The market for the average priced U.S. residence may be soft, but the uber rich continue to drive prices up at the very top of the luxury market. 
Chicago is keeping in pace with the rest of the world in setting record-breaking prices like never seen before.
Case in point, just this past week, Beanie Babies founder, Ty Warner, is said to have purchased the two-story penthouse at Santiago Calatrava’s Chicago Spire. Mr. Warner will have his own private elevator to take him to his 10,293 square foot home that will tower over Chicago 2000 feet up in the air (500 feet higher than the Sears Tower) on floors 141 and 142 and will boast 
360 degree views. So what does it cost to be on top of the world, well at least on top of Chicago? A record-setting price tag of… $40 million! Kudos to you, Mr. Warner!
This makes the penthouse at Lucien LaGrange’s 2520 N. Lakeview located in Lincoln Park seem like a bargain at just a mere $13,546,500 for it’s 9,427 square feet on the 31st floor.But if condo living doesn’t suit one’s uber-rich lifestyle, you can own your own private mansion either in the Gold Coast 
in a 26 room, 15,000 square foot vintage classic at 25 E. Banks or in Lincoln Park’s McMansion district 
in a 13 room, 16,000 square foot newly constructed masterpiece at 1917 N. Howe for just $12 million dollars each.
If this is peanuts compared to one’s uber-uber rich lifestyle and you wanted to buy the most expensive home in the world, you’re already too late. That one just went under contract this past August for a whopping $750 million. 
La Villa Leopolda is a gargantuan cream-colored mansion with castle-like turrets and two private guest houses. It is perched on the hillside on one of the most picturesque winding roads in the world where Grace Kelly found her fate and today is filled with jetsetters in their red Ferraris twisting rapidly through the hairpin turns. It’s the creme-de-la-crem locale in the hear of the French Riviera, AKA the Cote d’Azur, and overlooks the turquoise Mediterranean between Monaco and Nice. King Leopold II of Belgium first built this palatial estate in 1902 as his summer escape. Today, it takes fifty full-time gardeners to look after the 20 acres of lush landscape which includes over 1,200 olive, orange, lemon and cypress trees. 
The new owner is said to be a Russian oil oligarch and the contract was signed to transfer ownership from Lily Safra, the widow of Edmund Safra, the banking billionaire who was murdered in an arsonist’s fire. The buzz amongst luxury real estate agents has it that Mrs. Safra held out for months as the persistent mystery buyer kept raising his offering price. Kudos to you, too, Mrs. Safra!
This $750 million dollar sale raises the bar that goes beyond luxury and perhaps even reality and it definitely makes our record-breaking $40 million dollar Chicago sale seem like a real bargain.
Anne Ewasko is a designated luxury home specialist and is experienced in assisting upper-tiered buyers and sellers.
Posted By: 
Anne Ewasko
Crain’s Chicago released today that a penthouse at Chicago’s (as of yet unbuilt) Spire has been sold to Beanie Babies’ Ty Warner. The 10,000 sf unit on the 141st and 142nd proposed floors to be built at 400 N. Lake Shore Drive was listed at $40,000,000. Talk about a high-end Chicago property! 
As Mr. Trump famously said, “If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.” Ha ha. Most people think The Donald penned that axiom himself, but just like a lot of his things in real estate, it’s borrowed (thank you, J. Paul Getty). But the funny thing these days is that some of the customers who bought at Chicago’s luxury Trump Tower in Chicago’s River North are playing THEIR card and thumbing their nose at Mr. Trump himself by seriously undercutting him on the last 20% or so of his sales. As anyone in the business knows, it’s the last 10-15% of your sales that are your gravy – that’s where your profit is. 
