Developer Fred Latsko sells Gold Coast mansion for $1.9M
Developer Fred Latsko sold a six-bedroom, 6,300-square-foot Gold Coast mansion on Astor Street for $1.9 million.
Latsko has owned numerous residential properties in Chicago over the years, the most notable of which is the landmarked, 9,768-square-foot Francis J. Dewes mansion in Lincoln Park.
Through a land trust, Latsko in 2016 paid $1.6 million for the Astor Street mansion, which was built in 1887 and sits on a 71-footwide lot. The mansion was the residence of the French consul in Chicago in the 1960s.
In a brief interview, Latsko noted that he and his family never had inhabited the Astor Street home, although he pointed out that his children “did use it as their Halloween house for the years we had it.” Latsko said he bought it with an eye toward eventually downsizing. However, he added that now if he does end up downsizing and leaving the Dewes mansion, he and his family have another option in a different Gold Coast house he continues to own, several blocks to the north.
The three-story mansion that Latsko just sold has five fireplaces, 4 ½ bathrooms, a full basement, large rooms and numerous architectural details, such as an intricate stairway banister and vintage wooden fireplace mantels.
Latsko had been trying to sell the mansion since 2018. He first listed it that year for $2.9 million and cut his asking price in 2019 to $2.25 million. He then reduced his price in September 2021 to $2 million.
Public records do not yet identify the buyer of the Astor Street mansion.
The mansion had a $44,945 property tax bill in the 2020 tax year.
Actor, comedian Jeff Garlin lists Gold Coast condo for $825,000:
Actor and comedian Jeff Garlin placed his three-bedroom walk-up condominium on the Gold Coast on the market Oct. 6 for $825,000.
A Chicago native and an alumnus of The Second City improvisational troupe, Garlin, 60, is best known for roles as patriarch Murray Goldberg on the ABC sitcom “The Goldbergs” and for playing Larry David’s manager on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Garlin has owned the 1,800-square-foot condo since 2010, when he bought it for $591,700. Now, however, Garlin is based in New York City and Los Angeles, so he has decided to place the unit on the market, listing agent Emily Sachs Wong of @properties told Elite Street.
“Jeff recently updated the entire condo,” she said. “It’s got Chicago charm with a fire escapestyle balcony off the rear overlooking a garden. The views into Elm are tree-lined and it’s in the midst of the best walking locale. It also has a totally separate man cave and office that must have generated lots of creativity in the lower level that’s not attached.”
Other features in the unit include two bathrooms, a
living room with a wall of windows and a fireplace, and a completely new white kitchen with stainless steel appliances, plenty of cabinet and countertop space, island bar seating and a built-in workstation ideal for working from home, Wong said. The condo’s primary bedroom suite has a dual sided, built-in closet space, a modern bathroom and access to a private balcony.
The unit is on the building’s second floor, but its purchase includes exclusive ownership of a separate, uncontiguous ground floor-level room that can be used for storage or as an office or man cave.
The condo had a $15,398 property tax bill in the 2020 tax year.
In Los Angeles, Garlin paid $2.42 million in 2018 for a four-bedroom, 2,606-square-foot house in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood.
Mexican billionaire German Larrea identified as buyer of $20M St. Regis Tower condo:
Mexican billionaire German Larrea has been identified as the buyer who on Sept. 21 paid $20.56 million for the fourbedroom, 10,000-squarefoot duplex condominium on the 71st floor of the Residences at the St. Regis Tower — one of the highest recorded sale prices of any home in Chicago-area history.
The purchase by Larrea, who is the CEO of Mexican mining corporation Grupo Mexico and a part-time resident of Chicago, was the highest-priced sale of any Chicago-area home so far this year.
A real estate source in the St. Regis confirmed that Larrea was the condo’s buyer.
Larrea, who Forbes estimates has a net worth of $21.2 billion, is no stranger to high-end Chicago real estate. In 2014, he paid $3.57 million through a limited liability company to buy a condo on the 38th floor of the Ritz-Carlton Residences building, and he later battled noted bankruptcy attorney Peter Francis Geraci in Cook County Circuit Court over who had the right of first refusal to buy the 6,000-square-foot, 40th-floor penthouse at the Ritz-Carlton Residences.
Ultimately, Geraci, who paid $8.63 million for the Ritz-Carlton penthouse, prevailed in that dispute. And separately, Larrea paid $11.7 million in 2016 through another limited liability company to buy the four-bedroom, full-floor condo on the 52nd floor of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel’s residences from trader Igor Chernomzav.
Larrea bought his condo in the St. Regis using the same limited liability company that he had used to purchase his Waldorf Astoria unit, according to public records. Larrea’s new condo has 4 ½ bathrooms, according to listing information.
Real estate agent Rachel Vecchio of Dream Town Realty, who represented Larrea, declined to comment on any aspect of the transaction.
At $20.56 million — which is $2 million more than the duplex’s $18.5 million asking price — Larrea’s St. Regis purchase is eclipsed on the list of highest Chicago-area residential sale prices only by two package deals. Billionaire Ken Griffin, who now has moved to Florida, paid $58.75 million in four separate transactions in 2017 for four condo units in the Gold Coast building at 9 W. Walton St. that he never occupied or even completed work on. However, only one of Griffin’s four individual transactions — a $21.17 million purchase — was for more than the amount that Larrea just paid.
Billionaire Justin Ishbia now has spent $39.9 million in Winnetka for four separate properties on Lake Michigan — only three of which are contiguous — and he has made each of those purchases separately, and none for more than $16 million.