Lake County’s luxury market slid during the summer months, but it hasn’t stopped some sellers from seeking top dollar.
A Lake Forest home on Lake Michigan is the latest example, as it became the 16th publicly listed property asking more than $5 million on the suburban North Shore of Chicago.
The property features 265 feet of shoreline and is listed for $6 million. This is the first time it’s been on the market in over a decade.
Designed by Mid-Century architect John Black Lee, the sale would reap a nice profit for the sellers if it closes at its asking price. It last sold for $2.1 million in 2011.
The 5,000-square-foot home at 367 Bluffs Edge Drive has four bedrooms and five bathrooms and has been completely renovated. It is among 16 public listings asking $5 million or more on the North Shore.
Built in 1960 by Lee, it is owned by Karen Guenther and Arlington Guenther. Arlington is the retired CEO and co-founder of IT firm Arlington Computer Products.
The couple’s real estate agent, Elizabeth Wieneke with Compass, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
This is one of four listed over $5 million in Lake Forest, including a $5.3 million home built in 1916 for members of a prominent Chicago family, the McCormicks, which has a connection to the Bluffs Edge property. Lake County’s top five sales in July ranged from $2.2 million to just under $4 million, making this listing somewhat of an outlier.
Still, high-end sales aren’t uncommon in the area. Nancy Hughes’ Lake Forest home listed at $15 million is currently under contract and the family behind Garrett Popcorn Shops sold their Lake Forest property for $4.72 million in August.
In early August, another Lake Forest mansion, this one with ties to F. Scott Fitzgerald, sold for $7.5 million, marking the priciest sale in the town in four years. That six-bedroom, 11,600-square-foot home, known as “La Vieille Maison” hit the market in March 2021 with an asking price of $10.5 million. It was built in 1888 for a Chicago map publisher, but was sold in 1910 to affluent newlyweds William and Ginevra King Mitchell. She inspired the character Daisy Buchanan in Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.”
The 2.2-acre Bluffs Drive property the Guenthers listed was once home to the estate of Cyrus J. McCormick Jr., the president of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. The family was a strong business force in Chicago, as McCormick is credited with inventing the mechanical reaper, enabling farmers to harvest more grain.
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