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Former Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Jon Lester and his wife, Farrah, on Thursday sold their five-bedroom, 7,000-square-foot mansion and side lot in Chicago’s Graceland West neighborhood for $3.5 million.
Lester, 38, was with the Cubs from 2015 until 2020, and was a key part of their 2016 World Series-winning team. He now is retired from baseball after winning exactly 200 games in his career.
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In Graceland West, Lester and his wife paid $3.77 million in 2015 for the mansion on Berteau Avenue. They then paid another $1.35 million in 2016 for an adjoining side lot.
The couple first listed the combined properties in April 2021 for $5.99 million. They later cut their asking price to $5.5 million, to $5.3 million and then to $4.99 million.
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After that, the couple began listing the two properties separately — one could buy the house for $3.85 million, and one could buy the vacant lot separately for $1.15 million. The Lesters then reduced their asking price further for the house in July, to $3.5 million.
Now, the couple have sold both the mansion and the side lot together, at a loss, the agent for the buyers, Jeffrey Proctor, told Elite Street. The Lesters paid a combined $5.12 million for the mansion and side lot, and they wound up losing $1.62 million on it, or 31.7% of their purchase price.
The mansion has 5-1/2 bathrooms and three fireplaces and sits on an 82-foot-wide lot. Lester bought the mansion on a 42-foot-wide lot and then bought an adjacent 40-foot-wide lot, on which they installed a sport court and an outdoor kitchen. Other features in the mansion include a kitchen with a butler’s pantry, a primary bedroom suite with a large walk-in closet, a four-stop elevator, a roof deck above the garage and a finished lower level with wood paneling, a bar and a wine cellar, according to listing information.
Public records do not yet identify the buyers.
The mansion and its own lot had a $73,684 property tax bill in the 2020 tax year, while the side lot had a $6,460 property tax bill in the 2020 tax year.
Lester’s primary residence is a gated seven-bedroom house in Atlanta that he and his wife purchased at the end of 2013 for $3.4 million.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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