The two-building modernist home in Highland Park that played a memorable role in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” sold today for $1.06 million, less than half its list price when it went on the market in 2009. (Photos courtesy of Coldwell Banker)
Five years after it first came on the market, the two-building modernist home in Highland Park that played a memorable role in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” sold today.
The final sale price was $1.06 million, said Craig Hogan, regional director at Coldwell Banker Previews, the luxury division of the real estate brokerage, which represented the house. That’s less than half the $2.3 million that the sellers, the family of Francis and the late Ben Rose, originally listed it for in 2009.
By the time of the sale, the asking price had been cut to $1.2 million.
“Talk about a journey,” Mr. Hogan said. After the home first went on the market, it attracted worldwide media attention because of its movie role. In the 1986 John Hughes film, the smaller of the home’s two black, glassy buildings is the garage where the father of Ferris’ friend Cameron keeps a precious 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder convertible that the teenagers take out for a joyride.
The home’s dining room
Last August, when the home had sat unsold for four years, Coldwell Banker began a new marketing push that emphasized the property’s architectural pedigree. The main house is a four-bedroom steel and glass box designed in 1953 by James Speyer, a student of modernist pioneer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. About 40 feet from it, cantilevered over the edge of a wooded ravine, is the smaller building, the one featured in the movie. An equally boxy 1974 design by Speyer’s student David Haid displays the Roses’ car collection, although it also contains a kitchen and a bedroom.
“It’s such a specific property,” Mr. Hogan said of the unusual configuration of two buildings and their strict modernist looks. On top of that, the interior of the main house was in need of rehabilitation. Its kitchen was dated and some of its modular walls were in disrepair.
“You needed someone who was willing to spend the time, effort and expense to bring it back to what it used to be,” Mr. Hogan said. He said the buyers’ agent had indicated they plan to renovate.
He would not identify the buyers, and the transaction has yet to show up in Lake County property records. The buyers’ agent, Mindy Shea of @Properties, did not immediately respond to a phone call. Meladee Hughes of Coldwell Banker, who had the listing on the house the entire time, also could not be reached by phone. Ms. Hughes is not related to the film director.
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Source: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/realestate/20140529/CRED0701/140529740/after-five-years-ferris-bueller-house-finally-sells
