Wednesday, January 15, 2014

UPDATE: Oprah Winfrey

All ups property gossips went hog wild yesterday with (not entirely unexpected) news that Chicago's former Queen Bee, Oprah Winfrey, hoisted her mansion-sized, duplex condo on the 56th and 57 floors of Water Tower Place on the open market with a $7,750,000 price tag.

While we found no photos of the interior(s) the floor plan was released last night and, children, is it ever a ding-dong doozy of curvaceous stairways—there are two, walk-in closets and storage rooms—there are at least ten, and clusters of vestibules linked by long corridors—one that (Your Mama estimated) zig-zags more than 75 feet.

Listing details show the 9,625 square foot high-floor sprawler has four bedrooms and five full and two half bathrooms plus multiple living and dining areas, two kitchens, deeded garage parking for three cars, estimated taxed of $71,526 per annum and maintenance fees of $9,004 per month.

 The lower level foyer provides direct access to the 475+ square foot corner living room, the nearly 30-foot long formal dining room, and the super-sized center island kitchen. (The children will note Miz Winfrey's retinue of hired servers were required to inelegantly traverse the entirety the living room or¸—equally inelegantly—pass through the foyer in order to get food and beverages from the kitchen to the dining room.) Less formal living spaces on the lower level include a 30-foot long family room and an adjacent office, and a 450 square foot exercise room because—beetches, pleeze!—La Oprah does not use the Ritz Carlton's state-of-the-art health club where she might have to interact with the hotel guests and others of the hoi polloi. Anyways...

Substantial additional entertaining spaces are located on the second floor and include a ballroom-sized second living room that stretches a spectacular (if hardly homey) 45 feet plus an adjoining sitting room/library with what appears on the floor plan to be built-in book cases.

Listing details show there are two guest bedrooms with private bathrooms plus a studio-style guest/in-law/staff suite complete with private bathroom, small kitchen, and direct access to the laundry room. The master suite occupies its own sprawling wing on the second floor with a large entry vestibule, a 30+ foot long bedroom, a healthy handful of walk-in closets plus a fitted dressing room, and two bathrooms, a large compartmentalized one with soaking tub and bidet for her and a smaller one with stall shower (presumably) for Miz Winfrey's mustachioed long-time lover-mate Stedman Graham.

Your Mama's research indicates that Miz Winfrey's other Chicago holdings included no fewer than eight loft condos at the Acorn Lofts building (near her former studio‚ pr—presumably purchased for use by family, staff, visiting business associates, and/or friends. Property records suggest all eight of the unit were quietly sold in April 2013 to the same buyer.

Miz Winfrey's property portfolio still includes (but isn't necessarily limited to) a number of homes in and around Nashville (presumably for family), a house in Indiana (also, we presume, for family), a vast farm in Hawaii and, of course, The Promised Land, a fully landscaped 42 acre estate with a 23,000 square foot Neo-Georgian mansion in Montecito. We've repeatedly been told by several snitches that last year Miz Winfrey dropped a good-sized wad on an house-sized condo at The Montage in downtown Beverly Hills—where Judge Judy Sheindlin owns a pied-a-terre—but, honestly, we're not so sure and so far we don't have any hard evidence to prove it. Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? Bueller?

floor plan: Baird & Warner

39 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Rabbi would charitably ease Svetlana's victualing burdens by swapping the living and dining rooms with one another. Unfortunately, the graceless character of the floorplan would perpetually endure, which appears from right to left as a combination of two duplexes and a simplex.

Rabbi Hedda LaCasa

Anonymous said...

To me it looks more like a dormitory than a home. Is your Momma sure she didn't accidentally post the blueprint for the YMCA over on Dearborn? #EverybodyGetsABedroom

Anonymous said...

One thing no one is mentioning: the ceiling heights.
In this building they're low low low. I'm gonna guess 8'8"

Anonymous said...

Mama, you did a post on this apartment in 2006 with pictures. Remember she has a damn tree in the middle of the apartment.

http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2006/12/oprah-has-big-fake-tree-in-her-solarium.html

Anonymous said...

@10:41
That's not the same apartment.
The views out the windows place it a few blocks south.

Anonymous said...

I am pretty sure that tree unit is in a building called The Chandler. It's in what's called Lakeshore East, not to be confused with East Lakeshore, where she had a co-op

Anonymous said...

@10:41
My bad, the tree unit is actually in a building just across the river, on E North Water St.

Sandpiper said...

RE: Reverend O (and I don't mean Jackie). Zzzzz...re any interest.

Anonymous said...

The long bodied Bitches, Linda and Beverly, are dachshunds? It makes sense. I took it to mean, they were Great Danes.

If this Oprah woman was white, would she have achieved any of this notoriety? I think not. She would never have gotten the talk show and society wouldn't have been subject to her. Spare me her philanthropic activities. Upon examination, it becomes very clear the woman uses very little, if any, of her own money to support them. She is nothing more than a media created money machine to shame people into some false sense of racial tolerance. I will never understand why people don't see her for what she really is. Your not a racist if you don't like her. You are a racist if you've been shamed into liking her.

lil' gay boy said...

Less of a floor plan, more of a Venn diagram where commercial meets residential -- otherwise known as "mixed-use"...

ZZZzzzzzzzzzz...

John McKee said...

The fact that the "guest suite" is accessed through the laundry and past the gym screams accommodations for a live in staff member to me.

Anonymous said...

The tree is in River View... its a penthouse that Oprah never owned. The Chandler didn't even exist in 2006

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I corrected myself. Thanks for reinstating my earlier comments.

Anonymous said...

At $805/sq. ft., Chicago real estate is still relatively cheap. I wonder what she'll actually realize on the property. I'm guessing she'll fetch closer to the DT Chicago average of $384/sq. ft. or around $5M to be generous.

Anonymous said...

It's kind of hilarious that the person who falsely claimed this is the apartment with the tree in it keeps coming back to apologize. Get a life.

Anonymous said...

Its "cheap" for a reason...corrupt Govt, high taxes, lousy weather...shall I go on ?

Anonymous said...

oh and I forgot crime..

Anonymous said...

this looks like just about the best rich rich person's layout of a home i've seen yet.
so logical.

Anonymous said...

have been in this building,
and tis true, the ceilings are low.
but
may i mention,
the communal swimming pool on a rather high floor (forget which) has an incredibly breathtaking view. (especially in the later hours. or earlier *cough )

Anonymous said...

You're thinking of The Hancock. Ritz pool is enclosed

Anonymous said...

nope. was most definitely the water tower building. was over twenty years ago though...

Anonymous said...

The Rabbi gently disagrees with Anonymous 1:47 p.m., and regards sincerely apologetic individuals with admiration and respect, while hopefully extending foregiveness as well.

Rabbi Hedda LaCasa

Anonymous said...

No sweetie pie. The ritz has a skylight. The Hancock has floor to ceiling windows.

Anonymous said...

Whoever posted the link to mamas old post about the duplex with the tree in it was corrected twice by me at 1110 and 1119.
Whatchu talking bout @147?

Anonymous said...

Oops* corrected by me three times.
1107Pm
1110Pm
And 1119Pm

Anonymous said...

I care about what the Rabbi says. he's funny. maybe instead of dogging the rabbi you might want to contribute to the conversations? just a thought.

doug-g said...

Everyone love the Rabbi and everyone get along or, God help you, I'll write a poem!

Anonymous said...

9:09. I'll buy that. Rabbi's 5:45 comment was more full of her pseudo intellectual upspeaking shit than usual.

Anonymous said...

Rabbi, you ARE doug-g thereby loving yourself through your alias. God help you.

doug-g said...

@10:45PM

The Rabbi's family drove a damned *Rambler*. You can insult me in nearly anyway except to accuse me of being raised in a family that owned a Rambler.

Anonymous said...

Why are we fighting when there's a horrible floorplan to address?!

WrteStufLA said...

The "house in Indiana" is likely the rather large "farming estate" that was Ms. Winfrey's weekend place when she was based in Chicago.

I'm curious as to who else lives on penthouse floors in this building -- one of them might be a potential buyer to combine units. Is this the building where hedge funder Ken Griffin (of Citadel) resides?

Rosco Mare said...

Our Mama Dearest has many wonderful chil'ren, and the woman of the cloth, Hedda, our in-house rabbi, is one of the best! Now, a few of you go out and perform a mitzvah by re-configuring the awkward floorplan.

Sincerely

Rosco Mare the certified WASP

Anon 932+1/2 + 3/4 said...

rabbi, cool it with your veiled self endorsements. Ego much?

William D. said...

10k sf for one woman seems a little excessive for a woman and the layout is bizarre but i can see how it could work. i guess.

and you up there at 11:06 at least the rabbi contributes to the conversation rather than just acts like a 12 year old. if you don't like the rabbi's comments DONT READ THEM. otherwise maybe you should find a new hobby besides cluttering up the comments around her with your weird and spiteful anger.

Anonymous said...

The Indiana farm in LaPorte county was sold a long time ago. I believe that there was once an issue with big O, the gravel roads, and her neighbors. Guess who won?

Anonymous said...

Ken Griffin from Citadel doesn't live at Water Tower Place, which is a nice, but slightly old, building I think he's at the much nicer Park Tower (Hyatt).

Anonymous said...

Rumour also has it she has snapped up a bumch of lake property in the ultra glam Hayward, Wis.

Anonymous said...

WrteStufLA - You are correct. The Indiana property was her "country get-away" when she was based in Chicago. I can imagine she will be selling that as well.