Chicagolands most expensive home to go on auction
After two years of trying to find a buyer the old-fashioned way, a French-inspired chateau that ranks as the most expensive home listing in the Chicago area is going to auction next month.
Known as Le Grand Reve the 26-room, 26,500-square-foot Winnetka home, owned by investment company CEO Sherwin Jarol and his wife, Deborah, was unofficially put up for sale in 2009 for $32 million. The two-story limestone mansion was designed by Los Angeles architect Richard Landry. In early 2010, it was officially listed and placed in the local multiple listing service, with a $28 million asking price. It eventually was pulled from the market
.The six-bedroom, chateau-style mansion sits on 2.04 acres. Nothing else is currently on the market in the Chicago area comes close to the listing price for Le Grand Reve. Only 4 other Chicago area properties are reportedly on the market for more than $10 million.
On Wednesday, it was relisted for $32 million and on Thursday, Concierge Auctions announced that the house, called Le Grand Reve and completed in 2008, will go to auction, fully furnished, Oct 29. The auction is being conducted without reserve, meaning the home will sell to the highest bidder.
Tim Salm of Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty, the home’s listing agent, estimated that the cost of constructing and furnishing what he called the „trophy home of the North Shore“ at $40 million.
He attributed an inability to sell the property conventionally to the sour economy and said international marketing of the auction will net a larger pool of prospective buyers.
„We’re trying to maximize the buyer pool with a certainty of sale,“ he said. „No one has an urgency in today’s market.“
Alla Kimbarovsky, a real estate agent at Prudential Rubloff Properties in Winnetka, thinks the property will sell for a fraction of its listing price. „It’s out of the price range for this area, it’s overbuilt, overdone and overpriced,“ she said. „In Winnetka, Kenilworth, nobody lives like that.“
Designed by Landry Design Group, the home was modeled after Chateau Villandry in France’s Loire Valley and includes six bedrooms, six full and four half bathrooms, a two-story rotunda and a Tiffany stained glass dome. There is also a gift-wrapping room, staff quarters, a double-story heated garage with space for 10 cars and a heated driveway.
Only registered bidders and their agents will be allowed to attend the auction. To qualify as a bidder, a potential purchaser needs to deposit $250,000 in an escrow account beforehand, said Laura Brady, Concierge Auctions’ marketing vice president.
In 2009, the home’s property taxes topped $124,000.
(C) 2011, chicagotribune.com
Winnetka is an affluent village located approximately 14 miles north of downtown Chicago. In 2007, the town was ranked by CNN Money as having the 4th highest median household income in the country, and in 2009 it was named 4th on the list of America’s 25 top-earning towns and „one of the best places to live“ by CNN Money. Picturesquely situated on the shore of Lake Michigan, the village is made up of tranquil tree-shaded streets and family-oriented neighborhoods as well as three quaint in-town business districts that are home to a variety of shops and businesses. Recreational facilities abound in Winnetka. Four public beaches and a boat launch, numerous parks, athletic fields, an indoor tennis club, ice rink, public golf course and forest preserve areas offer year-round activities for its residents.
