Winnetka mansion sells for $12.5M, making it the Chicago area’s highest-priced home sale this year

A recently rehabbed, five-bedroom, 12,000-square-foot mansion on Lake Michigan in Winnetka sold Friday for $12.5 million, making it the Chicago area’s highest-priced residential sale in 2023.

The sale of the Sheridan Road mansion, which was for $350,000 below its $12.85 million asking price, eclipsed the Chicago area’s previous high-water residential sales mark for 2023, which was the $11.2 million that a buyer whose identity is shielded behind an opaque Delaware limited liability company paid billionaire Ken Griffin in January for a full-floor penthouse on the 66th level of Chicago’s Park Tower.

The sale also is Winnetka’s highest-priced sale since billionaire Justin Ishbia paid $16 million last year for a mansion that he subsequently demolished as part of an effort to create a large lakefront homesite at an estimated total project cost of $77.7 million.

Public records do not yet identify the buyer of the Sheridan Road mansion that sold July 28 for $12.5 million. Built in 2005 and renovated from top to bottom in 2017, the painted white brick mansion sits on a 0.8-acre property and has 7 ½ bathrooms, black inlay windows, Phillip Jeffries linen wall coverings, all-new lighting fixtures, pastel color Ann Sacks tiles, Holly Hunt white draperies with light blue taping and newly redone whitewashed fireplaces with new white millwork. The mansion also has a reception foyer with a bridal staircase with wrought iron balusters, a dome ceiling in the dining room with an Aerin Collection fixture, a living room with coffered ceilings and a wood-burning fireplace with a white Carrara marble surround, a butler’s pantry with two wine refrigerators and a kitchen with two dishwashers, a double Miele oven, a four-burner Dacor cooktop with a griddle, white custom cabinetry and a large island with soapstone countertops.

Other features include a primary bedroom suite with a private deck, a screened porch with refinished bluestone floors, a lower level that has been reconfigured with a separate theater area and a recreation area, a second mudroom, a third-floor gym with all-new floors and beveled mirrors, a newly built-out office on the third floor, a heated, six-car garage and a brand-new roof.

Outside on the property are a pool, a hot tub, viewing patios, a staircase to a 94-foot-wide beach, a dog run area and a new gumball breakwater wall along an adjacent north pier that helps keep the beach more stable despite fluctuating lake levels.

“The reason why this property was so enticing and so marketable is because it had a trifecta approach, meaning it was a fabulous house, it has a great backyard with tableland, a pool and a hot tub, and number three, is it has a sensational beach that had been rebuilt,” listing agent Jena Radnay of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate told Elite Street. “When you have all three working, and it’s a turnkey house, it’s a no-brainer.”

Through an opaque land trust, the sellers paid $5.35 million for the mansion in 2016. Radnay said the sellers sold because they are moving out of state.

Citing recent controversy involving the construction of Ishbia’s property farther south on Sheridan Road, Radnay criticized recent efforts in Winnetka to increase regulations of building activity along the lakefront.

“People in Winnetka should be happy that the value is in our lake, and it makes it really special. People are trying to regulate the lake more and it’s not right,” she said. “What makes Winnetka so special is that it is the best of the best of lakefront property — you can have boat houses and pools on the bluff. That’s why I’m getting huge prices (on the lake). When someone improves lakefront property in Winnetka, they’re adding value to the village. We should welcome these types of situations where people want to take care of their bluff and put more money into the bluff. This house is a perfect example of that. The sellers put great money into it, with a new beach and a new pool.”

The mansion had a $131,493 property tax bill in the 2021 tax year.

Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.

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