Yet another high-profile, former Chicago-area sports coach is on the move, with former Bear coach Dave Wannstedt having just sold his 12-room, Lake Forest house for $1.075 million.
As first reported here on Jan. 31, Wannstedt, who was fired in January after six years with the Bears and then hired by the Miami Dolphins as assistant coach, had listed his custom-built, 5,800-square-foot house in the Meadows neighborhood of Lake Forest for $1.2 million.
Wannstedt, who turns 47 on Friday, purchased the brick, 5-bedroom colonial in September 1993 for $735,000. The house, which sits on 1.5 acres and has a 4-car garage, has 4 1/2 baths and a full finished basement. The buyers, who closed on the house Wednesday, previously lived elsewhere in Lake Forest.
“I think it’s a fabulous house, and I’m sure the new owners are going to be very happy here,” said listing agent Harvey Hoffman of Koenig & Strey, who declined to provide any other information about the buyers.
Although no information is available on where Wannstedt will live in Miami, he does own a condominium unit in Naples, Fla., that he purchased in 1996 for $254,900, according to public records.
Meanwhile, another high-end house profiled here on Jan. 31 that Hoffman had also listed remains for sale for more than $2 million. However, Hoffman said the builder of the new, 7,100-square-foot mansion on Cloverdale Avenue in Highland Park is now marketing that property.
– Former Chicago Bears, Bulls and Cubs announcer Wayne Larrivee has placed his single-family house in east Aurora on the market for $413,900.
Larrivee, 44, who broadcasted Bears games on WMAQ-AM and who has handled play-by-play for Bulls games on WGN-TV, resigned at the end of last season to become the play-by-play voice for the Green Bay Packers. He will be based in Milwaukee and will broadcast for WTMJ-AM, the Packers’ flagship station. Larrivee had broadcasted Bears games for WGN-AM from 1985 until 1996, when WMAQ acquired the Bears’ broadcast rights. Additionally, Larrivee broadcasted Cubs games full-time on WGN-TV in 1996 and performed fill-in work for games as recently as last season.
Larrivee’s 9-room, 4-bedroom house in Aurora, which he purchased new in 1990 for $305,000, is located in the Stonebridge neighborhood, which surrounds the Stonebridge Country Club. Among the 3,589-square-foot house’s features are an oak staircase, a two-story foyer, a brick fireplace in the sitting room of the master suite, and “gorgeous views of the golf course and pond,” according to listing information. Larrivee’s neighbors in the development include WGN-AM afternoon host Spike O’Dell, who purchased his nearby house in 1990 for $319,500.
Ellen Rundle of Coldwell Banker was the listing agent, with Lois Munn as a co-listing agent.
– A 91-year-old, Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house in west suburban Riverside has gone under contract after being listed for $679,000.
The 11-room, 4,000-square-foot house at 300 Scottswood Road originally was the southern half of the Avery Coonley house, which was split in the 1950s into two separate houses. The Scottswood house was detached from the northern half of the house, which is at 281 Bloomingbank Road.
The sale of the Scottswood house ends for now the hope by Wright enthusiasts that the two halves of the Coonley estate would be purchased by the same buyer and moved back together to form one house. Both houses were on the market in 1997, and real estate sources have said the Bloomingbank owner remains interested in selling, even though his house is not presently on the market.
The southern half of the estate had been listed for about two years. The house has three bedrooms and first was listed for $950,000. The price subsequently was lowered to $890,000, $759,000, $699,000 and finally $679,000.
The 11-room north half of the Coonley residence, at 281 Bloomingbank, separately was listed until the end of 1997 for $1.295 million, and then pulled off the market. Its owner, who is building a new home elsewhere, was expected to re-list the Bloomingbank property in the near future, according to the listing agent.
However, no substantive offers emerged from parties who wanted to buy both properties and merge the two residences.
Judy Jisa of Burlington Realty was the most recent listing agent for the Scottswood property.
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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, IL. 60611. E-mail: rgoldsbo@enteract.com
