With an unanimous 7-0 vote, the Highland Park City Council on Monday night shot down plans to turn Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan’s former mansion into a museum that would have received between 100,000 and 180,000 visitors each year.
John Cooper, who bought the property from Jordan for $9.5 million in December 2024, initially proposed renting out the 37,700-square-foot mansion at 2700 Point Lane for short-term stays and offering fractional ownership shares in the estate. Both concepts were met with resistance by city leaders, and for the past few months, Cooper has been developing a new idea to convert the property into a museum.
Cooper envisioned the museum as an attraction that would draw schoolchildren and other visitors from around the country for tours. The property would be tied to a curriculum involving greatness, and would both inspire people and promote introspection.
Under Cooper’s proposal, visitors would be bused from a parking lot in Bannockburn to the Highland Park Park District’s Heller Nature Center, which is immediately to the north of the former Jordan property. Since he appeared before Highland Park’s City Council in December and first floated the idea of the museum, Cooper has worked to address concerns that council members raised. He promised round-the-clock neighborhood security and pledged to remove Jordan’s uniform number — 23 — from the estate’s gate in order to reduce traffic from gawkers. Cooper also promised to make neighbors whole if they suffered a dip in property values when selling their homes.
“We heard the concerns on traffic, noise, privacy and precedent, and we redesigned the project around those concerns,” Cooper told the council on Monday night. He added that he anticipated support for the venture from the Highland Park Park District and suggested that the Heller Nature Center as it stands today is underutilized.
But since Cooper first proposed the museum, neighbors in the surrounding Architecture Point and Mavor subdivisions have opposed the idea almost uniformly, and under questioning from the City Council on Monday night, Cooper conceded that neighbors had not responded favorably to his efforts to address their concerns.
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Several residents spoke out on Monday night, complaining that if Highland Park allowed the museum it would require a change to the city’s zoning code that would result in what Mayor Nancy Rotering called “spot zoning.”
“No amount of conditions, restrictions or adjustments will change the fundamental reality that this is a commercial use proposed in a quiet, residential cul-de-sac,” said Michael Friduss, whose property adjoins the former Jordan estate. “There’s no version of this proposal that aligns with the character of the neighborhood or that has the support of the people who live here.”
Cooper never explicitly raised Jordan’s name in connection with the museum due to trademark and right-of-publicity concerns. That didn’t stop several neighbors from mentioning the Chicago Bulls great by name Monday night.
“This is not in any way an official museum, there is no legal right to use Michael Jordan’s name, likeness or intellectual property in any commercial way,” said Alex Ulyanov, a neighbor who also spoke out in opposition. “If this is approved, we are no longer making zoning based on land use. We’re making it on who used to live in the house, and that’s the line that should not be crossed.”
According to estimates from Cooper’s economic consultant, the proposed museum would have generated 41 jobs and $2.6 million a year in wages. In addition, Cooper would have offered all Highland Park residents free admission for the first year, along with a certain number of local school trips to the estate.
“We can do this while protecting the neighborhood, we’ll have enforceable quiet hours, zero leak transit, privacy fencing, 24/7 security and property value backstops,” Cooper told the council. “I’m flexible. I want to have a dialogue. We’ll provide more independent studies, and I’d love to work together.”
Several council members told Cooper that they liked his basic concept, but just not in its proposed location.
“I love the idea — how thoughtful it is, the greatness inspiration. It’s fantastic and there’s nothing that I would poke holes at,” said Councilman Andres Tapia. “But in the end, it’s in the middle of a residential neighborhood, and I just can’t get past that.”
Councilwoman Yumi Ross noted that of the other properties that Cooper’s representatives flagged as comparable museum attractions — including the former Elvis Presley estate Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, the Cheekwood Estate and Gardens in Nashville, Tennessee, and the late musician Prince’s Paisley Park home and recording studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota — “in this (case), the person who made the site famous (Jordan) is not participating and has sued places that use (his) name.”
“You haven’t convinced the neighborhood that this is a good idea, so you haven’t convinced me either, I’m sorry to say, because I know you went through a lot,” Ross told Cooper.
Councilman Jon Center asked Cooper if he would consider the general concept at a different site in Highland Park.
“If it loses the unique location, I might as well put it in downtown Chicago,” Cooper responded.
The zoning change Cooper sought would have allowed the museum to operate in a residentially zoned area. The council, however, decided to vote on Monday on a resolution to not refer the zoning request to the city’s Plan and Design Commission, effectively dropping the matter as a policy consideration.
After the meeting, a spokesperson for Cooper said it was too early to articulate his next steps for the property.
Jordan built the mansion in the 1990s. He first listed it in 2012 for $29 million before cutting his asking price for the final time in 2015 to nearly $14.9 million. After that, Jordan held fast to that listing price, although he ultimately agreed to a $9.5 million offer from Cooper in 2024.
“We are disappointed by tonight’s vote by the City Council, but I can understand their reaction to the neighbors’ concerns,” Cooper said in a statement.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.