Core Spaces CEO Marc Lifshin Flips Winnetka Estate for $5.2M

Marc Lifshin returned to investing in North Shore luxury housing only to make a rapid — and apparently fruitful — exit.

A limited liability company tied to Lifshin, the founder and CEO of the Chicago-based development firm Core Spaces, sold a lakefront Winnetka estate at 473 Sheridan Road for $5.2 million in a deal that closed this week. The sale came four months after he bought the property for $4.2 million, according to public records and listing data collated by Zillow.

The 25 percent leap in value came at a quickened pace–the Lifshin-managed business closed its deal to acquire the 4,300-square-foot, five-bedroom, five-bathroom property in August after it was listed as having a deal pending for more than a year.

Jena Radnay of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate was the listing agent on this month’s sale. The home was marketed as having a newly revamped lower level that could be used as a recreational or exercise space. The project may account for some of the extra value Lifshin derived from the property since his purchase, though it’s unclear if the work was completed before or after his ownership commenced.

While Lifshin’s LLC juiced the property’s value by more than $1 million in a few months with the flip, it still came 12 percent below his $6 million asking price when the property was listed for sale in September, just more than a month after Lifshin bought it. He slashed the price to $5.5 million in late October and the home entered a pending contract about a month later.

Lifshin formed his development firm, Core Spaces, in 2010. The company got its start as a builder of high-end student housing in big college towns such as Tempe, Arizona and Madison, Wisconsin and has 22,000 units today, its website says. Its launch followed the beginning of Lifshin’s real estate career with the business LG Development, which he established with a college friend to invest in luxury single-family housing projects on the North Shore amid the housing boom of the mid-2000s, according to published reports.

The buyer’s identity of the Winnetka home Lifshin just sold isn’t clear from public records, and neither Radnay nor the Core Spaces CEO returned requests for comment. The buyer’s agent was listed as Catherine Carravette of the boutique Chicago commercial real estate brokerage Conlon Commercial.

In Chicago’s western suburbs, a Hinsdale homeowner is among sellers seeking a fast flip at an even higher exit price that would set a record high for the village. Owners of the nearly 11,000-square-foot former home of the late Molex Inc. co-CEO Frederick Krehbiel listed the home for $9.6 million in November, after buying the estate from a trust tied to Krehbiel for $7.5 million in May.