Ex-AbbVie CFO Bill Chase Sells Wilmette Home for $6 Million

Former AbbVie CFO Bill Chase sold his Wilmette house for $6 million this week, drawing a sale well over the asking price.

The 7,000 square-foot house at 819 Chestnut Avenue, with five bedrooms and five-and-a-half bathrooms, is one of the priciest homes to sell in Wilmette in recent years. It sold Oct. 28 for $857 per square foot and nearly $700,000 over its asking price, indicating there was significant competition for the property.

Chase and his wife, Jenifer Chase, bought the house in 2013 for $1.7 million.

Joanne Hudson with Compass, who represented the sellers, and Ali Murphy of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate, who represented the buyer, did not respond to requests for comment.

Chase was an executive at AbbVie, the North Chicago-based pharmaceutical company, from 2011 to 2019, and he held finance roles at Abbott Laboratories, the company AbbVie spun off from, starting in 1989, according to LinkedIn.

He serves on the board of directors for three health technology companies: Cancer research company GRAIL, genome editing company Intellia Therapeutics, and pharmaceutical research company Parexel.

The home was built in the 1920s and underwent renovations in 2015 significant enough that it was considered new construction by the City of Wilmette, according to the listing. The outdoor area includes a pool and expansive patios. Located just off Sheridan Road, the property is a short walk from Lake Michigan.

The house sold fast, hitting the market Sept. 1 and going under contract less than a week later. Property records that could indicate the buyer are not yet available.

The $6 million price tag makes it the second-most expensive home sale in Wilmette in the last year, according to listing services. Another Chestnut Avenue mansion a few blocks away sold for just over $6 million in August.

Wilmette’s most-expensive home sales include a house on Linden Avenue that sold for $9 million in 2008, then again for $7.5 million in 2017. Chicago Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts spent $6.5 million on a house on Sheridan Road in 2010 in Wilmette that spurred a legal battle.

Demand has been strong for North Shore luxury properties this year. Sales in towns like Winnetka, Lake Forest and Kenilworth have brought in record prices and driven the Chicagoland luxury market.

This week, a Kenilworth home sold for $14.5 million, the second-highest price for a home resale in Chicagoland history. The record was set just weeks ago, when a mansion in Winnetka sold for $31.5 million.