9-27-10: Citadel Executive Is the New Owner of Rezko’s Former Home
List Price: $3.587 million
Sale Price: $3.701 million
The Property: The 30-room Wilmette mansion where the now-imprisoned political wheeler-dealer Tony Rezko threw fundraisers for Barack Obama and Rod Blagojevich is undergoing renovations by its new owners, Dan Johnson, the managing director of Citadel Investment Group, and his wife, Katherine “Katsy” Johnson, an artist.
The couple bought the house from Bank of America last March through a trust that does not identify them in public records. I only learned their names last week. My source asked not to be identified because of personal relationships with the new owners.
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Price Points:
The Rezkos bought the house in 1999 for $1.9 million. According to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, they took out a $5.15 million mortgage on the property from LaSalle Bank in September 2003. Three years later, LaSalle Bank began foreclosure proceedings; Bank of America inherited the Rezkos’ 2003 mortgage when it acquired LaSalle Bank in 2007.
In August 2009, Intercounty Judicial Sales Corp. held an auction for the house but got no bids. Bank of America then listed the house for sale conventionally in February, with an asking price of $3,587,900. The sale to the Johnsons closed March 22nd.
The fact that the house was sold for more than the bank was asking suggests that there were multiple bids, but Lynn Dahl, one of the listing agents, did not respond to my request for confirmation