WINNETKA
LIST PRICE: $6.8 million
SALE PRICE: $6.2 million

The Chicago developer J. Paul Beitler has sold his 20-room Winnetka mansion, an 80-year-old residence that landed in the pages of Architectural Digest in 2005 following a lavish renovation by Tigerman McCurry Architects.

Built in 1929, the house has six bedrooms, seven-plus baths, a majestic reception hall, a maple-paneled library, and a four-car garage. An early owner was Joseph E. Magnus, the president of Chicago’s Puritan Malt Extract Company, which later merged with the Milwaukee brewer Pabst. Magnus sold the house in 1945.

Beitler, who did not respond to requests for comment on the sale, had owned the house since at least 1990. With Lee Miglin, he founded Miglin-Beitler Development in 1982. Their most famous project—the 125-story Sky Needle, slated to go up at Wells and Madison streets—was never built. After Miglin was murdered in his Gold Coast garage in 1997 (by the serial killer Andrew Cunanan), Beitler started Beitler Real Estate. That company, which developed the former Bank One Center (now Citadel Center) at 131 South Dearborn Street, has been associated with potential plans to build a 2,000-foot broadcast tower in Streeterville and to convert part of the John Hancock Center into a hotel.

Public records identify the buyer of the house as Robert F. Steel. He could not be reached for comment.

Photograph: Dennis Rodkin