So far in the underperforming Cubs’ season, second baseman Eric Young has staked out a unique claim with his excellent fielding and outstanding hitting.
Now “E.Y.” has taken the somewhat unusual step of buying property here, with his recent purchase of a new, $531,000 town home in the Fulton River District just west of downtown.
He’s only the fifth current Cub who owns a Chicago-area home, joining Sammy Sosa, Mark Grace, Kevin Tapani and Joe Girardi.
A Rutgers University graduate who’s in his ninth year in the major leagues, Young, 33, was traded by the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Cubs in December. Since joining the club, Young also has contributed through his baserunning, with the potential to steal more bases this year than the 60 bases that the entire club stole in 1999.
He currently earns $4.5 million a year in a two-year contract running through the end of 2001.
Young’s four-level town home is in the brand-new 48-home Fulton Court development. Because he purchased the unit directly from a developer, no real estate listing information was available about its features.
However, town homes in Fulton Court, which start at $364,900, have two to four bedrooms, 19-foot-wide floor plans, attached garages, 10-foot ceilings, maple hardwood floors, roof decks and gourmet kitchens with stainless steel appliances.
Young was one of the first buyers in the development, which is still under construction. The first units became available in March, and Young closed on the unit right before the season began.
Young bought the town home at the same time that he sold a condominium in Los Angeles for an undisclosed price. He had purchased that condo, up in the Bel Aire neighborhood’s Santa Monica Mountains, in January 1999 for $675,000.
Young also owns a single-family house in Chattanooga, Tenn., which he purchased for $125,000 in 1997. Young’s wife, Malika, and her parents are natives of Chattanooga.
Of the other Cubs who are local homeowners, Sosa owns a massive unit in Lake Point Tower, while Grace owns a condo in Lincoln Park, Tapani owns a single-family house in Winnetka and Girardi owns a single-family house in Lake Forest.
– Here’s betting that actor Kyle Chandler, who stars as Gary Hobson in TV’s “Early Edition,” soon will list his Lincoln Park town home, now that the CBS program has been cancelled.
A Lake Forest resident until age 11, Chandler, 34, moved back to Chicago after production started on the likable, family-oriented show, which was set in Chicago and filmed here during its four-year run.
Shot on location and out at Chicago Studio City on the West Side, “Early Edition” reportedly spent about $25 million a year in Chicago for production expenses. It was honored last summer for becoming the longest-running TV program ever filmed in Illinois.
In February 1999, Chandler bought property here, paying $540,000 for the seven-room, three-bedroom condo, in the Pointe at Lincoln Park development. Built in 1995, the actor’s unit was originally listed for $549,000 and has, according to listing information at the time, a dramatic sunken living room, a formal dining room and a Bose surround stereo system. The town home also has a combination kitchen and family room with 42-foot maple cabinetry, granite counters and a deck.
Chandler’s unit is in the same development as, but across the street from, the town home owned by WLS-Channel 7 anchor Ron Magers, who paid $388,000 for it in 1996.
Chandler and his screenwriter wife, Kathryn, bought their place here at the same time they sold a house in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills for $419,000.
Although Chandler hasn’t yet put his town home here on the market, it seems inevitable. Few Hollywood stars–John Mahoney, Jeri Ryan and Harold Ramis are the obvious exceptions–choose to make Chicago their permanent home, particularly given its small amount of steady TV and movie work and the likely commute to each coast.
Chandler could not be reached for comment.
Chandler isn’t the only “Early Edition” cast member owning a residence here. Shanesia Davis Williams, who plays Marissa, and her husband, Kirk Williams, paid $170,000 in early 1999 for a condominium just north of the Museum of Science and Industry in Hyde Park.
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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, Ill., 60611. E-mail: rgoldsbo@enteract.com
