Listed for sale since 2012... Price cut to half from 38.5 billion
Conditional contract registered with cancellation clause if issues arise
The basketball legend Michael Jordan's 'troublesome' suburban mansion in Chicago, USA, which he had put up for sale, is expected to be sold after 12 years.
Michael Jordan's suburban Chicago mansion. His signature jersey number '23' is displayed at the main entrance. [Image source: Screenshot from the U.S. real estate website 'Redfin']
On the 17th (local time), US CBS News and others reported that Jordan's 5,202㎡ (approximately 1,573 pyeong) mansion in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago, is currently registered under a 'contingent contract.' A contingent contract means that the buyer and Jordan have signed a contract to sell the house, but the contract can be canceled depending on conditions such as discovering defects or issues with loan processing. The identity of the buyer has not been confirmed, and the specific purchase price is not yet known. However, there are expectations that this transaction could set a new record for real estate sales prices in Highland Park.
Jordan put this mansion on the market in 2012. Initially, Jordan listed the mansion for $29 million (approximately 38.5 billion KRW), but when it did not sell, he lowered the price to nearly half, $14,855,000 (approximately 19.7 billion KRW) after three years. He also produced promotional videos in English and Chinese.
The main entrance of the mansion features a large decoration of Jordan's iconic jersey number '23,' and Jordan's silhouette with the Nike logo is painted in various places such as the flag on the outdoor putting green and the home theater. The mansion is structured with two floors above ground and one basement floor, and includes 9 bedrooms, 19 bathrooms, a study, a movie theater, a home bar, a smoking room, indoor and outdoor basketball courts, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a fitness room, a tennis court, a golf practice range, and a guest house. It is known that Jordan, who enjoyed cigars and poker, installed cigar storage facilities and a poker table, and there is also an aquarium brought from Chicago's Playboy Mansion, leading to criticism that the mansion reflects Jordan's tastes too much for an ordinary person to live in.
Many investors tried to purchase the mansion and convert it into a Jordan museum, conference center, or condos by leveraging the fact that it reflects Jordan's tastes, but these attempts failed due to limited parking space and issues with land zoning, among other location-related problems. Additionally, people looking to buy a mansion of this size in the area prefer to live right next to Lake Michigan, but this mansion is located 3 km away from the lake, which was also a problem.
However, Jordan's mansion has continuously sparked curiosity due to his fame. Tourists take photos at the entrance, and last year, teenagers even broke a window and attempted to trespass. Because of this, there is also interest in whether the new buyer will preserve or renovate the mansion.
Meanwhile, Jordan mainly lives in his hometown of North Carolina after retirement and enjoys leisure activities such as yachting in the Mediterranean during the summer.
Additionally, last year, Jordan became the first professional athlete to be listed in Forbes' ranking of the 400 richest Americans. His active career salary was about $93.28 million (approximately 124 billion KRW), but since then, he earns hundreds of millions of dollars annually from advertising revenue and royalties from the 'Air Jordan' brand with Nike. It is reported that Air Jordan royalties alone amounted to $260 million (approximately 346.3 billion KRW) last year.
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