What’s Going On With This Gold Coast Mansion? 1538 N. Dearborn Parkway
Thanks to the tipster who directed me to this 6-bedroom vintage mansion at 1538 N. Dearborn Parkway in the Gold Coast.
On the market since August 2008, it has been reduced $990,000 in that time.
According to the listing, the 6000 square foot house had a “historically correct” complete renovation.
Built on a 25×125 lot, it has a 2-car garage and 6 fireplaces.
The master bedroom is on the third floor, 3 bedrooms are on the second floor and 2 are in the lower level.
There are no interior pictures of the house with the listing.
The tipster pointed out that the front window was broken.
See for yourself.
What’s the story with this mansion?
Mary Bennett at Koenig & Strey Real Living has the listing. See the listing here.
1538 N. Dearborn Parkway: 6 bedrooms, 5.5 baths, 6000 square feet, 2 car garage
- Sold in August 1989
- Sold in April 2006 for $2.7 million
- Originally listed in August 2008 for $5.98 million
- Reduced in October 2009 to $4.99 million
- Lis pendens foreclosure filed in November 2009
- Currently still listed for $4.99 million
- Taxes of $35,314
- Central Air
- Bedroom #1: 23×23 (third floor)
- Bedroom #2: 13×13 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 15×11 (second floor)
- Bedroom #4: 12×11 (second floor)
- Bedroom #5: 13×10 (lower level)
- Bedroom #6: 14×11 (lower level)
- Family room: 19×16 (main level)
6 fireplaces! Insane.
Beautiful place. Cheek-to-jowl with the neighbors, but I guess you’d want that with the other gold coast elite.
Five tickets will get you a much nicer place than this in the same neighborhood.
Yikes.
wait i was told on here(cribchatter) “the rich” dont get foreclosed on and that i should shut the F up because i dont live that lifestyle so i should have an opinion
Nice location and cool home but I’m not in the $5M price bracket so it is impossible to tell if this is a deal or bust.
This is just strange… how would they have the front window broken on something in this $ range. even if your commission was just .5% i would thing the agent would spend his own money to fix it if the buyer was non-responsive
“even if your commission was just .5% i would thing the agent would spend his own money to fix it if the buyer was non-responsive”
That’s a big piece of glass. No idea how long it’s been broken, but that’s not something you can (generally) get replaced same day, like most glass.
@Groove – this looks like a high end flip. Bought in ’06 for $2.7M and trying to sell now at $5M? Some developer type probably bought it in a rundown state and was looking to fix it up when, oopsie, the market crashed.
I am confused by the “no pics”. If its a developers flip, there should be tons of pics.
I cannot see the listing photos. Where do you all see them? I would have thought a multi million dollar listing would include some kick ass photos…alas
“I am confused by the “no pics”. If its a developers flip, there should be tons of pics”
They were all set to unleash a bunch of photos after their furniture arrived from Pottery Barn but then they spotted Groove and his son with new tweezers and shoes coming up the street. 😀
That piece of glass should be easy to replace. It’s big, but it’s a normal shape. 2-3 days max. I’m sure it was probably replaced a long time ago, they just haven’t updated the photos to show.
There’s a lot of really high end houses that don’t post photos. You would have to contact the agent to get them. Some people don’t want the plebeians seeing how the rich folk live.
The window was broke in early February, or at least thats when I noticed it. I walk past this house almost everday because I live cheek to jowl with the neighbors. Its a great street, 2 min walk to Rush and Division, 2 min walk to the Lake and 5 min walk to Old Town.
not sure if someone has posted this link in another thread – but redfin posted a link in their twitter today with this article re: state by state shadow inventory levels. IL, as previously speculated, is about 3rd in line with their amount of shadow inventory behind CA & FL. I can’t imagine all this inventory would be released at same time, but dumping just half of these in the market at once – say 50,000, of them would have a very interesting effect on the market, especially if majority of these are concentrated in Chicagoland area (which I’m assuming).
http://economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org/2011/03/21/state-by-state-estimate-of-shadow-inventory/
“I’m sure it was probably replaced a long time ago, they just haven’t updated the photos to show.”
That’s Sabrina’s personal photo.
“That’s Sabrina’s personal photo.”
Well… then I guess the owner and the agent suck then.
@ Whitecity – Thanks for that article… Very interesting
Wow. You go through all that work to get a property-specific web address, yet you can’t be bothered to write more than a 35 word description or attach any photos. But, the family room is “priceless”, so there you go. If I were the owner I’d having a serious conversation with the agent about her marketing plan.
Something is wrong with this picture/listing:
Owner is too private and particular to allow photos to be listed YET they can leave a broken window for months!!!! On a 5M house…
Something doesnt add up here.
Makes me think the inside might not be complete yet.
Listings can be poor for many reasons. This agent might be a friend or relative who agreed to list the property with very minimal marketing assuming the seller is OK sitting on it. Sometimes it is a tug of war between the agent and seller with how much the seller will list for and how much work the agent will do for the seller. In this case my guess is that the agent ran the comps and decided it is not worth putting a great deal of marketing effort into it.
Comps like this would indicate that might be the case…corner lot, 3car garage, coach house…
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1500-N-Dearborn-Pkwy-60610/home/14114943
I like how the Yelp tab includes restaurants as far as 11 miles away.
Why the hell would you buy this place for 4.9 million, when you can have this for 250k cheaper?:
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Oak-Brook/3015-Lincoln-Rd-60523/home/18681360
(and yes, I am kidding)….
Clio – you are right about that place in Oak Brook. Much more interesting for the money and as a bonus I could cancel my season pass to Medieval Times!
That place is going to sit and sit and sit. Perhaps a jouster will put in a bid. Is it in a horse zoned neighborhood?
Comps like this would indicate that might be the case…corner lot, 3car garage, coach house…
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1500-N-Dearborn-Pkwy-60610/home/14114943
Jeez I hope the kitchen pictured on this listing is the coach house apartment’s kitchen! Whoever lives here eats out A LOT.
I’m guessing the owner didn’t want their home splashed across the internetz. At this price you probably don’t get too many serious buyers anyway.
Did you see the taxes on that Oak Brook place?!
if anyone watches Bulls games on TV, they have the kingwanted.com banner running every now and then, big giant yellow banner.., and I laugh every time I see it
“That place is going to sit and sit and sit. Perhaps a jouster will put in a bid. Is it in a horse zoned neighborhood?”
Yes – but there isn’t even enough room on this ridiculous flag lot to put in a dog run!!! I live a few houses down and most of my neighbors live on between 3-8 acres and we can have 1-2 horses. This particular house is about an acre – no horses allowed!!
PS Jennifer, although there are no municipal real estate taxes in the suburb of Oak Brook – (one of the lowest, if not the lowest tax rate in the state/country). At 2.9% of assessed value (33% of true value), if this sells at asking, taxes will be about 48k – REMEMBER that the taxes of the subject property on this thread were 35k – but this was based on a 2.7 million purchase price – the new taxes are likely to be closer to 70k for the subject property.
My husband and I were trying to get in to see this last spring, but the agent insinuated that the owners, “couldn’t get it together.” They knew we were serious buyers, but oh well. I walk by this almost everyday too, and based on the street view, I’m happy we didn’t go forward, as there are many comps in the neighborhood at a fraction of this asking price.
“That’s a big piece of glass. No idea how long it’s been broken, but that’s not something you can (generally) get replaced same day, like most glass.”
Its listed for $5MM. Absolutely inexcusable that glass should be broken for any longer than two weeks. And that is allowing for generous time to get it measured, fitted & installed.
this is special “the rich” glass needs a 10 week lead time to import it and another 5 weeks for a glass maker in the mountains of Boliva to create his work of art as he is the only bolivian that works square pieces this size with his feet.
Clio,
I don’t know if you saw it, but Ch 9 did a piece on this property. The builder (Polish guy) took the reporter on a tour. He said the walls were “bullet proof.” He wanted to put a moat in, but could not get it done. I was laughing out loud!
Laker,
That is hilarious. The house is so ridiculous in so many ways but this area seems to attract that type of personality. I was hoping that East Oak Brook would retain a little class – but they keep moving in. I am soon going to propose that the name of the village be changed to “Joke Brook”. Riz, I am seriously considering moving to Lake Forest!!!
Clio,
Here is the link on WGN’s website.
http://www.wgntv.com/news/eveningnews/wgntv-inside-a-castle-built-for-a-kingof-oak-brook-20110304,0,342211.story
How far is the King-Wanted house from the Villa Taj house/reservoir?
That castle is hilariously awesome though, all that masonry work… man imagine the parties you could throw there and not have to worry about noise
That castle place is in Oak Brook is sad & pathetic. For that kind of money someone could live in a first-world country like Germany, in the wine country along the Rhine river and be in the real deal.
“That place is going to sit and sit and sit. Perhaps a jouster will put in a bid. Is it in a horse zoned neighborhood?”
Regarding 1500 N. Dearborn & Jennifer’s comment/question about the Kitchen (for main house or coach house?) . . .
The listing’s room dimensions/information shows: Kitchen size: 17×8 galley, main level.
Why would someone do a galley kitchen in a house like this????
Sold (ostensibly “before print”) for 3.55M.