Record Naperville listing cuts 15% off asking price

A Naperville mansion is back on the market — and even with millions shaved off its asking price, it’s still seeking a record for the western suburbs of DuPage County.

The 15,400-square-foot home at 222 West Van Buren Avenue, owned by Jane Brooks and her late husband Don Brooks, sought nearly $15 million when it was listed in 2021. It was then later removed and now back on the market for $12.75 million. 

The home was built in 2019 and was listed for more than double the record sale price in the county. 

The five-bedroom, nine-bathroom home is on just over an acre of land on Van Buren Avenue, on the western edge of downtown. The seller, Jane Brooks, said in 2021 that she and her late husband, Don Brooks, intended to host events and fundraisers as well as live there. Don Brooks was the owner of the McCrone Group, an analytical laboratory company based in Westmont.

Katie Minott and Kim Marino of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate are the new listing agents. The home’s previous listing agent was Lauren Walz of Coldwell Banker. 

The home is being marketed both to commercial and residential buyers, given its size and prominent location, as well as adjacent developable lots, Minott said. Both Minott and Marino live nearby and said the price speaks to both how much Naperville has developed over the past 20 years, and the quality of the home. 

“It’s a very, very iconic piece of land that’s very visible,” Minott said in regards to the listing price. “So when you parcel the land together, and then build that home, that first price is a true price when you just look at it from a cost analysis perspective. The home is this stone home with a slate roof, it will be here for hundreds of years. It’s something that you would find in old world Europe, but built with modern technology.”

It was designed by Chicago-based Cook Architectural Design Studio, with interiors by Tracy Hickman. It features stone and stucco facade with steep pitched roofs, fireplaces, a gym and a studio. It also has a swimming pool, outdoor kitchen and fire pit.

Even at its reduced price, the ask is considerably higher than the second priciest sale in the county, a property that sold for $7.7 in Hinsdale in 2020. The record for a home in DuPage County was set in 2003 with a $7.95 million sale in Oak Brook. The Brooks listing is the tenth-priciest in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Minott isn’t worried about pricing, though, and said that the home is an outlier in what’s currently available in that area.

“It’s a legacy estate. The people after you can come in and make decisions about it for a long time,” she said. “So yes, DuPage really hasn’t seen these numbers but it hasn’t seen this kind of property either.”

Naperville has six homes listed for sale over $4 million, the second-priciest being a 20,000-square-foot estate listed for $10.5 million.

This story has been corrected to note the record sale for DuPage County set in 2003 occurred in Oak Brook.