Lake Forest mansion with beach house, funicular hits market for $12M

Estate built by the late businessman and musician Tom Fuller, who ​​”missed nothing building this. He wanted perfection”

Lake Michigan Estate With Beach House Listed for $12M
A photo illustration of Tom Fuller along with an aerial view of the Rockland mansion in Lake Forest (Getty, Facebook/Tom Fuller, Google Maps)

One of Lake Forest’s most expensive mansions has hit the market for nearly $12 million.

The luxurious estate with a rare beach house on the shores of Lake Michigan is listed at $11.9 million, or $1,043 per square foot, making it the second-highest asking price in the affluent North Shore suburb, Crain’s reported

The 11,400-square-foot mansion, named Rockland, was built in 2020 by Tom Fuller, a former metal and plastic parts company owner and rock ‘n’ roll musician who died in March. Fuller’s home is being marketed by Houda Chedid of Coldwell Banker Realty.

The home, situated on 2.1 acres along Bluffs Edge Drive, boasts a variety of high-end amenities, including eight bedrooms, four fireplaces, a meditation room and an elevator. 

One of the most distinctive features of the property is a private funicular, a small hillside railway that transports residents down the bluff to the sandy beach. There, a fully equipped beach house offers two bathrooms, a kitchen and a living room, as well as storage for boats.

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According to Chedid, Fuller, who had a deep love for the water, left nothing to chance when designing the home. “He aimed for perfection,” she said.

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700 Crab Tree Lane; @properties' Andra O'Neill (@properties, Getty, VHT Studios)
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Fuller, who grew up in Hinsdale, moved to Lake Forest after selling his previous home in Lake Geneva for $5 million. He purchased the Bluffs Edge site for $2.75 million in 2014, which was one of the few vacant lakefront properties available at the time, according to the Lake County Recorder.  

The mansion was designed by McCormack & Etten Architects in a style reminiscent of New England’s coastal homes.

The Rockland listing joins a handful of other high-end properties in the area, including a nearly $13 million listing by a former Motorola executive, a $4.55 million listing by Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell and a $23 million estate in neighboring Lake Bluff. 

— Andrew Terrell

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