“A long-unsold mansion on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s block of Astor Street is going up for auction, with a promise that no matter what the highest bid is, the seller will take it.
“The property [at 1442 N Astor Street], a three-story brick and limestone house built in 1891 with a one-story addition done in the 1930s, first came on the market in May 2014, priced at $8 million. By January 2020, seller Margaret Elliott had cut the price by more than half, to $3.75 million.
“On August 20, the house will be auctioned online, and according to the firm handling the sale, there is no reserve. In an auction, a reserve is a bottom-line price below which the seller won’t go. Only if the top bid is at the reserve or higher does the sale go through.
“Jennie Heal, president of Supreme Auctions, the Scottsdale, Arizona firm handling the sale with local listing agent Alex Wolking of Keller Williams Chicago Lincoln Park, confirmed that Elliott has no reserve, either announced or unannounced. (Some auctioneers do not announce their reserve, and bidders only find out when nobody wins the house. A published reserve is often announced as a minimum bid.)
“After the property had sat unsold for a few years, in early 2019, she added to the offering. In an attempt to overcome one of the home’s weak points, the boxy one-story addition that detracts from the three-story section’s handsome profile, Elliott commissioned an architect to design an addition to the one-story piece that would make it match the three-story piece in size. She then went through the process of getting the plans approved by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks.
“The total interior space would then be 10,000 square feet, but the plans also allowed for treating the property as two structures: the original three-story house and a new three-story neighbor that might be a single or multiple residential units. Heal said those plans are included in the present sale offering.” (Rodkin, 7/23/20)
Read the full story at Crain’s Chicago Business
