WICKER PARK — A pastel blue house with a red door built in 1989 will be torn down and replaced with a 5,500-square-foot mansion.
The 2,000-square-foot wood frame house at 1723 W. Wabansia Ave. in Wicker Park was sold for $725,000 to Barrett Homes LLC on Aug. 5, according to county records.
The plan is to demolish the home "within the next month" and build a two-story, single-family home with a basement, a three-car garage and a roof deck, according to Mike Barrett, co-owner of Lakeview-based Barrett Homes.
On Monday, Barrett said he still was working on the rendering for the new home, but shared a few details, such as the fact it would be made of brick and be 5,500 square feet.
Once the home is complete — by early next year — Barrett said he would list it with Realtor Jeff Lowe.
Barrett said he chose to buy the home because it offered an extra-wide lot, which was "more attractive for people" as well as a private, gated alley that the home shared with three other homes in the 1700 block of West Wabansia.
The home was built in 1989 as part of a group of six single-family homes that replaced a church rectory.
Marcy Swerdlove also lives on Wabansia Avenue, in a similar wood frame home to the one that will be torn down. Swerdlove said she bought her home for $230,000 in 1990.
Swerdlove said she had received offers of as much as $800,000 for her abode, located about two blocks east of Ashland Avenue and just south of the Bloomingdale Trail, an area that is in Wicker Park but many consider to be Bucktown.
Swerdlove did not object to Barrett's plan to tear down her neighbor's home.
"If the house were brick and had been there 40 or 50 years, that would be different, and I would have more remorse about it being torn down, but by building something nicer, it is enhancing the neighborhood and improving the property values around it," Swerdlove said.
Barrett Homes recently built a five-bedroom, four-bathroom, single-family home at 1739 Winchester Ave., which sold for $1.6 million in July, as well as a five-bedroom, four-bathroom single-family home at 1938 N. Winchester Ave., which sold for $1.3 million in July 2012.
