The developer of the Hoover Estate on Green Bay Road in Glencoe — who plans to knock down the 12-acre estate’s seven-bedroom, 10,000-square-foot vintage mansion and construct 29 homes — has enlarged the property through the $880,000 purchase of a house immediately to the east.
The change, though, is meant to be temporary.
Through an off-market deal in January, developer Arthur Goldner’s Hoover Owner LLC company paid $880,000 for a one-story, 1,589-square-foot midcentury-modern home on a quarter-acre parcel on Carol Lane, just east of the proposed project.
Goldner appears to have paid a significant premium for the Carol Lane house; the seller bought it in 2013 for $315,000.
As for the Tudor-style mansion, which was built in 1925 and later sold to vacuum cleaner magnate H. Earl Hoover, the home and its 12-acre estate were listed for $15.9 million in 2018 and sold late that year for $10 million to Goldner’s company.
In October, Goldner’s firm won preliminary approval from Glencoe village officials for the proposed subdivision, which would be served by a newly built street extending east from Green Bay Road.
Glencoe officials said the Carol Lane house was not bought for secondary street access to the subdivision, but rather to connect the project and the village’s existing stormwater pipes. The issue was a major concern among officials and neighbors as plans for the subdivision were discussed in the fall.
Goldner told Elite Street that his goal is simply temporary ownership of the home. His group does not plan to demolish the house on the property, but instead intends to place necessary stormwater pipes next to the house and use those pipes to connect to the village’s stormwater system in Carol Lane.
After the development is finished, his group will sell the house, Goldner said. Had the Carol Lane house option not been available, Goldner said, he would need to have installed an expensive sewer lift station.
“(This purchase) just fell into our lap,” he said.
A village official confirmed that the purchase does not represent an expansion of the original project site.
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“There has been no plan submitted for secondary access to Carol Lane, and we do not anticipate one,” said Taylor Baxter, the Village of Glencoe’s development services manager. “It is our understanding that this Carol Lane parcel would provide a location for a stormwater infrastructure parcel between the project site and the village’s stormwater system on Carol.”
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance writer.
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