Winnetka Tudor Revival Mansion Hits Auction Block

A Winnetka mansion with castle-like character is being put up for auction by the mortgage lender that seized control of it last year.

The estate, designed in the Tudor Revival style, contains more than 12,300 square feet on a roughly one-acre lot, and was the longtime home of the family that owns the Reza’s restaurants with four locations between downtown and the suburbs, Crain’s reported.

Diliberto Real Estate is handling the auction, beginning with a sealed-bid, where prospective buyers can submit their offers by June 15. The seller can then accept one of those offers or go to a live auction that would take place in the mansion’s great hall. The minimum bid is $2.5 million, or about 50 percent of the home’s $5 million valuation, according to Diliberto.

In 2004, a legal entity associated with the family of restaurateur Reza Toulabi paid $3.2 million for the property at 140 Sheridan Road. In April 2022, the ownership title was transferred to an entity called NSquared Lender — the receiver of the estate selected by First Midwest Bank, which had initiated a foreclosure on the property in 2019. The mortgage amount from First Midwest is unclear, the outlet reported.

The Toulabi family had the house on the open market for a five-month stretch in 2021 and 2022, carrying a price tag just shy of $3.5 million. Records show that the family turned the property over to NSquared after unsuccessfully selling the house. The Toulabis spent about $2 million on updates and renovations shortly after purchasing the estate, according to Joe Diliberto, head of projects at Diliberto Real Estate.

The property holds an additional 10,000-square-foot parcel that has room for a new 3,000-square-foot dwelling. The extra parcel could be auctioned off separately, but Diliberto prefers a bid for the entire property.

The mansion was built in 1928 and designed by Mayo & Mayo, an architectural duo that was active designing affluent North Shore estates throughout the 20th century. It boasts five bedrooms, seven bathrooms and rooftop battlements like those on a castle. Past the front-entrance gate, there’s a large stone terrace overlooking a pond with an ornate fountain and sculpted lions on each side.

— Quinn Donoghue