The suburb of Kenilworth, Illinois, in the Chicago area’s swanky North Shore saw its highest home price ever with the $14.5 million sale of a lakefront property built by the same firm behind the construction of the Empire State Building in New York.
The sale that closed Wednesday had gone under contract within a week of listing in August, following “lots of interest,” said listing agent Jena Radnay of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate. Radnay represented the seller and buyer, though declined to comment on the buyer.
It sold for $500,000 less than the original listing price, a 3% difference. Homes.com showed the home went pending on Sept. 1, 17 days after listing, although the sale could have been in the unofficial process much earlier, as buyers and sellers must work through inspections and financing, for example.
The home at 219 Sheridan Road was built in 1907 by Paul Starrett, according to the brokerage. Starrett led the George A. Fuller Co. before starting Starrett Brothers in 1922, which, in addition to the Empire State Building, built the Flatiron Building, Lincoln Memorial, Plaza Hotel and the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago.
Seller Yoanna Kulas, a designer and wife to Mark Kulas, who runs Kulas Maids, purchased the property for $4.5 million in 2020 and led a two-year remodel, working with architect Michael Abraham and designer Mick De Giulio. They took the home from Cape Cod traditional to minimalist and modern.
The property has six bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and 8,280 square feet with a private 115-foot beach. Kenilworth is about 20 miles north of downtown Chicago.
Yoanna Kulas previously purchased a Winnetka home for $1.32 million in 2015, which she extensively remodeled and sold for $5.5 million.
According to media reports, the previous record-setting sale of $11.75 million in Kenilworth also took place on Sheridan Road.
It’s a historic housing market for the North Shore
This sale marks the second-highest price for a greater Chicago home so far in 2025, with the first also in the North Shore.
It’s been the “biggest year ever on the lakefront,” said Radnay, who’s the agent behind August’s $31.25 million sale in nearby Winnetka, which became the highest-priced existing home sale ever in the Chicago area and of the year. That record home has seven bathrooms, 13 bathrooms and 13,894 square feet.
Radnay notes that the Midwest is an attractive region for buyers seeking strong school systems and relatively mild weather. Her Winnetka sale this year signaled a hunger for luxury estates in the area and the market is propped by a scarcity of lakefront properties.
“I think it’s a testament to how special the North Shore is and how lucky we are to have these beautiful lakefront opportunities. … And there’s only so many of them,” she said of the Winnetka sale.