Philanthropist Ann Lurie sells Gold Coast condo at big discount

Philanthropist Ann Lurie sold a Gold Coast condo for less than half of what she paid for it 12 years ago.

Lurie, widow of the late real estate executive Robert Lurie, bought the two-level unit in The Mayfair Condos at 189 East Lake Shore Drive for $4.5 million in 2013, according to Crain’s.

She listed the three-bedroom condo at nearly $6 million in 2013. She then brought it on and off the market, cut the asking price multiple times and changed listing agents before taking it off the market at nearly $2.7 million last year, according to Crain’s. Cook County records show it sold recently for $2 million.

Katherine Malkin of Compass had the listing at the time of the sale. The buyers were not yet identified in public records.

A Lurie spokeswoman told Crain’s in 2016 she renovated the 5,000-square-foot condo after buying it but never moved in after deciding to live somewhere else.

Robert Lurie was a partner of Sam Zell, helping him build Equity Group Investments and its offshoots. He died in 1990 from colon cancer at age 48.

Ann Lurie is now the president of the charitable foundation that bears the couple’s names, as well as Lurie Holdings Incorporated. The foundation has donated to a number of charitable causes in Chicago and beyond, perhaps most notably the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.

Their daughter Sara Lurie is one of the high-profile buyers in the No. 9 Walton luxury condo tower, paying more than $5.7 million for a four-bedroom unit. [Crain’s] — John O’Brien