R. Kelly mansion: From $5.16 million to $587,000
Singer's Chicago-area estate, including the custom home he had built in 1997, is being sold by the lender that foreclosed on his $2.9 million mortgage.
By Teresa at MSN Real Estate Thu 1:15 PM
The recession brought us lots of stories about real estate that had lost half or more of its value.
But 89%? A mansion once owned by rhythm and blues singer R. Kelly is on the market for $587,000 – down from a tax value of $5.16 million in 2009.
The singer lost the home to foreclosure in March, and JP Morgan Chase bought it at the foreclosure auction for $950,000, significantly less than the $2.9 million Kelly owed on his mortgage. The bank first offered the home for sale in July at $618,000, then chopped the price to $587,100 this month.
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Kelly had the home built in 1997, after demolishing a landmark home that had been known as the McDonald’s House because it was built by an original McDonald’s franchisee with giant arches on the porch forming the letter "M.”
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The newer home is 14,525 square feet, with six bedrooms, six baths and eight half-baths, plus an indoor pool and a six-car garage. The gated three-acre property, which has a private lake, adjoins the Olympic Hills Country Club golf course. Kelly took out a $3.5 million mortgage on the property in 1999.
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The home is in the far south Chicago suburb of Olympic Heights, one of the nation’s wealthiest majority African-American communities.
Since the foreclosure suit was filed in 2011 – published reports said the singer quit making payments in an effort to get the bank to negotiate – Kelly’s efforts to find a buyer for the property at short-sale prices ranging from $1.59 million to $995,000 failed.
The current price is a bargain-basement $40 per square foot. The house appears habitable but a bit dated, unless you like mirrored walls.
Kelly, who is from Chicago, paid $1.5 million for the property in 1997. The original home had been built by James Maros, who owned a number of McDonald’s franchises and was credited with inventing the Ronald McDonald doll in 1968. In addition to having a giant M on the porch, the house included a kitchen in the style of a McDonald’s outpost, a two-story indoor waterfall and a Vegas-style casino.
This nigga is taking a hellva loss, and somebody is going to make one hellva come up $587,100 for a 14 year old 14,525 sq. ft. house.