Actor and Chicago native Lamorne Morris, the College of DuPage graduate who starred for seven seasons on Fox’s comedy series “New Girl,” on July 12 sold his recently built, seven-bedroom, 11,175-square-foot mansion in Burr Ridge for $3.5 million.
Morris, who turns 41 on Aug. 14, grew up on the South Side before moving to Wheaton, where he attended Glenbard South High School. Trained at Chicago’s Second City improvisational comedy theater, he acted in commercials before joining BET and then getting his break on “New Girl.” Now, Morris is set to appear in Sony’s upcoming TV show “Spider-Noir,” as well as starring as actor Garrett Morris in the upcoming film “Saturday Night.”
Through an opaque land trust that shielded his identity, Morris paid $2.6 million in late 2022 for the Burr Ridge mansion. Built in 2021, the mansion has 7-1/2 bathrooms, high ceilings, wide plank white oak floors throughout, a kitchen with double islands, top-of-the-line Wolf appliances, a butler’s pantry, a walk-in pantry, two dishwashers and two sinks. Other features include an outdoor whiskey and cigar space and a lower level with a Soho House-inspired bar, a gym, a yoga room, a sauna and a theater room.
The mansion sits on a 0.82-acre property at the end of a cul-de-sac.
Listing agent Marisol Doblado of Compass told Elite Street that in buying the Burr Ridge mansion, Morris’ dream had been to live in the Chicago area “51 percent of the time.”
“It was almost new construction — it was about a year old when (he) acquired it,” she said. “The house was a transitional, really cool and big space, and he thought his nieces and nephews and mom would be over at the house all the time, and that just didn’t end up being the case. Because he works so much, he travels so much and the last few years have been incredible for his career, and he’s been filming all over the world. So the house was empty 95 percent of the time. It was like, his brother was house-sitting a 12,000-square-foot house — it made not a ton of sense.”
Doblado helped Morris design some of the house, including the lower-level speakeasy-style bar. She also designed a male-oriented bathroom in the basement that was turned into an art installation, painted by a world-famous muralist.
“This bathroom was inspired by the kind of seedy New York City bathroom that has graffiti in it,” she said. “It also was inspired by his favorite movies of all time, including ‘Training Day’ and ‘The Matrix.’”
Doblado noted that Morris’ plan had been to customize the mansion to make it his own.
“He’s young, single and a bachelor, and we had to make it more cool, and more hip,” she said. “As much as he wanted a home-home, he wanted it to feel like him. So he started (designing) it, and then he was never there.”
The buyer is an opaque land trust, according to public records. The mansion is shown in real estate databases as having been listed in April for $3.5 million, although it actually sold off-market, Doblado said.
“I didn’t think Lamorne was going to sell within a year and a half of owning the house, but because of my experience and the market, we were able to make almost $1 million on the sale in a year and a half of ownership,” Doblado said. “It worked out to be a really excellent investment for him.”
The mansion had a $37,039 property tax bill in the 2023 tax year.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.