A lakefront property with a house that’s more than a century old is set to become one of the Chicago area’s priciest listings when it hits the market next week.
The Winnetka property, owned by the Challenger family, is 1.75 acres and includes 151 feet of Lake Michigan beachfront. The house has an asking price of $16 million and is set to be listed on a private network for real estate agents next week.
The $16 million price tag makes it among the most expensive listings in Chicagoland. The 5,369-square-foot house was built in 1902 and includes six bedrooms. The home is a possible teardown, or in need of intense renovations.
Annie Challenger, a real estate agent with Baird & Warner who is the listing agent for the house as well as one of the five heirs of James, who died in 2019, and Ruth “Timmie” Challenger, who died in 2008.
“Either way you go, it’s a project,” Annie Challenger said to Crain’s. “Either you love the house and want to restore it as a project, or you decide to build your own and it’s still a project.”
The home belonged to James Challenger, who in 1966 started an outplacement firm, Challenger Gray & Christmas, with two partners. The house has been in the family since the 1970s.
The property also includes a coach house and a greenhouse.
A buyer who wants to renovate the existing house “would have to be somebody who’s interested in the beauty of the houses they built back then,” Challenger said to Crain’s.
The original owner and architect of the house are unknown. It was owned from 1919 until the late 1960s by the family of William and Alma Hay.
The Challengers paid $200,000 for the property in 1970, according to Annie Challenger. That’s equal to about $1.46 million today. Even though the house has been in Annie Challenger’s family for generations, she and her siblings are not anticipating a buyer who wants to restore the home.
“We have to be realistic about the condition of the house,” she said.
[Crain’s Chicago] — Miranda Davis
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