Lake Forest Mansion Sells for $8 Million

A lakefront mansion in Lake Forest changed hands this weekend for $8.3 million.

The 11,400-square-foot mansion at 347 Bluffs Edge Drive in Lake Forest sold Saturday, according to public records. The closing price was a 30 percent discount from the original $11.9 million asking price when the home first hit the market in August 2024.

The home, built in 2020, was sold by the estate of Tom Fuller, a former metal and plastics parts company owner and musician who died in 2024. Fuller tapped J. Timothy Builders to construct the property, bringing the firm down to the North Shore after they built his previous home in Lake Geneva, said listing agent Houda Chedid of Compass.

“You don’t find newer houses on the lake in our area,” Chedid said.

The sale price makes it the most expensive home to sell in Lake Forest since October, and the most expensive home sale in the Chicago metro so far this year. A Lake Forest estate on Rosemary Road brought in $11 million in October. Only one other more expensive home has sold in Lake Forest in the last five years, according to listing services.

The Bluffs Edge Drive mansion, which Fuller named Rockland, has eight bedroom suites, white oak flooring and a three-story elevator, according to the listing. The lower English-style basement includes a secondary kitchenette, a sauna, theater and gym. All but two bedrooms face the lake, and Chedid said the seller had the home redesigned multiple times to ensure the rooms had lake views.

Down the bluff, the home features a staircase and a cable car that allows access to the beach below. The property has a heated and air conditioned beach house with a kitchen and kitchenette, Chedid said.

“It cost a lot of money for the seller to put that beach together, and the bluff is exquisite,” Chedid said.

Fuller bought the site for $2.8 million in 2014, when it was one of the few vacant lakefront properties available, property records show. He sold his previous Lake Geneva home for $5 million before moving to Lake Forest.

According to Lake Forest building permit records, Fuller received two permits for the home’s construction in 2017 and 2018 with a combined estimated construction cost of $5.6 million. In 2019, he received a permit to build a retaining wall and tram walkway on the bluff, costing an estimated $105,000.

The buyers settled on the home because of the limited supply of lakefront properties and the existing shoreline improvements, said the buyers’ agent, Sue Carey of Baird & Warner. The buyers aren’t yet listed in public records, and Carey declined to identify them.

“My clients decided on the charm of Lake Forest. That was what they were very drawn to,” she said. “And having a lakefront parcel was a plus. It was just the unique nature of the lakefront property and the beach house that was part of that parcel.”

After first hitting the market for $11.9 million in 2024, the house underwent price cuts before closing. Fuller’s estate lowered the asking price to $10.9 million in January 2025, and then dropped it again to $9.6 million in September, making the sale price about 14 percent below the last asking price.

The Lake Forest mansion is the third North Shore lakefront home to sell for more than $5 million this year, following a busy 2025 that saw state records for home prices smashed in Winnetka, with two homes selling for more than $30 million.

On March 2, a newly constructed home in Glencoe sold for nearly $7.3 million, setting a record for spec home sales in the Chicago area and making it the most expensive off-lakefront standard residential sale in the village’s history. A Winnetka home sold in February for $5.6 million in an off-market deal.