Redbox founder Gregg Kaplan sells Wilmette mansion over ask

Gregg Kaplan, founder of DVD rental service Redbox, has sold his Wilmette home — which of course includes a large space ideal for use as a media room.

A $4.2 million sale for the 10,500-square-foot home at 711 Lake Avenue closed on Feb. 7, shortly after it was listed for sale on Jan. 11, and for more than its asking price. High-end homes have rarely sold over their listing prices in the Chicago area as of late.

Amenities of the seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom property include a library and a half-acre yard. The home was designed by Fred Wilson of Evanston-based Morgante Wilson design.

Kaplan is the former CEO of Redbox and the former President and COO of Coinstar. In 2015, he became an operating partner with J.B. and Tony Pritzker’s investment firm Pritzker Group Private Capital, a position he held for five years.

Kaplan is now CEO of Chicago-based dentistry practice Dentologie, and has owned the property since he purchased it for $1.6 million in 2015, according to Cook County property records. The home was built after that by Kaplan and his wife Lindsay Avner Kaplan, who are moving to Colorado, according to a published report.

Mary Baubonis with @properties Christie’s International Real Estate represented the Kaplans as the sellers while Paige Dooley with Compass represented the buyers, who are not yet identified in public records. Neither agent responded to a request for comment.

The home appears to be one of few within the suburban North Shore’s luxury market to have sold for over its asking price since the new year. Other recent sales on the North Shore have required price cuts to make deals. A home at 473 Sheridan Road sold for $5.2 million in January, a jump from its last sale in August for $4.1 million. But it still took several price cuts before the home was listed at $5.5 million and it closed $300,000 less than that.

A blufftop home on 1134 Taylorsport Lane took a series of cuts before it sold at $6.3 million. The 7,400-square-foot home was first listed by sellers Jennifer and Craig Niemann for $7.5 million in June 2021, before multiple discounts brought the ask down to $6.75 million earlier this summer. 

It closed for about $470,000 less than that. The 16 percent drop between the original listing and closing prices aligns with the gaps settled on by other sellers in the affluent North Shore suburb this year.