Billionaire Justin Ishbia and his wife, Kristen, who have paid $39.9 million since 2020 for four separate houses on Lake Michigan in Winnetka, now are poised to spend another $43.74 million building a lakefront mansion in that village that would measure 68,344 square feet.
As a result, their mansion project is set for a total cost of $77.7 million, including what they will spend on land acquisition, construction of the new mansion and demolition of existing houses on the property. That figure doesn’t include the cost of one of the homes they purchased — a $6.2 million property that sits on a noncontiguous property. But the amount the Ishbias will spend will still be the highest amount anyone has ever paid for a single residence in the Chicago area — well in excess of the $58.75 million that Citadel founder Ken Griffin paid for four floors of raw space in the Near North Side building at 9 W. Walton St. And, that amount does not include an additional $6.2 million that the couple have spent for a nearby property that is not contiguous to their homesite.
According to a Dec. 7 building permit application filed by the Ishbias’ representatives with the village of Winnetka, which Elite Street obtained through a Freedom of Information request, the couple have hired New York architectural firm Ferguson & Shamamian to build the mansion.
No architectural drawings are yet available for the proposed mansion, and village officials have yet to approve the application. The plans are still being reviewed by Winnetka building officials, the village’s permit coordinator, Anita Lichterman, confirmed to Elite Street.
As a result, the mansion’s style and height still have not been made public. However, the application spells out plans for both an indoor swimming pool and an outdoor pool. Additionally, the permit application makes clear that the square footage figure includes all constructed space, including accessory buildings. As a result, below-grade space like a basement and any potential outbuildings could be included in the 68,344-square-foot figure.
How large is 68,344 square feet? It’s 12,000 square feet more than all the building space found in NBA legend Michael Jordan’s mansion and estate in Highland Park, which has been for sale for more than a decade and currently is available for $14.85 million. A Lincoln Park mansion currently listed for $30 million measures a reported 25,000 square feet, while the four floors that Griffin owns in the building at 9 W. Walton St. total about 28,000 square feet.
The plans are for the mansion to be built on the sites of three of the four homes that the couple have bought on Lake Michigan, and those three purchases together have totaled $33.7 million for what would be 3.7 acres — a nearly unheard-of size for a homesite on Lake Michigan in the Cook County portion of the North Shore. Demolition permits that the Ishbias submitted to Winnetka officials and that have been reviewed by Elite Street indicate that the Ishbias planned to spend another $232,750 to demolish the three homes that make up their homesite.
The Ishbias in late 2020 also paid $6.2 million for a fourth, 5,410-square-foot house that is not contiguous to their 3.7-acre building site. That house, which sits on a 0.56-acre lakefront site, lies between two Winnetka parks — Elder Lane Park and Centennial Park — and over the past two-plus years, their representatives have been working with the Winnetka Park District on a potential land swap that would entail the Ishbias donating that $6.2 million house to the Park District in exchange for an existing tract of similar width in the south end of Centennial Park that would be contiguous to their building site.
That land swap remains in negotiations between the Ishbias and the Park District, although it has been complicated by a Winnetka resident’s ongoing lawsuit against the Park District, alleging that the land swap is a violation of the Illinois Park District Code.
Whether or not the land swap goes forward, the Ishbias clearly are proceeding with building their mansion on Lake Michigan. Elite Street reported on March 31 that the Ishbias had begun demolishing the three contiguous houses that they own.
Peter Lee, who represents the Ishbias, did not respond to a request for comment. However, in a brief phone interview in late March, Ishbia told Elite Street that there was “no new news” on the land swap, and that his representatives were continuing to work with the village on building plans for his mansion.
“My designers … are working on it,” he said at the time.
Justin Ishbia, who is the son of the founder of Michigan-based mortgage lending giant United Wholesale Mortgage, founded and runs the private equity firm Shore Capital Partners. In December, he and his brother Mat announced that they would purchase the Phoenix Suns and the Phoenix Mercury sports teams for $4 billion.
In addition to their properties in Winnetka, Justin and Kristen Ishbia also own an 8,229-square-foot Lincoln Park mansion that they purchased in 2021 for $12.5 million, and a 30th-floor condo in the building at 9 W. Walton St. that they purchased in 2018 for $5.57 million.
The couple also own a six-bedroom, 18,172-square-foot mansion on the Gulf of Mexico in Naples, Florida, that they purchased in 2021 for $36 million.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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