Historic Mansion in Chicago’s Lake Forest Hits Market for $13M

A Lake Forest mansion that just hit the market would rank as Chicago’s priciest home sale since last year if it goes for the asking price.

Former Motorola executive Ron Garriques and his wife, Karena, are asking just shy of $13 million for their 3.6-acre, lakefront estate in the northern suburb, Crain’s reported.

The couple put their historic Lake Road home on a private, agents-only network, with Patrick Milhaupt, Amy Davidson and Tim Salm of Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty representing it.

The Italian-style villa, built in 1914, was designed by Howard van Doren Shaw, the architect behind many upscale homes in the Lake Forest area. After buying it in 2007 for an undisclosed amount, the Garriqueses’ restored the mansion “through the exhaustive effort to search (for) and replace fixtures, hardware and architectural effects just as they were in Shaw’s masterpiece,” Milhaupt told the outlet.

The restoration included rebuilding a demolished wing, installing 19th-century light fixtures, and procuring period furniture and artworks belonging to the mansion’s original owners, Clayton and Anna Mark.

Beyond historical preservation, modern updates were incorporated, such as a renovated kitchen, updated utilities and the addition of a basement basketball court and indoor hockey rink. The property has more than 400 feet of Lake Michigan shoreline.

Even though eight-figure homes usually require at least one price chop before landing a buyer, the property is poised to yield the priciest Chicago-area home sale this year, possibly topping the $9.3 million sale of Chicago Trading founder Andrew Hall’s Gold Coast condo.

If it sells for even a little less than the asking price, it would be Chicagoland’s most-expensive transaction since 2023, inching past the $12.5 million sale of a Winnetka mansion last summer.

The listing adds to a recent flurry of activity in Lake Forest’s luxury market. Last month, a historic 6,500-square-foot mansion in the suburb traded for almost $6.3 million. A seven-bedroom, 7,500-square-foot home at 1421 Lake Road sold for $7.8 million in November.

—Quinn Donoghue