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Dennis Rodkin
It’s a Jungle in There—in Riverwoods
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $2.679 million
The Property: It’s like a huge terrarium for humans, this 31-year-old home tucked away in a densely wooded part of Riverwoods. Two-story glass walls mark the boundary between indoors and out, though there is not much distinction between the two realms, with a gigantic rubber tree growing indoors and such outdoor denizens as deer and squirrels frequently wandering up to the windows... Read more
Celebrating 20 Years of Deal Estate with a New Online Feature
By Dennis Rodkin
In September 1991, the renaissance in affluent city living hadn’t yet picked up the momentum it would have a decade later, when a boom in condo- and mansion-building transformed large swaths of Chicago. That’s why one developer made the strategic decision to cut up a pair of derelict Gold Coast mansions into four residences... Read more
Two Gold Coast Mansion Sales
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $5.75 million
Sale Price: $5.78 million
List Price: $4.75 million
Sale Price: $4.154 million
The Properties: A 13-room mansion on an extra-large lot on North State Parkway sold August 23 for a little more than its asking price—and for nearly eight times what its sellers had paid for the place in 1994... Read more
Shedding Light on Hawthorne Place
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $3.25 million
The Property: With Belmont Harbor at one end and the shopping and dining options of Broadway at the other, the block-long Hawthorne Place is one of Lake View’s great urban streets. But it also feels quite suburban, with big homes built on extra-large lots, mostly in the 1890s and the early 20th century... Read more
Hinsdale Home of Former Blackhawk Brent Sopel Hits the Market
By Dennis Rodkin
Brent Sopel, a defenseman for the Blackhawks in their 2009–10 Stanley Cup championship season, is putting his Hinsdale home on the market today. In late July, after stints with the Atlanta Thrashers and the Montreal Canadiens, Sopel signed a two-year contract with Metallurg Novokuznetsk, a team in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League... Read more
Oprah’s Creative Chief Sells in Gold Coast
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $999,000
Sale Price: $934,800
The Property: Lisa Erspamer, the longtime producer at Harpo Productions who is now chief creative officer at the Los Angeles–based Oprah Winfrey Network, has sold her two-bedroom Gold Coast condo for $934,800—or 23 percent less than what she originally paid for it... Read more
Blufftop Beauty in Winnetka
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $5.495 million
The Property: Standing high on a Winnetka bluff in what’s known as the Ravines, this 50-year-old house offers a view to the west of the tree-filled ravine and to the east of Lake Michigan. On a gorgeous summer day like the one when we shot today’s video, it’s easy to see why Robert and Moya Chase haven’t wanted to move in the 35 years since they bought the home... Read more
How’s Mayor Emanuel Doing on Housing?
By Dennis Rodkin
This week’s flurry of analyses about Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s first 100 days in office culminates with a WBEZ taping tonight of a forum slated for broadcast Friday morning on the station’s Eight Forty-Eight program. Emanuel and top city officials will attend the taping, and I will be there to toss in a few ideas about the mayor’s efforts on housing. Time permitting—and there are a lot of other pressing topics to consider—here are the subjects I’d like to touch on... Read more