Sprout Social Co-Founder Sells Geneva Lake-Area Mansion

A tech co-founder is revealed as the seller of one of the priciest Geneva Lake-area homes in months.

Aaron Rankin, co-founder of Chicago-based social media software firm Sprout Social, sold the seven-bedroom mansion at 389 North Lakeshore Drive in Fontana, Wisconsin for $14.3 million last week, according to public records. The deal marks the highest-priced home sale in the Geneva Lake area since June.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Rankin and his wife, Yeming, sold the property through a land trust to Milwaukee-based Eagles Wings Trust on March 3. The couple paid nearly $7 million for the estate in 2019, meaning the off-market deal more than doubled their purchase price in about six years.

The 10,960-square-foot home was never publicly listed. Real estate agent David Curry represented both sides of the deal and indicated on his website that the property carried a private asking price of $15 million. Curry did not respond to a request for comment.

Built in 2013 on roughly 2.3 acres, the lakefront mansion includes seven bedrooms and nine-and-a-half bathrooms along with a three-car garage, a boathouse and landscaped gardens. The property is in Fontana, a small village on the western shore of Geneva Lake that has long been a magnet for wealthy Chicago-area buyers seeking vacation homes within a two-hour drive of the city, according to the outlet.

The sale adds to a string of recent real estate moves by the Rankins. Less than a year ago, the couple sold a five-bedroom, 9,350-square-foot Nantucket-style mansion in Winnetka for $3.9 million after initially listing it for nearly $4.2 million, according to the publication.

Through a land trust, the Rankins paid $2.8 million in 2021 for a 1.8-acre property in Winnetka where they built a new two-story mansion. A building permit filed with the village estimated the construction cost at about $4 million, according to the publication. The home was built by local builder Jim Malapanes.

The previous top Geneva Lake-area sale came last June, when Raymond Hott, the former president of a DeKalb-based wire and cable company, paid $20 million for a seven-bedroom mansion owned by McDonald’s franchisee William McEssy and his wife.

The area’s all-time price record remains the $36 million paid in 2022 by billionaire Reyes Holdings co-chair Christopher Reyes for the late philanthropist Richard Driehaus’ lakefront estate.

— Eric Weilbacher