“It’s sad”: Sprawling Winnetka mansion unloaded for big loss

In this market, you get what you can take.

A 12,000-square-foot mansion in Winnetka sold for $3.2 million, half what the owner had paid for it during the Great Recession, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Robert F. Steel acquired the six-bedroom manor-style home at 919 Hill Road back in 2009 for $6 million, according to the report. The seller at that time was developer J. Paul Beitler, who renovated the 1929-built home. It has seven bathrooms and two half-baths, six fireplaces, separate guest quarters and an attached four-car garage spread across more than an acre.

Coldwell Banker Realty’s Sharon Friedman and Dinny Dwyer had the listing and Friedman also brought the buyer, who was not named.

The current crisis hasn’t bottomed-out the Chicago-area’s scuffling luxury market, which has dipped slightly in recent weeks as the statewide stay-at-home order upended the economy.

The luxury market in Winnetka has long been a strong one, although activity has declined in the last year. In August, the daughter of Walton Street Capital managing director Neil Bluhm, Meredith Bluhm-Wolf — and her husband William Wolf — sold their Winnetka mansion. The $4.1 million sale price, after three months on the market, included a 12 percent discount from its original asking.

The most recent sale price came after Steel had listed the home for $5.5 million two years ago, then dropped the asking three times, ending at $4.25 million at the start of the year.

“It’s a sign of the times,” co-listing agent Sharon Friedman of Coldwell Banker told the Tribune. “It’s sad.” [Tribune] — Alexi Friedman