Restaurateur's Historic Winnetka Mansion Heads To Auction Block

WINNETKA, IL — A historic Winnetka mansion is set to be auctioned off next month by the mortgage lender that took possession of the property from a local restaurateur.

Diliberto Real Estate plans to hold at live open outcry auction June 15 in the Great Hall of 140 Sheridan Road, the home of Reza's Restaurants owner Reza Toulabi, company representatives announced.

The Felix Lowy House was built the mid-19202 and designed in the Tudor Revival style by the prestigious architecture firm Mayo and Mayo.

Lowy was an advertising executive who lived in the home for a little over a decade before selling it to John Breen, a bank president, according to the Winnetka Historical Society. He

The home includes more than 12,300 square feet of living space across Sheridan Road from Lake Michigan.

Now measuring just over 1 acre, the property formerly extended 300 feet along Sheridan Road to Winnetka Avenue. The second buildable lot is about 10,000 square feet. Under the terms of the auction, bidders can make offers for the home itself, an adjacent buildable home site or both together.

"Magnificent homes like this are often value-challenged and one way to prove up value quickly is by auction," Joe Diliberto, Diliberto Real Estate head of projects, said in a statement. "Especially when the timing of the sale is most important."

On auction day, bidders must provide a $25,000 cashier's check to bid just for the adjacent lot, $75,000 to make a bid for the just the 140 Sheridan Road house, or $125,000 to bid for both.

The opening bid will be around half market value, according to the auctioneers.

According to the Cook County Assessor's Office, the 2022 total estimated market value is about $4.3 million. Diliberto told Crain's Chicago Business he will set the minimum bid at $2.5 million.

The home includes a two-story hall with hand-painted ceilings, leaded glass windows with built-in window seats, a garden veranda and museum-quality fixtures, including a late-1800s bathtub, according to the real estate firm. Photos of the property from a previous listing are available online.

Earlier: $2 Million Price Cut On Restaurant Founder's Foreclosed Historic Mansion

As Winnetka-Glencoe Patch previously reported, the property was sold for $3.2 million in 2004 to a corporate entity controlled by Toulabi. In 2019, First Midwest Bank filed a foreclosure suit against the property owner, which was later dismissed.

The property was listed for sale in June 2021 with a $5.45 million asking price, which was gradually reduced to under $3.5 million later that year before being pulled off the market in early 2022.

"This is a significant offering" Diliberto said. "It's one of the most formal examples of the popular Tudor Revival style existing today, but meticulously enhanced with about a $2,000,000 upgrade, much of which occurred within the first years of the current owner's acquisition."

NSquared Lender LLC took possession of the property from Toulabi's LLC in April 2022 with a deed in lieu of foreclosure, according to Cook County property records.

Reza's Restaurants currently has locations in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood, Evanston and Oak Brook. Previous Chicago locations have shuttered.

Last July, city and state officials twice forced the restaurant group's remaining Chicago location to temporarily close due to state tax issues and city building code violations, Block Club Chicago reported.

Also last year, Reza's ownership had to pay more than $17,000 in contempt fines and attorney fees after failing to comply with a June 2020 subpoena to provide documents for an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour, which filed suit to enforce the subpoena in March 2021, according to department representatives. In October 2021, Reza's Oak Brook Inc. complied with the subpoena and the subsequent investigation found no violations.

"After the court order, the employer complied and, following compliance audit of its payroll records, the division did not substantiate violations," Thomas Gauza, the Labor Department's Wage and Hour District Director in Chicago, said last year in a statement. "They could have avoided contempt fines and other penalties by simply complying with our investigation.”