Winnetka Non-Lakefront Unbuilt Spec Mansion Asks $17 Million

A spec mansion planned by Michael Bennett Homes hit the market in Winnetka this week asking $16.9 million, a price that would make it the most expensive off-lakefront home to sell in the village in at least five years.

The yet-to-be-built home at 915 Sunset Road is listed as having six bedrooms and 10 bathrooms on a 0.9-acre lot near Crow Island Woods and Indian Hill Golf Club. The home is expected to be completed in 2027, according to the listing.

Lincolnwood-based Michael Bennett Homes is a luxury custom builder, an affiliate of Airoom Architects, Builders and Remodelers. The company’s website lists a portfolio that includes luxury homes on the North Shore, in Burr Ridge and Hinsdale, as well as in Aspen, Colorado and Miami.

Michael Klein, CEO of Michael Bennett Homes and the Airoom Companies, did not return a request for comment. The builder is represented by Mary Maris, an agent with Village Realty Group, according to the listing. Maris declined to comment.

The MLS listing pins the square footage at 15,000 square feet, but the listing describes “over 17,000 square feet” of living space. The asking price comes out to about $994 per square foot at the higher number.

Renderings show a transitional-style home with a stucco exterior and large windows lining the front. The listing and renderings describe an extensive set of amenities throughout the home: a 50-foot-long art gallery, a wellness center with a steam room, sauna and cold plunge, and a golf and sports simulator. The home will have a wine cellar with dining space and an outdoor pool, cabana and four-car heated garage, according to the listing.

The home will be built on what was previously an empty lot with an address of 911 Sunset Road, according to property records. An LLC affiliated with Klein purchased the lot in July 2024 for $2 million, property records show. A home was on the property until about 2008, county assessor records indicate, and the lot has been vacant since then.

The grassy lot appears to have little construction underway. A Michael Bennett Homes sign is visible from the street, in front of a fence. No structures appeared to be in construction on the lot, but a pile of stone on the lot was visible from the street on Friday.

The soaring asking price puts the home in territory typically reserved for Winnetka’s lakefront properties along Sheridan Road. But with few lakefront homes available, the listing will test whether the demand for luxury homes in the village extends beyond the waterfront. Two lakefront homes sold for more than $30 million in Winnetka last year, smashing the record for home resales in Illinois.

No arm’s-length home sale off the lakefront in Winnetka has reached the Sunset Road home’s asking price. A 2015 sale between a homeowner and a trust in his name recorded a $28 million sale value, but that was not a standard sale between two unrelated parties.

In Winnetka, the priciest home to sell without Lake Michigan frontage in the last five years was a 7,800-square-foot home on Prospect Avenue that sold for $8.5 million in 2024, according to listing services.

The home’s asking price also exceeds the record for a non-lakefront spec home in all of the North Shore. That record was set in March, when Lux Builders, led by Karl Smolov, sold a home in Glencoe for $7.3 million.

The Sunset Road home’s asking price is in line with another spec home on the market with lake frontage in Kenilworth. Heritage Luxury Homes, a prolific builder on the North Shore led by Leo Birov, is marketing a 17,000-square-foot home at 501 Sheridan Road for $16.8 million.