A true spec mansion on the North Shore is rare, but one just hit the market in Glencoe for $8.3 million.
Los Angeles and Miami are known for ultraluxury homes constructed for no specific buyer and marketed to wealthy people, but things are different in Chicago’s affluent suburbs.
Developers compete for scarce land, and demand for new construction is so high that builders often end up accepting bids from buyers early on, shifting projects to custom builds.
The listing at 219 Lincoln Drive in Glencoe bucked that trend.
Amazing Homes Developers purchased the property in the fall of 2020 for $1.3 million and took out a $3.15 million construction loan in 2023, according to property records. The company partnered with Lux Builders, a local custom home builder, to complete the project, said listing agent Connie Dornan of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate.
The developers wanted to sell the home when it was finished, as they had a particular vision for its details, from tile finishes to an indoor sports court, Dornan said. New Jersey-based Ariella Horowitz Design Group did the interior design on the home.
The estate has six bedrooms, eight bathrooms and spans more than 12,700 square feet. Its list price comes to about $652 per square foot.
Deciding on a price point was a “constant conversation” with the developers, Dornan said. They looked at comparable listings across other sought-after North Shore suburbs like Winnetka, Kenilworth, Highland Park, Lake Forest, and even some comparable luxury homes in downtown Chicago, she said.
“There’s just no comparison. Even along the lakefront, where you’ve had homes that have sold for millions of dollars there; they’re quite old. They need massive, multi-million dollar renovations in order to bring it to today’s standards,” she said. “There is not a single spec home that has been built and sold like ours, not one in the North Shore.”
Custom builds are a safer bet in an environment where teardowns are common.
“Finding land is a huge, huge problem,” Dornan said. The North Shore’s low inventory levels predated the pandemic, ramping up in about 2016, she said.
Picky high-end buyers are willing to spend millions on a teardown or extensive renovations to build their dream house.
This has led to price cuts on some resale listings as buyers interested only in the land value submit below-list offers that are still well above what they might have paid for undeveloped land, brokers told The Real Deal last year.
Dornan has worked with these luxury builders on about 40 other properties over the years, she said. Typically, she would start “hustling it to other brokers” right away, which she called the “super exclusive list” or “broker-to-broker networking.” When construction reaches the stage where they are framing the structure, she puts it into the local private listing network, and it often sells soon after this point, she said.
Spec builds on the North Shore have seen price cuts in the past, but Dornan said there is a strong market.
“If you put a high-quality spec home on the market in an excellent desirable location, it will sell for top dollar,” she said.
Heritage Luxury Builders has also tried its hand at spec builds in North Shore suburbs, including the home at 585 Longwood Avenue in Glencoe. The builder bought the site in 2021 and sold the completed lakefront mansion for $7.1 million, or $710 per square foot, a couple of months ago to Tim Doelman, the CEO and co-founder of ultra-filtered milk brand Fairlife.
That property, which Dornan said is the best comp for her spec listing on Lincoln Drive, originally listed for $9.48 million and sold at roughly 73 percent of that price.
The Longwood Avenue home sold for a higher price per square foot than the asking price for Lincoln Drive, but it’s on the lakefront, whereas the Lincoln Drive property is on a cul-de-sac walking distance from Glencoe Beach.