The billionaire Pritzker family is auctioning off three big parcels of farmland in Lake County, including 344 acres in Warren Township on which almost 1,500 homes could be built.
The properties being sold are southwest of the intersection of Interstate 94 and State Route 120 in western Waukegan, an area now dominated by upscale subdivisions.
In addition to the two Warren Township parcels, which are near River and Hanlon roads, the sale includes a 256-acre tract just south in Libertyville Township where only five homes can be built.
Minimum bids are $8 million total for the Warren Township properties and $4 million for the Libertyville Township parcel, according to a flier from Chicago-based Sheldon Good & Co., which is handling the sale.
The Pritzkers, who are longtime owners of the properties and have a home on adjacent land that's not part of the sale, had the land annexed into Waukegan some years ago with residential zoning, says Steven Sabourin, plat administrator for the city of Waukegan.
"You'd be hard-pressed to find as big a piece of well-located land anywhere in the Chicago area," says Stephen Fennell, who worked with the Pritzkers' land development business for 10 years until 2004 and is now a custom home builder based outside Charleston, S.C.
Mr. Fennell hadn't heard of the planned auction. "I don't know where else you find 600 acres," he says, "and, believe me, I've looked."
The Libertyville Township parcel was part of a controversy in the 1980s over so-called open-space districts, where municipalities pay to restrict development. In 1987, the township paid the Pritzkers $2.5 million for a conservation easement that limited any development of the 256 acres to no more than five homes.
Critics complained that the Pritzkers got a sweetheart deal, while the township official who spearheaded the effort said the purchase prevented more than 1,800 homes from being built there.
In addition to the five homes that can be built on the land, the easement allows construction of private pools, tennis courts and guest houses, as well as agricultural and equestrian buildings, according to Betty-Ann Moore, Libertyville Township supervisor.
The two Warren Township properties, meanwhile, were zoned R1 residential by the city of Waukegan when they were annexed, says Mr. Sabourin, meaning lot sizes must be at least 10,000 square feet, slightly less than one-fourth of an acre. With lots that size, the Warren properties could have almost 1,500 homes.
Calls to the office of Penny Pritzker, who heads Pritzker Realty Group, weren't returned.
The auction is scheduled for April 4 at the Hyatt Deerfield.
©2008 by Crain Communications Inc.