Laura Ricketts, photographed outside Wrigley Field in 2009.
List Price: $6.5 million
Sale Price: Not known
The Property: Laura Ricketts, one of four members of the Ricketts family on the board of the Chicago Cubs, is in the process of buying a $6.5-million lakefront house in Wilmette with her partner, Heidi Grathouse, real-estate sources in Wilmette confirm.
Built in 1943 as a modest three-bedroom residence on a lot that is slightly more than an acre and includes a private beach, the home was greatly expanded 20 years ago by Ralph and Diane Otto, who bought the home from its original owners in 1990. The Ottos paid $1.5 million for the property, according to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, followed by an unknown amount on renovation and an addition.
The house was not listed with the multiple listing service, so I do not know much about its size and interior. The Cook County Assessor classifies it only as being larger than 5,000 square feet and having three-plus bathrooms and two fireplaces. (The assessor does not list a room count or the number of bedrooms.) Ralph Otto was a prominent cardiologist who died in a small-plane crash in Wyoming in August 2008. Diane Otto had died a year earlier.
The sale of the home to Ricketts is expected to close in late June. Rosanne O’Donnell of Prairie Shore Properties represented the home for the Ottos’ estate. Laura Ricketts did not respond to a request for comment. Her brothers Tom, who is chairman of the Cubs, and Todd both have homes in Wilmette approximately six blocks inland from the property Laura is buying. Tom bought his home for $900,000 in 2004, according to the county recorder, and three years later, Todd bought a house on the same block for $869,000.
Price Points: While press reports have said that Laura Ricketts lives on the South Side, information from the Cook County Recorder of Deeds shows that she bought a home in Edgewater six years ago for $780,000 and that she has not transferred the deed since.
Listing Agent: Rosanne O’Donnell of Prairie Shore Properties
Photography: Chicago Tribune