An insurance executive and his wife paid $12.55 million in December for a six-bedroom, 8,000-square-foot mansion in Lincoln Park, which is the fourth-highest recorded amount anyone ever has paid for a single-family house in Chicago.
Public records show that Terry McCann, the president of Chicago-based wholesale insurance brokerage RT Specialty, and his wife, Eileen, were the buyers of the mansion, which now twice has sold for more than $11 million in the past four years. RT Specialty is part of Chicago-based Ryan Specialty Group, which is a publicly traded specialty insurance firm that was founded by billionaire Pat Ryan.
The McCanns bought the mansion from Andrew Killion, who is the co-founder of proprietary trading firm Akuna Capital, and his decorator wife, Sandy, who sold the mansion as part of a move to Australia.
Built in 2012 by homebuilder BGD & C, the mansion has seven bathrooms, two fireplaces, oversized windows, French doors, a walnut-paneled study, a butler’s pantry, a kitchen with a breakfast bar that seats five and a primary bedroom suite with a his-and-hers walk-in closet and a bathroom that features Calacatta marble. The mansion’s lower level has a guest suite, a recreation room, a fitness studio, a gift wrap room and an office.
Outside, the mansion has a 90-foot-wide, 0.27-acre lot, which is almost unheard-of in Lincoln Park, and has a large elevated terrace, a separate paved area and a paved basketball court.
The Killions, who bought the mansion in 2018 for $11.9 million, first listed it in May 2021 for $15 million, and never reduced their asking price.
Terry McCann did not respond to a request for comment. The agent who represented the couple in the purchase, Tim Sheahan of Compass, declined to comment.
The mansion had a $108,825.30 property tax bill in the 2020 tax year.
In Chicago history, more than a half-dozen condominium units have sold for more than the amount that the McCanns paid for their mansion, but the highest-priced single-family house sale ever recorded is Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his wife’s $14.5 million purchase in 2006 of their current Astor Street mansion. The next-highest-priced house sales within the city limits are Laurie Wilson’s $13.3 million purchase of a Lincoln Park mansion in late 2015, followed by John Harris’ $13 million purchase of a Gold Coast mansion in 2008.
The Pritzkers’ record purchase amount in 2006 tops the list of recorded house sales in Chicago history, but some newly constructed mansions in Lincoln Park built on land that their owners already owned may well have had construction costs on par with what the Pritzkers paid. However, because those amounts were paid directly to homebuilders, those amounts are not public record.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance writer.
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