Lakeview Home Sells at Record Price

The custom-built mansion at 1515 West Wolfram Street set a new high-water mark for its Lakeview ZIP code with a sale this week.

The house sold Monday for $6.5 million, surpassing the previous neighborhood record for the 60657 ZIP code by nearly $2 million, according to public listing data and brokerages that arranged the deal. The area generally spans from North Damen Avenue on the west to the lakefront on the east, and West Diversey Parkway on the south to West Addison Street on the north.

The sale was arranged on the Chicago MLS’s agents-only Private Listing Network, and it represents a major win for seller Matthew Gray’s agent, Justin Lucas of @properties. Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty’s Rubina Bokhari represented the buyer, who she declined to identify and is not yet disclosed in public records.

Lucas said he secured the listing after a shootout with five other agents Gray had considered hiring last year. While the competing brokers valued the property at about $5 million, Lucas banked on the home’s unique scale and high-end finishes, initially listing it for more than $6.9 million.

With alleys to both the east and south of the home to give it space between adjacent properties, and the extra lot separating it from its neighbor to the west, buyers were lured by the home’s extensive natural light without sacrificing privacy, Lucas said.

“That privacy is what money buys you now and what wealth is looking for,” Lucas said.

The only other home to fetch close to the Wolfram property’s price within the Lakeview neighborhood sold in 2022 in the ZIP code just to the north. That deal was for the 11,000-square-foot mansion at 4130 West Greenview Street, which also sold for $6.5 million, putting the two homes in a tie for the neighborhood’s priciest, according to public listing data.

Gray, who declined to be interviewed, originally obtained a $2.6 million mortgage on the Wolfram property from Northern Trust in 2011, which was fully repaid in 2017, according to Cook County property records. The property’s listing says its construction was completed in 2015, though the full costs of the project aren’t clear from public records.

Spanning more than 8,800 square feet, the mansion is a rarity for the dense North Side neighborhood, sitting on a massive triple lot. The home’s design displays a transition between interior and exterior spaces, anchored by a 15-foot retractable glass wall that opens to a professionally landscaped side yard.

The amenity-rich estate features six bedrooms, geothermal heating and cooling, and a 1,200-square-foot, five-car garage topped with a private rooftop deck. The lower level is outfitted with a professional-grade home theater, catering to a luxury segment that increasingly demands suburban-style space within city limits.