List Price: $1.495 million
Sale Price: $1.4 million
The Property: Since it was built in 2004, this ten-room house in Lake View has been home to two different short-time members of the Chicago Blackhawks.
Curtis Brown bought the property in September 2004, shortly after signing a four-year deal with the team; he ended up playing here just one season before moving on to the San Jose Sharks. After putting the house on the market for a while, Brown rented it to Craig Adams, who played with the Blackhawks for parts of the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 seasons.
Brown, who now plays in Switzerland, sold the house last week; Adams currently plays for the Pittsburgh Penguins. While neither Brown nor Adams was with the Blackhawks last year for the team’s championship season, Adams has been on two Stanley Cup–winning teams: the 2006 Carolina Hurricanes and the 2009 Penguins. I could not reach Brown for comment.
Situated on a Lake View block with a mix of new and old homes, the brick and limestone house has five bedrooms, four-plus baths, and four decks. At 5,000 square feet, it’s bigger than many of the area’s older homes, but its third level is set back from the façade for a better fit with the neighborhood. “There’s a good feeling to that house,” says Emily Sachs Wong, who represented the property for Brown. “There are really big room sizes, a great lower level with high ceilings, and a nice rooftop deck with city views. It’s a lot of house for the money.”
Price Points: According to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, Brown and his wife, Ami, paid $1.56 million for the house in 2004, meaning they took a 10 percent loss on the recent $1.4-million sale. In 2007, they had the house on the market at $1.799 million. It was still unsold in January 2008, when the Carolina Hurricanes traded Adams to the Blackhawks. The Browns leased the home to Adams and his wife, Anne, for 18 months at $6,000 a month, Wong says. In March 2009, Adams moved to the Penguins. The house went back on the market in spring 2010, Wong says, with an asking price of $1.495 million. It went off the market for a few months “because they wanted to freshen it up,” she says, and went back on the market in early August, this time going under contract in two weeks. The sale closed October 4th to buyers who are not yet identified in public records.
Listing Agent: Emily Sachs Wong of Koenig & Strey Real Living; 312-475-4599