The second time may be the charm for former Bull Brent Barry, who once again has a contract pending to sell his East Lake Shore Drive condominium.
Barry, who played for the Bulls in last year’s abbreviated season before being traded in August to the Seattle SuperSonics, will forever be remembered as the answer to a trivia question: Who did the Bulls sign to replace Michael Jordan as shooting guard? Bulls management thought Barry, signed to a six-year, $27 million contract in 1998, would be someone around whom they could rebuild, but later changed their minds and unloaded his contract.
So Barry, who in March 1999 paid $1.675 million for the three-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot, second-floor unit in the former Mayfair Regent Hotel, 189 E. Lake Shore Dr. turned around and listed the unit in September for $1.999 million. By mid-October, it was under contract, but the deal reportedly fell through because the prospective buyer was prohibited from erecting a satellite dish on the building.
So Barry re-listed the unit, whose features include a two-car garage, more than 500 square feet of livingroom space and a fireplace. Its price was $1.9 million when it went under contract.
If things had gone differently, Jordan and Barry could have been neighbors. His Airness reportedly considered buying the old Mayfair Regent’s penthouse before spending $3 million one year ago on the penthouse at 1100 N. Lake Shore.
Lesley Siegel of Koenig & Strey’s Deerfield office has remained Barry’s listing agent.
– A 114-year-old Gold Coast brownstone with a storied history is on the market for $3.5 million.
The 12-room, four-story Victorian was built by John F. Jelke, who invented vegetable oil-based margarine, or oleomargarine, forming a company that, after his death, was sold to Lever Brothers in 1948.
In the 1940s, the 6,500-square-foot brownstone became a halfway house for the Halco Institution for alcohol and drug abusers. In 1979, Robert J. Melin, an interior designer, purchased it and completely rehabbed its interior, adding an elevator — which is the only way to access the penthouse floor — and a roof garden with a view of the Michigan Avenue skyline.
In February 1987, the brownstone’s master bath and whirpool — in solid marble — were showcased in Playboy magazine as the setting for a nude pictorial featuring the late mob boss Sam Giancana’s daughter, Antoinette Giancana.
The current owners of the home — which also has seven restored fireplaces, much of its original woodwork, mulberry-toned walls, an inlaid tile fireplace, a wrap-around wooden deck on the first floor, garage space for four cars and a coach house — acquired the property in 1990 upon Melin’s death.
Although the brownstone only has three bedrooms, its third-floor kitchenette and office, which Melin used as a design studio, could be converted into several more bedrooms and bathrooms. In addition, the free-standing nature of the home and its 40-foot-wide lot allow light to enter.
“This is a truly regal Victorian home, done in grand style,” said listing agent Marie Gordon of Rubloff Residential Properties.
– A spectacular, 17-room brick Georgian in Winnetka with a 46-foot first-floor gallery is on the market for $3.6 million.
The seven-bedroom mansion, at 115 De Windt Rd., was built in 1936 as the personal residence of architect Dennison Hull. The mansion’s features include 11-foot ceilings, a spectacular spiral staircase, Corinthian columns and 10-foot ceilings in the first-floor gallery, a formal dining room with fluted pilasters flanking the fireplace, random-width hardwood floors and a knotty pine library. Additionally, the mansion has a recently remodeled kitchen and a bluestone terrace that overlooks the more than 1-acre property.
The mansion also has several unique construction features. Made from concrete and steel beam construction, the Georgian stands as the first house ever built in North America with radiant heating panels. The house also has a Ludowici tile roof.
Denny Dwyer of Jean Wright Real Estate in Winnetka is the listing agent, representing seller James P. Burke.
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