Page 1 - Three $8M Plus Homes Sell in Crains

2/17/22, 11:21 AM Three $8 million-plus homes just found buyers without hitting the market

Three $8 million-plus homes just found buyers without hitting the
market

Two of the homes in Chicago are now the highest- and second-highest-priced home sales in 2022.
DENNIS RODKIN
February 05, 2022 09:02 AM

Three Chicago homes, each priced at nearly $9 million, recently found buyers without ever
hitting the open market, a strong display of the exuberance in the real estate market’s upper
end.

On Jan. 13, No. 9 Walton developer Jim Letchinger, and his wife, Stephanie, quietly sold their
30th-floor unit in the Gold Coast building for $8.96 million. The private transaction showed up
in public records Feb. 3. It's one of the most in-demand downtown condo buildings since it
began delivering super-luxurious units in 2017.

On Feb. 4, a mansion on Orchard Street in Lincoln Park sold for $8.65 million. Its sellers were
getting it ready to go on the market when a buyer’s agent approached, according to the
sellers’ agent, Janet Owen of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago.

These two are now the highest- and second-highest-priced home sales so far in 2022, and
bring the year-to-date total of city homes sold for $5 million or more to six.

A home on Mohawk Street in Lincoln Park, priced at just short of $9 million when it went onto
a private agents’ network two weeks ago, went under contract to a buyer Jan. 29 or Jan. 30.
The sale price will not be disclosed until the deal closes in March, but given that the home
landed a buyer quickly, the final figure is likely to be close to the asking price.

A run of top-priced properties sold without being marketed is a “positive reflection of the high-
end real estate market, where opportunities come and present themselves to sellers,” said
Susan Miner of Premier Relocation & Real Estate Services. Miner represented the buyers who
bought the Letchinger condo at $8.96 million, who she said “wanted to live in No. 9 Walton,
which is a testament to what Jim Letchinger built there.”

Miner, who lives in the building, said she contacted the owners of several units, including the
Letchingers, whose unit is about 4,700 square feet with two balconies.

Letchinger told Crain’s that although, over the years, he and his wife have lived in a several
houses and condos his firm, JDL Development, built, “No. 9 Walton was our dream building
and we planned to stay.” When Miner approached him about this buyer, he said, “my wife and
I had a family meeting and I convinced her we could move again.” They’ll purchase a unit at
his next project, the 75-story One Chicago tower under construction at State and Superior
streets.

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