A seven-bedroom, 21,709-square-foot mansion in Naperville that had been listed for $10.5 million sold on Thursday for $7.55 million, making it the second-highest amount anyone ever has paid for a property in Naperville.
The mansion was sold by Thomas F. Harter Sr., a former International Harvester executive who founded Naperville-based commercial printer Microdynamics Group. Harter had the mansion built in 2017.
Built by custom homebuilder Dave Knecht and situated on a 2.51-acre property, the Tudor-style brick and limestone mansion has nine full bathrooms, three half bathrooms, leaded casement windows, eight fireplaces, stone staircases, a custom artisan iron entry door, custom lighting and crown moldings. The mansion’s great room has a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace and French doors while the kitchen has two islands, quartzite countertops, Kohler fixtures, Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances and a butler’s pantry.
Other features include a hearth room, a library with custom wood built-ins and a custom wood ceiling, and a first-floor primary bedroom suite with a custom turret, a private sitting room, a wet bar, two custom walk-in closets and a bathroom with a Kohler computerize stone walk-in shower, three vanities, heated floors and dual water closets.
Upstairs, the mansion has a second primary bedroom suite on the second floor along with an attic on the third level. The lower level’s centerpiece is a custom leather and wood sports bar with leather-finished countertops, a stainless steel bar sink, four beer taps, and Sub-Zero and Fisher & Paykel appliances. The basement also has a movie theater that seats 17 and has custom wool carpeting with a heated floor, as well as a fitness room, a private spa and a more-than-3,000-bottle wine cellar behind iron doors.
Harter first listed the mansion in 2021 for $10.5 million, and he never deviated from his asking price.
“This home is a masterpiece,” listing agent Lauren Dayton of Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty told Elite Street after the sale. “The seller is very happy, the buyers are very happy and it was a very fair deal.”
Both in Naperville and DuPage County, the highest recorded purchase price for a home is the $8.07 million, paid in November by the buyer of a five-bedroom, 15,451-square-foot mansion just west of the city’s downtown. However, because that property sold via an auction, the sellers actually did not collect $8.07 million. Instead, the sellers collected $7.42 million through two separate transactions for two separate parcels — $5.42 million for the mansion and $2 million for adjoining vacant land to the east. The $651,000 difference between the $7.42 million and $8.07 million amounts represented 12% of the sale price for the mansion property, according to that mansion’s listing agent, Katie Minott.
Prior to November, DuPage’s sales record was the $7.95 million that a buyer had paid in 2003 for then-Chicago White Sox slugger Frank Thomas’ mansion in Oak Brook.
Harter’s now-former home had an $83,939 property tax bill in the 2022 tax year.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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