A Kenilworth mansion on Lake Michigan’s shore sold for $6.8 million on Thursday after sitting on the market for four years and taking a more than 50 percent price cut from its listing.
The 11,000 square-foot estate at 501 Sheridan Road sits on two lots on the Kenilworth lakefront, covering 1.6 acres. It has five bedrooms and nine bathrooms, including a one-bedroom guest suite. The second lot featured a sculpture garden under the previous owners. The sale came out to $618 per square foot.
The home, which was built in the 1960s and expanded in 2006, was first listed on a private market in 2021, asking $14 million. It hit the public market in 2022 for $14 million, but underwent several price chops before its last listing price at $7.7 million.
The ultimate $6.8 million price tag makes it among the most expensive Kenilworth properties sold in recent years, despite the steep drops. One mansion fetched a record $11.75 million in 2020, and another home sold for $9.5 million in 2021, both on Sheridan Road.
The buyers plan to tear down the estate and build a new house on the land, Jameson Sotheby’s agent Nancy Nugent, who represented the sellers on the deal, said. Nugent did not name the buyers, and their identity is not available in public records.
Milena Birov of @properties, who represented the buyers, did not return a request for comment.
The home was last owned by the late Yadelle and Robert Sklare, and their family managed the sale through their estate, Nugent said. Robert Sklare died in 2008, and Yadelle Sklare died in 2021.
Nugent said the time on the market and big price cuts were in part because the sellers were not in a rush to sell the house. Some offers on the house came when they were not ready to sell, and the family spent time appraising art and organizing an estate sale before selling, she said.
“We were ambitious about pricing, but soon realized that we kept clipping the number, and I think my clients, when they were finally ready to let go of the property is when we sold it,” Nugent said.
Most potential buyers were interested in tearing down the house, and the surge in materials and construction costs in 2021 and 2022 factored into what buyers were willing to pay, Nugent said.
Because of the sellers’ situation and the property being a teardown, Nugent said she doesn’t think the drastic price cut is a signal for other high-priced homes in Kenilworth. Space on the lake is sparse, and turnkey homes move quickly on the North Shore.
Just a few blocks south on Sheridan Road, a $15 million, 8,280 square-foot mansion reached a pending deal just two weeks after listing. Two more homes in Kenilworth — one at $6.9 million and one at $6.5 million — got contingent offers about a month after listing.
“If the house is turnkey, it commands whatever the buyer is willing to pay,” Nugent said. “Because Kenilworth in particular is a very small community, and this was one of the last bastions of teardown properties in Kenilworth.”