Almost everywhere that a big new house is going up in old, established Winnetka these days, there’s a Page Builders sign out front. And in perhaps one of the greatest developers’ coups in recent years, Page Builders has signed up for half the lots and expects to build most of the rest in Thorn Tree, the village’s first new subdivision in 22 years.
The homes that Page Builders builds are designed by Charles Page, an architect who’s been designing and building homes on the North Shore for 34 years. For the past decade, he’s worked almost exclusively in Northfield and Winnetka, where he’s been responsible for four to six homes a year at the very top of the market.
The building firm, literally an offshoot of Charles Page the architect, was founded by his son, Russell, in 1984 to handle the construction end of the business. The building firm since has been joined by three other Page children.
There’s nothing unusual in the Chicago area about an architect or a builder specializing in expensive custom homes. What’s unusual about the Page operation is that it’s focused on the North Shore, an area that conventional wisdom suggests isn’t ripe for such businesses, because it’s already all built up.
Page homes sometimes are the result of “teardowns,” in which somebody buys a home just for its desirable lot. The existing home is torn down and another-in this case a Page home-is built on the spot. But Page also has succeeded in acquiring some of the few open lots that remain in the area.
Today, a typical Page home is about 6,500 square feet and costs just over $2 million. The design invariably reflects a strong French influence, whether country French, chateau-style or Regency. Distinguishing characteristics include custom stonework; high, sweeping roofs; large pitched, beamed screen porches; large great rooms; and luxurious master suites. Each house is unique.
Between January 1993 and May 1994, Page Builders accounted for five of the 20 home-building permits granted by the Village of Winnetka, according to Brian Norkus, a village planner. (Those permits weren’t all for Page’s lots in Thorn Tree; builders seek permits when they’re ready to start building, not necessarily when they acquire the lot.)
The Page sites, generally about a half-acre to three-quarters of an acre, all cost more than $700,000, by far the most expensive among the 20 permits; the next costliest was $560,000, according to village records. And that one has a house designed by Page.
How does he do it?
“He’s willing to pay people what the lots are worth, and most builders are not,” offered Virginia MacDonald, a broker with Prudential Preferred Properties in Winnetka, who has worked with Page for 22 years. “The minute it’s sold and he’s bought it, they’re ticked off because they didn’t buy it. But they don’t have the guts to do it. He’s had the guts to do it for years. He knows his market.”
Explained Jim Byrne, who developed Thorn Tree: “He recognized the potential of these lots and was willing to step up to the price.”
Those lots in the Thorn Tree subdivision didn’t come cheaply. The eight on the new street, Evergreen Lane, and the two on Thorn Tree Lane all sold for an average of $700,000 to $800,000, depending on size and location. They are a half-acre to three-quarters of an acre each. Most were treeless.
But empty lots in Winnetka are nearly impossible to come by.
Page did not have an inside track on the Thorn Tree subdivision; when the lots came on the market, he paid full price, Byrne noted. All 10 lots were sold by this spring, a year after their first offering, he added. One lot recently came back on the market.
The only other builders’ sign up on Evergreen is from C.E. Russell & Associates, which is planning a Country English house for a Winnetka family that bought the lot, said Chuck Russell, owner of the Lincolnshire-based design-and-build firm. Coincidentally, in his first foray into Winnetka, Russell recently completed a Page-designed home.
So far, the five lots Page bought in the Thorn Tree subdivision have worked out fine for him. Three were sold for custom homes, Page said. And he’s beginning to advertise for the house he’s building on speculation (without a buyer lined up) on what he considers his prime lot on Evergreen for $2.25 million.
“The market is very interesting. For brand-new houses like this people will pay a premium,” MacDonald said. “I think it’s because it takes an enormous amount of time, energy and imagination to go to an architect to have a house designed and to build it.”
Page has done phenomenally well with his spec houses, MacDonald added. “Almost without exception the houses have been sold before they were completed.”
While Charles Page started out doing everything himself-developing, designing and building each house without a partner, working first primarily in River Woods, then Lake Forest before opening his office in Northfield-for the last 10 years, he’s had his family by his side.
Most of Page’s designs are built by the family firm.
As Page tells the story, it was fortunate happenstance that brought his children into his business. In the early ’80s, Page said he took a few years off and dismantled his business, which had included a crew of carpenters. At the same time, coincidentally, the recession hit and the custom-home market dried up.
When building started up again, Page was approached by a few buyers; he turned for help to his son, Russell, who’d been working as a contractor.
Page Builders is composed of four Page children: Steven, 38, also an architect; Russell, 35; Catherine, 36; and Kristen, 27.
Customers say the product lives up to the price tag.
Mark Greenhill said he saw a Page-built home in Northfield, and soon after began looking for property in Winnetka so he could have a Page home of his own. Greenhill found a lot, but like most in the village, it already had a house on it. Page Builders handled everything, he said, from demolition of the old house to overall design of the new house.
“Everything they did was virtually flawless,” he said. “Steve Page was the project manager. I can’t say enough good things about him. . . . I feel like I really got a great value.”
