Le Grand Reve – Chicago’s most expensive home listing is going to auction

Completed in 2008, the exquisite 26,500 sq ft French inspired château called “Le Grand Reve” (the Big Dream) hit the market as a private listing 2 years ago with a $32 million price tag. In early 2010, the price was reduced to $28 million. Since no buyer was found, the mansion will go to auction at the end of October.

The sellers are Sherwin Jarol and his wife Deborah. Sherwin is CEO at Bradley Associates, a real-estate investment company in Chicago with a portfolio valued at $700 million. The family acquired the site in November 2003 for a sum of $2.56 million. After demolishing the smaller home that was there, they contracted the Landry Design Group of Los Angeles to build Le Grand Reve, a chateau that has 17,000 square feet of living space.

Le Grand Reve is made of the finest materials, handcrafted and custom made for the entire interior. There is nothing compared to it when it comes to level of detail and price on the entire Chicago marketplace.

The Jarols want to sell it because the home was designed when they were living with their children, now there are just the two of them and they want to move to something smaller, according to Ronda Fish who handled the previous attempts to sell it.

According to Tim Salm of Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty, the listing agent, the total cost of building and furnishing the Winnetka mansion is $40 million.
He said the property didn’t sell because of the economic climate and think a certainty of sale along with international marketing will touch more prospective buyers.

Inspired by Chateau Villandry in France’s Loire Valley, Le Grand Reve has 26 rooms, 7 bathrooms, 8 fireplaces, a two-story rotunda, a Tiffany stained glass dome and a 10 car garage. Along the amenities you can notice spa, home theater, swimming pool and a gift-wrapping room.

You might grab a bargain, the general feeling is that it will sell for a fraction of its value. “It’s out of the price range for this area, it’s overbuilt, overdone and overpriced.”, according to Alla Kimbarovsky, a real estate agent from Winnetka. She added that “In Winnetka, Kenilworth, nobody lives like that.”

To participate as a bidder you need to deposit $250,000 in an escrow account beforehand.

If you are curious what the taxes are for Le Grand Reve, I can tell you they are around a whooping $125,000.

Vector illustration of teamwork concept. Office workers are made up of parts of the whole, working on the project.

Sources: Concierge Auctions, Chicagotribune and Chicagomag