A six-bedroom, more than 25,000-square-foot lakefront mansion in Winnetka was listed on June 12 for $29.9 million, making it the latest in a line of high-priced listings on Lake Michigan in that northern suburb.
The owners, mortgage-industry entrepreneur Dmitry Godin and his wife, Victoria, in 2013 paid more than $11.9 million for what had been a 15,065-square-foot mansion on a flag lot on Lake Michigan. The real estate multiple listing service, which is allowed to include personal property in sale prices such as furniture, stated that the deal had been for $12.7 million, but the Cook County Recorder’s office at the time stated that the transaction was for $11.95 million.
The Godins then spent $2.15 million to buy a 7,859-square-foot mansion on a half-acre parcel in front of their mansion and Sheridan Road, and they subsequently demolished that 7,859-square-foot mansion, consolidated the two properties and expanded their mansion, which had been built in 2010. The expansion entailed the couple constructing a “wellness wing” on Lake Michigan, which they linked to their mansion via a newly built private tunnel.
Features include nine full bathrooms, four half bathrooms, an elevator, a full gym and sauna, a grass tennis court and 137 feet of private sandy beach, all on a 1.63-acre parcel.
Listing agent Jena Radnay of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate could not be reached for comment. However, her listing information states that the Godins’ mansion’s replacement cost is $55 million. It also notes that Winnetka’s recent lakefront protection ordinances would make it difficult to construct the mansion’s wellness wing now.
In a phone interview, Dmitry Godin confirmed Radnay’s assertion to Elite Street.
“It’s impossible,” he said. “Winnetka won’t let you do that anymore.”
Godin said the reason behind the wellness wing was that he and his wife liked the idea of a beach house with an indoor pool and a gym. The issue, he said, was Chicago’s winters.
“In the winter, the lake gets pretty rough and gets pretty cold, so we felt that if we were going to do the beach house, there’s got to be a way to get to it from the inside, so that’s where we got the idea for the tunnel,” Godin said. “Once we got permission from the village, it worked pretty well.”
Asked why he and his wife are selling the mansion, Godin said that with some kids in college and some in high school, “we just want to have some flexibility in terms of where we want to be.”
The mansion currently is listed in real estate agents’ private listing network. It is the second highest-priced listing in Winnetka — and the second highest-priced listing in the entire Chicago area — after retired investment banker Muneer Satter’s lakefront mansion a little farther north in Winnetka, which has a $35 million asking price. Radnay also is the listing agent for Satter’s mansion, which presently has a contract pending to sell.
Winnetka also has three other high-priced lakefront mansions that each are available for more than $9 million — and each one has a pending purchase contract. Two each are listed for about $12 million, and the other is listed for $9.5 million. Radnay is the listing agent for one of the $12 million listings and for the $9.5 million listing. Other high-priced Chicago-area listings include a five-bedroom, 15,000-square-foot mansion in Lake Forest that is listed for $27.5 million, and a five-bedroom, 25,000-square-foot spread on Astor Street on Chicago’s Gold Coast that has a $21 million asking price.
Godin’s mansion is a little north of Elder Lane Park. Just a short distance south of Centennial Park is billionaire Justin Ishbia’s mansion that he is building on 3.3 acres for a cost including land and building costs of $77.7 million.
Godin’s mansion had a $301,681 property tax in the 2023 tax year.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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