Glencoe’s priciest home this year could be demolished for new digs

Mansion sold for full ask in less than a week on the market

333 Surfside Place, Glencoe (Redfin, Getty)
333 SurfsidePlace, Glencoe (Redfin, Getty)

A lakefront home in Glencoe will soon face the wrecking ball after selling for the recording-setting sale in the North Shore suburb.

The 5,500-square-foot home at 333 Surfside Place was listed at just under $6 million on Nov. 7, and went into contract less than a week later, Crain’s reported. Listing agent Michael Mitchell with @properties said he believes the buyers plan to demolish the home and replace it with their own.

333 Surfside Place, Glencoe (Redfin)

333 Surfside
Place, Glencoe (Redfin)

Built in the mid-1960s, the home’s design reflects the styles and trends of the time, and even the listing mentioned its rehabbing potential. “This floorplan can indeed be worked with if rehabbing is your thing,” the listing read. “Architects would have a field day reconfiguring the expansive first floor.”

The home sits on a full-acre lot that has frontage along Lake Michigan.

The sellers were the family of Gwen and Jules Knapp. Jules died in 2020 after running a paint company and later a steel door manufacturing company. He and his wife bought the house for $3.5 million in 1991 — adjusted for inflation, that would be equivalent to around $7.5 million today.

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The Knapp family was represented by Jena Radnay with @properties Christie’s International Real Estate.

The $5.99 million price tag marks the most expensive home sale in Glencoe for 2022 so far. The last home to sell for more in the area was a lakefront mansion on Longwood Avenue that went for $8.7 million in December 2021.

The Surfside home is the 61st Chicago-area home to sell for $5 million or more so far in 2022, marking a continued rise in high-end home sales. In 2019 there were 20 homes sold at $5 million or more, in 2020 there were 22 and last year had a total of 48.

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— Victoria Pruitt