The national organization for the Baha’i faith paid $2.35 million in May for a six-bedroom, 4,707-square-foot Tudor-style house in Wilmette that is directly across the street from the Baha’i House of Worship.
The deal is the latest home purchase by the nonprofit National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States, which since 2014 has paid almost $7.5 million to buy five houses on the half-block to the south of the house of worship, including the $1.07 million purchase of the home next door just in January.
Since it was completed in 1953, the Baha’i House of Worship — also known informally as the Baha’i Temple — has stood at 100 Linden Avenue in Wilmette, at the northwest corner of Sheridan Road and Linden Avenue. However, the leaders of the temple, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, have not acquired real estate adjacent to the temple in any meaningful way until the past decade.
Now, the Baha’i Temple’s leaders have made their biggest acquisition to date with the $2.35 million purchase of the house on Linden Avenue from sellers John Rekenthaler, who is director of research for Morningstar Inc. subsidiary Morningstar Research Services and a frequent investing columnist at Morningstar.com, and his wife, Rovena.
“(The house) was acquired as part of our diversified investment strategy,” George Davis, the Wilmette Baha’i House of Worship’s director, told Elite Street in an email. “It provides opportunity for growth as well as a regular stream of rental income. It also allows us to provide attractive and well-maintained property and landscaping for the neighborhood.”
Davis noted that the other four houses acquired “are also part of our long-term investment portfolio.”
In an interview, Rekenthaler, who with his wife has relocated to New York City, said when it was time to sell their home, “I contacted (the Baha’i House of Worship) because everybody on the block knows they’re buying houses.”
“I didn’t have to get a broker, I didn’t have to list it, they gave me a good price, and if you come to them with a not-crazy price, they’re not trying to nickel-and-dime you. They want the properties, and the terms were, we could leave whenever we wanted, we could close on whatever date, and we could leave whatever property behind,” Rekenthaler said. “They were very easy to work with, so why not? We were delighted to do business with them, and it’s a win-win. Whatever they end up doing with (the house), we wish them well.”
Built about 20 years ago, the Tudor-style house that the Rekenthalers sold has 5 ½ bathrooms, newly refinished hardwood floors, a movie theater, a lower-level gym, a first-floor office, a third-floor recreation room and a third-floor office. The house sits on a 0.29-acre property.
The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States now owns five of the 11 houses on that half-block. The home they purchased in May had a $51,311 property tax bill in the 2021 tax year.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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