Chicago Bears punter Todd Sauerbrun has purchased a brand-new town home in north suburban Northbrook for $354,000, according to public records.
Sauerbrun, who was a second-team all-NFC punter in 1996, had a disastrous start last year, but improved his punting game toward the end of the season and drew praise for his special-teams tackles. His performance likely will prompt Bears management to bring him back in the fall.
A second-round draft pick out of West Virginia in 1995, Sauerbrun currently is a restricted free agent, which means the Bears can keep him with a tender offer or receive compensation if he signs with another club.
A native New Yorker, Sauerbrun solidified his ties to Chicago last fall by marrying the former Maria Scalise of Bridgeport. He has stated publicly that he wants to remain in Chicago, and his recent real estate investment suggests confidence that he’ll be playing for the Bears this fall.
Sauerbrun is one of the first buyers in the Ivy Club. In buying in Northbrook, Sauerbrun joins one other fellow Bear, linebacker Bryan Cox, although Cox is not expected to be with the club next year.
The Ivy Club is a development by Dartmoor Homes of 65 semi-custom two-story townhouses ranging from 2,075 to 3,426 square feet. The homes are priced in the $300,000 to $400,000 range, and feature two or three bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, formal dining rooms, kitchen with breakfast rooms and master bedroom suites with a separate shower, soaking tub and double-bowl vanity in the bath. Some homes also offer a two-story or cathedral entry foyer. The development is located on the south side of Lake-Cook Road, east of Milwaukee Avenue.
– Pepsi-Cola North America President and Chief Executive Officer Philip Marineau is selling his mansion on Sheridan Road in north suburban Kenilworth for $2.85 million.
Marineau, who has moved to New York, was a high-level food and beverage industry executive in the Chicago area for many years, holding the presidency at both Quaker Oats and Dean Foods. He spent 23 years at Quaker, rising to the level of No. 2 executive while receiving well deserved credit for the success of the Gatorade beverage line.
His tenure at Quaker was marred, however, by the purchase and mismanagement of the Snapple subsidiary, which lost the company millions of dollars in the mid-1990s. Although some analysts have been hesitant to pin the Snapple woes on Marineau, he nonetheless was caught in a management crossfire and was forced to resign in November 1995. After a year off, he joined Dean Foods in December 1996 but shocked the company by quitting just nine months later to take his current post at Pepsi.
In northeast Kenilworth, Marineau’s 14-room, 6-bedroom French chateau, which he bought in October 1991 for $2.09 million, sits on about a half-acre and faces Lake Michigan. Features in the stately, 5,700-square-foot home include a library, rec room and multi-sport gym. It also features a terrace leading to a private yard.
Marineau’s mansion was built in 1928 and was designed by architect Peter Mayo. Though not as well-known as other North Shore architects, Mayo joined the firm founded by his father, Ernest Mayo, in 1918.
Barbara Mawicke of Coldwell Banker Exceptional Properties has the listing, which boasts of the home’s “uncompromising craftsmanship and quality.”
– Ben Rose, who owns the Highland Park home and garage for collector autos that was the setting for the climactic scene in the film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” has purchased a condominium in Scottsdale, Ariz., for $105,000, according to public records.
Rose’s 1974 award-winning car pavilion, set over a ravine, was shattered and then restored under the supervision of its original designer, the late David Haid, for the 1986 movie.
Around the U.S.: In an Upper Bracket update, colorful Fox Sports Chicago anchor Chet Coppock has sold his Manhasset, N.Y., home for $765,000, according to recently released public records from New York state. On March 1, we reported that Coppock had bought a new, brick home in West Lincoln Park for $699,000 and, at the time, had sold his four-bedroom, English colonial in the exclusive New York City suburb for an undisclosed amount. It had been listed for $795,000. The sale closed at the end of 1997.
———-
Have a tip about a home sale or a piece of property being put on the market that involved a well-known Chicagoan or a well-known piece of Chicago real estate? Write to Upper Bracket, c/o Chicago Tribune, Real Estate section, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill., 60611. E-mail: rgoldsbo@enteract.com
