Deal Estate - February 2011

02/28/11

Burr Ridge Mansion of Chris Kelly Sold at Foreclosure

List Price: $1.75 million
Sale Price: $1.6 million
The Property: This 18-room Burr Ridge mansion was the home of Christopher Kelly, the former Rod Blagojevich fundraiser who committed suicide in September 2009 just before going on trial with the former governor...

Posted at 10:16 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (1)

02/24/11

This Lincoln Park Home Was Brought to You by the Letter “L”

List Price: $4.7 million
The Property: The 1880s charm of this Lincoln Park home is intact in its detailed brick façade and its tall Italianate windows, but a big rear addition opens the home up from the usual beeline-straight city-house floor plan to an L-shape that invites both family living and entertaining...

Posted at 9:31 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (1)

02/23/11

Lawsuit Claims Developer Hasn’t Honored Buy-Back Contract

In 2008, hoping to reassure potential condo buyers that any further slide in the market wouldn’t hurt them, the Kopley Group development company offered a full-price buy-back guarantee on two of its North Side developments. The company’s chief, Nick Kopley, told me then that this was an “absolute, no questions asked” offer; the company made similar comments to the Chicago Tribune and Yo Chicago...

Posted at 12:42 PM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (2)

02/21/11

Foreclosed, Finished, and Flipped in Wicker Park

List Price: $1.699 million
Sale Price: $1.475 million
The Property: The rectilinear components of this Wicker Park façade look pieced together as in a jigsaw puzzle—an apt analogy for the home’s piecemeal financial history...

Posted at 9:18 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (2)

02/17/11

Former Tribune Chairman FitzSimons Sells His North Shore Home

The former Tribune Co. chairman Dennis FitzSimons, on Monday closed on the sale of his house on exclusive Woodley Road outside Winnetka. The 13-room home on a little more than an acre sold for $2.478 million, about 78 percent of the $3.15 million that FitzSimons and his wife, Ann, paid for the home in November 2003...

Posted at 11:13 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (0)

02/17/11

An Armour Mansion in Lake Forest

List Price: $5 million
The Property: This classically styled 12-room mansion on a bluff in Lake Forest that overlooks Lake Michigan has its fine points, and I’ll get to them. But first, a nod to its former resident, the formidable Sarah Wood Armour, who was a key supporter of the Lyric Opera of Chicago for over five decades and the daughter of Robert Wood, who helped build both the Panama Canal and Sears, Roebuck & Co. Mrs. Armour bought the house in 1980 with her husband, the philanthropist and businessman Andrew W. Armour III of the meatpacking family...

Posted at 9:53 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (1)

02/16/11

Lincoln Park’s Two Battlefields

In recent months, two groups of Lincoln Park residents have been fighting proposals that they believe will have a negative impact on their neighborhood—and the two battlegrounds are just three blocks apart on Webster Avenue. “There’s a lot going on over there on Webster these days,” says Alderman Vi Daley (43rd)...

Posted at 11:58 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (6)

02/14/11

Former Microsoft Exec Buys Penthouse Surrendered by the Developer Dan McLean

List Price: $3.499 million
Sale Price: $2.850 million
The Property: A 5,200-square-foot riverside penthouse that a court ordered sold by its developer and owner, Dan McLean, to help settle debts from an Atlanta real-estate investment was bought in late January by David Vaskevitch...

Posted at 9:36 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (2)

02/10/11

Doctor Chooses True Love Over Kenwood Greystone That Marries Old and New

List Price: $2.45 million
The Property: When Dr. Srinivas Reddy bought this 1893 greystone on Drexel Boulevard in 2002, it was empty and recently foreclosed. Its exterior urgently needed maintenance, and its three-story interior had been chopped up into six apartments that might charitably be described as shabby...

Posted at 10:13 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (0)

02/09/11

Che “Rhymefest” Smith’s Green Hopes for the 20th Ward

In the last few hours before the blizzard hit last Tuesday, Che “Rhymefest” Smith, the Grammy-winning rapper who is now running for alderman in Chicago’s 20th Ward, drove me around his neighborhood. The ward has over 30,000 vacant lots (most of them city-owned) and hundreds or perhaps thousands of foreclosed homes (there is no accurate count available), many of them boarded up...

Posted at 12:27 PM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (0)

02/07/11

Naperville House with 19th-Century Look Tells 21st-Century Story

List Price: $899,000
Sale Price: $825,000
The Property: From its rooftop widow’s walk to its lacy front-porch railings, this Italianate Victorian home in Naperville may look like a holdover from the 19th century—but its story is very much of the 21st century...

Posted at 9:25 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (0)

02/03/11

Beyond the Secret Garden, in Lincoln Park

List Price: $4.99 million
The Property: The formal, Parisian-styled façade of this home masks its past life as a warehouse, just as the stone wall that extends from it conceals a lovely garden through which a path winds to the house’s broad glass front doors...

Posted at 12:31 PM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (2)

02/02/11

Jim Cornelison, Anthem Singer Extraordinaire, Doubles As a Real-Estate Agent

With the Chicago Blackhawks on a six-game road trip, Jim Cornelison, the team’s popular national anthem singer, can grab a little time to focus on his day job: selling real estate...

Posted at 9:36 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (0)

	02/28/11 Burr Ridge Mansion of Chris Kelly Sold at Foreclosure List Price: $1.75 million Sale Price: $1.6 million The Property: This 18-room Burr Ridge mansion was the home of Christopher Kelly, the former Rod Blagojevich fundraiser who committed suicide in September 2009 just before going on trial with the former governor... Posted at 10:16 AM in Sale of the Week \| Permalink \| Comments (1)
	02/24/11 This Lincoln Park Home Was Brought to You by the Letter “L” List Price: $4.7 million The Property: The 1880s charm of this Lincoln Park home is intact in its detailed brick façade and its tall Italianate windows, but a big rear addition opens the home up from the usual beeline-straight city-house floor plan to an L-shape that invites both family living and entertaining... Posted at 9:31 AM in On the Market \| Permalink \| Comments (1)
	02/23/11 Lawsuit Claims Developer Hasn’t Honored Buy-Back Contract In 2008, hoping to reassure potential condo buyers that any further slide in the market wouldn’t hurt them, the Kopley Group development company offered a full-price buy-back guarantee on two of its North Side developments. The company’s chief, Nick Kopley, told me then that this was an “absolute, no questions asked” offer; the company made similar comments to the Chicago Tribune and Yo Chicago... Posted at 12:42 PM in Housing Bulletin \| Permalink \| Comments (2)
	02/21/11 Foreclosed, Finished, and Flipped in Wicker Park List Price: $1.699 million Sale Price: $1.475 million The Property: The rectilinear components of this Wicker Park façade look pieced together as in a jigsaw puzzle—an apt analogy for the home’s piecemeal financial history... Posted at 9:18 AM in Sale of the Week \| Permalink \| Comments (2)
	02/17/11 Former Tribune Chairman FitzSimons Sells His North Shore Home The former Tribune Co. chairman Dennis FitzSimons, on Monday closed on the sale of his house on exclusive Woodley Road outside Winnetka. The 13-room home on a little more than an acre sold for $2.478 million, about 78 percent of the $3.15 million that FitzSimons and his wife, Ann, paid for the home in November 2003... Posted at 11:13 AM in Housing Bulletin \| Permalink \| Comments (0)
	02/17/11 An Armour Mansion in Lake Forest List Price: $5 million The Property: This classically styled 12-room mansion on a bluff in Lake Forest that overlooks Lake Michigan has its fine points, and I’ll get to them. But first, a nod to its former resident, the formidable Sarah Wood Armour, who was a key supporter of the Lyric Opera of Chicago for over five decades and the daughter of Robert Wood, who helped build both the Panama Canal and Sears, Roebuck & Co. Mrs. Armour bought the house in 1980 with her husband, the philanthropist and businessman Andrew W. Armour III of the meatpacking family... Posted at 9:53 AM in On the Market \| Permalink \| Comments (1)
	02/16/11 Lincoln Park’s Two Battlefields In recent months, two groups of Lincoln Park residents have been fighting proposals that they believe will have a negative impact on their neighborhood—and the two battlegrounds are just three blocks apart on Webster Avenue. “There’s a lot going on over there on Webster these days,” says Alderman Vi Daley (43rd)... Posted at 11:58 AM in Housing Bulletin \| Permalink \| Comments (6)
	02/14/11 Former Microsoft Exec Buys Penthouse Surrendered by the Developer Dan McLean List Price: $3.499 million Sale Price: $2.850 million The Property: A 5,200-square-foot riverside penthouse that a court ordered sold by its developer and owner, Dan McLean, to help settle debts from an Atlanta real-estate investment was bought in late January by David Vaskevitch... Posted at 9:36 AM in Sale of the Week \| Permalink \| Comments (2)
	02/10/11 Doctor Chooses True Love Over Kenwood Greystone That Marries Old and New List Price: $2.45 million The Property: When Dr. Srinivas Reddy bought this 1893 greystone on Drexel Boulevard in 2002, it was empty and recently foreclosed. Its exterior urgently needed maintenance, and its three-story interior had been chopped up into six apartments that might charitably be described as shabby... Posted at 10:13 AM in On the Market \| Permalink \| Comments (0)
	02/09/11 Che “Rhymefest” Smith’s Green Hopes for the 20th Ward In the last few hours before the blizzard hit last Tuesday, Che “Rhymefest” Smith, the Grammy-winning rapper who is now running for alderman in Chicago’s 20th Ward, drove me around his neighborhood. The ward has over 30,000 vacant lots (most of them city-owned) and hundreds or perhaps thousands of foreclosed homes (there is no accurate count available), many of them boarded up... Posted at 12:27 PM in Housing Bulletin \| Permalink \| Comments (0)
	02/07/11 Naperville House with 19th-Century Look Tells 21st-Century Story List Price: $899,000 Sale Price: $825,000 The Property: From its rooftop widow’s walk to its lacy front-porch railings, this Italianate Victorian home in Naperville may look like a holdover from the 19th century—but its story is very much of the 21st century... Posted at 9:25 AM in Sale of the Week \| Permalink \| Comments (0)
	02/03/11 Beyond the Secret Garden, in Lincoln Park List Price: $4.99 million The Property: The formal, Parisian-styled façade of this home masks its past life as a warehouse, just as the stone wall that extends from it conceals a lovely garden through which a path winds to the house’s broad glass front doors... Posted at 12:31 PM in On the Market \| Permalink \| Comments (2)
	02/02/11 Jim Cornelison, Anthem Singer Extraordinaire, Doubles As a Real-Estate Agent With the Chicago Blackhawks on a six-game road trip, Jim Cornelison, the team’s popular national anthem singer, can grab a little time to focus on his day job: selling real estate... Posted at 9:36 AM in Housing Bulletin \| Permalink \| Comments (0)

February 2011

02/28/11

Burr Ridge Mansion of Chris Kelly Sold at Foreclosure

02/24/11

This Lincoln Park Home Was Brought to You by the Letter “L”

02/23/11

Lawsuit Claims Developer Hasn’t Honored Buy-Back Contract

02/21/11

Foreclosed, Finished, and Flipped in Wicker Park

02/17/11

Former Tribune Chairman FitzSimons Sells His North Shore Home

02/17/11

An Armour Mansion in Lake Forest

02/16/11

Lincoln Park’s Two Battlefields

02/14/11

Former Microsoft Exec Buys Penthouse Surrendered by the Developer Dan McLean

02/10/11

Doctor Chooses True Love Over Kenwood Greystone That Marries Old and New

02/09/11

Che “Rhymefest” Smith’s Green Hopes for the 20th Ward

02/07/11

Naperville House with 19th-Century Look Tells 21st-Century Story

02/03/11

Beyond the Secret Garden, in Lincoln Park

02/02/11

Jim Cornelison, Anthem Singer Extraordinaire, Doubles As a Real-Estate Agent

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