One Of Highland Park's 2 Billionaires Selling Lakefront Mansion

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — One of Highland Park's two billionaire couples offered their blufftop mansion for sale with a $5.5 million asking price.

Last month, Janet and Michael Krasny listed the lakefront estate on South Deere Park Drive they have owned for more than a dozen years.

Built in 1992, the contemporary ranch-style design sits on 2.6 acres to the immediate north of Lake Shore Country Club.

The property includes more than 400 feet of Lake Michigan shoreline, a pool and pool house beside the lake, multiple patios and table land.

"If space and privacy are the new luxuries, then this home checks all the boxes," according to the home's listing from broker Jamie Roth

Including the finished lower level, the house has about 13,000 total square feet of living space, it said.

The interior features vaulted ceilings and lake views through floor-to-ceiling windows and large rooms.

Its master suite and two other bedrooms are on the main floor, with a guest suite and office in a smaller upstairs area, according to the listing.

The home's fully finished lower level has multiple exercise rooms, high ceilings, a kitchenette and fireplace.

Property records do not indicate when the property was last sold or how much the Krasnys paid for it.

According to the Lake County Assessor's Office, the 2020 total market value of the property for taxing purposes is about $3.7 million. Its annual property tax bill is more than $90,000.

Mr. Krasny, 67, founded Lincolnshire-based CDW in 1984 as Computer Discount Warehouse. It grew from a one-person business buying and selling computers to eventually offer more than 50,000 product lines. He mostly retired from CDW in 2000, according to a profile published in 2002, and, as a hobby started a small shop in Northbrook called Custom Woodworking Design where he and a few employees made awards and plaques for friends and businesses in the area. In 2007, private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners purchased CDW for $7.3 billion.

Krasny is currently president of Sawdust Investment Management Corp., and as of Thursday, has net worth of $1.3 billion, according to Forbes. That makes him the 16th wealthiest person in Illinois and second-richest in Highland Park, after Steven Sarowitz, founder and chairman of online payroll firm Paylocity, who joined the billionaires list for the first time last year.

The Krasnys will still own other Chicago area homes, even if they do unload the lakefront property. The couple reportedly spent $4.35 million on a condo in a Near North Side skyscraper in 2017. And property records show they purchased another Highland Park residential property off Ridge Road last year.

If the South Deere Park Drive would be the most expensive home sold in Highland Park in the past two years if it sells within about 13 percent of its asking price.

So far this year, while three Winnetka properties have closed for more than $5 million, the most expensive Highland Park home sold in 2020 changed hands for $4.8 million in July. Another lakefront in town home sold for $4.5 million last month. Last year, only one sale broke the $4 million mark.

• Address: 41 S. Deere Park Drive, Highland Park, Illinois
• Built: 1992
• Lot Size: 2.6 acres
• Aboveground Square Feet: 7,436
• Bedrooms: 4
• Bathrooms: 5 full, 1 half
• Asking Price: $5.5 million on Sept. 15

Listing information originally appeared on realtor.com. For more information and photos, click here.