Billionaire Real Estate Investor Sells Evanston House For $1.2M

EVANSTON, IL — Billionaire real estate investor Jennifer Pritzker sold a turn of the century Evanston Victorian earlier this month for barely more than its purchase price more than seven years ago.

Pritzker, whose Tawani Enterprises specializes in developing, managing and preserving Chicago area real estate, is still looking to unload at least three more properties in Evanston.

The five-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot home on Judson Avenue was purchased for $1.2 million in February 2012. It was listed in January for nearly $1.3 million.

Built in 1889 and located on a 0.3-acre lot less than a block from the lakefront and a few blocks south of Northwestern University. It includes six original wood-burning fireplaces, leaded glass windows and a fenced-in back deck with brick paths and a garden. A new roof on the two-car detached garage and a boiler were added last year, according to its listing.

Jennifer Pritkzer, 69, is worth $1.9 billion and is ranked by Forbes as the No. 1,227 richest person in the world. She is a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, the founder of the Pritkzer Military Museum and Library and one of 11 billionaires in the Pritzker family and a cousin of Illinois Gov. JB Pritkzer.

In 2015, Pritzker purchased another Evanston property, a 1914 Tudor Revival, for $1.7 million. Its price was dropped to $1.6 million in January and the sale of the home, located on Sheridan Road near the lakefront on the north side of the Northwestern campus, has been pending since last month.

The Judson Avenue home was sold for $1,215,000 on March 13 to Milton and Michelle Zimmerman, according to property records.
The estimated 2019 market value of the property is $1.4 million for taxing purposes, up from under $923,000 the prior year, according to the Cook County Assessor's Office. Its most recent annual property tax bill was more than $25,000.

Tawani also owns two bed and breakfasts in Evanston less than a block east of the Judson Avenue home. Last month, a company spokesperson told Patch the two properties — Stone Porch by the Lake, 300 Church St., and Stone Terrace Bed and Breakfast, 1622 Forest Place — would be listed in March.

The firm plans on continuing to operate the Lang House, a 1919 Prairie style mansion, and Emil Bach House, a vacation and venue rental designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1915 in the 7400 block of North Sheridan Road in Rogers Park, as Tawani Property Management shifts its portfolio toward commercial and multi-family residential properties, according to the spokesperson.

Pritzker's Winnetka mansion on the sixth hole of the Indian Hill Golf Club was re-listed in February for $3.85 million after a previous offer fell through.

Read more: Jennifer Pritzker Puts 1920's Winnetka Mansion Back On Market