established financial history. Ask the sales team directly about the building's FHA status if that financing matters to your purchase.
