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.
Erspamer bought the seventh-floor unit at The Whitney, 1301 North Dearborn Street, in May 2008 for $1.225 million, according to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds. At the time, she was co-executive producer of The Oprah Winfrey Show. She had been with Harpo Productions, which produced the show, since 1994.
According to the listing sheet, the six-room home has a den with espresso-finished wood flooring; French limestone floors in the living areas; birch cabinets in the kitchen; and two balconies, one facing north and the other west. The bedrooms have sisal wool carpets, though Kim Korber, the agent who sold the condo, notes that the dressing area in the master bedroom has a marble floor. “You can tell how high the heels are on the shoes you’re picking to go with slacks,” she says. “With carpet, they sink in and you can’t tell.”
In November 2009, Erspamer was tapped to oversee the creative management of programming for OWN, the network created around Winfrey. “Lisa has been a creative superstar,” Winfrey said in a press release at the time. “She’s brought fire and force to many of the incredible shows we’ve done over the years. I value her passion and sensibilities and trust her instincts and judgment.”
Erspamer started in her new post in January 2010 and put the condo on the market the following September. The property went under contract in June 2011, and the sale closed on August 19th. The buyers are not yet identified in public records of the sale, and Erspamer did not respond to a request for comment.
Price Points: When she first put the condo on the market, Erspamer was asking $1.35 million, or 10 percent more than what she had paid for it. After three price cuts, the asking price landed at $999,000 in May 2011. One flight up at The Whitney, a condo with the same floor plan but with different upgrades sold in December 2010 for $1.1 million. A three-bedroom condo on the 11th floor is now for sale at $1.99 million; its seller paid $2 million for it in 2002, according to the county recorder.
Listing Agent: Kim Korber of @Properties; 312-447-6397 or kim@kimkorber.com