Jared Smith, who co-founded the protein-bar company RxBar before selling it for $600 million to Kellogg, and his wife, Gabriella, were the buyers of a 12,000-square-foot Winnetka mansion that sold in July for $12.5 million, according to sources. The transaction was the Chicago area’s highest-priced residential sale of the year and one of the highest-priced home purchases in Winnetka history.
The Smiths’ $12.5 million purchase follows billionaire Justin Ishbia’s $16 million purchase last year of a Winnetka mansion that he subsequently demolished to assemble a private estate.
A DePaul University graduate, Smith co-founded RxBar in 2012 with a friend, Peter Rahal, in the basement of Rahal’s parents’ house in Glen Ellyn.
Built in 2005 and renovated from top to bottom in 2017, the painted white brick mansion on Lake Michigan was sold to the Smiths by an opaque land trust whose beneficiary is not public. Set on a 0.8-acre property, the five-bedroom mansion has 7½ bathrooms, black inlay windows, Phillip Jeffries linen wall coverings, all-new lighting fixtures, pastel color Ann Sacks tiles, Holly Hunt white draperies with light blue taping, and newly redone whitewashed fireplaces with new white millwork.
The mansion also has a reception foyer with a bridal staircase with wrought iron balusters, a dome ceiling in the dining room with an Aerin Collection fixture, a living room with coffered ceilings and a wood-burning fireplace with a white Carrara marble surround, a butler’s pantry with two wine refrigerators and a kitchen with two dishwashers, a double Miele oven, a four-burner Dacor cooktop with a griddle, white custom cabinetry and a large island with soapstone countertops.
Other features include a primary bedroom suite with a private deck, a screened porch with refinished bluestone floors, a lower level that has been reconfigured with a separate theater and a recreation area, a second mudroom, a third-floor gym and all-new floors and beveled mirrors, a newly built-out office on the third floor, a heated, six-car garage and a brand-new roof.
Outside on the property are a pool, a hot tub, viewing patios, a staircase to a 94-foot-wide beach, a dog run and a new gumball breakwater wall along an adjacent north pier that helps keep the beach more stable despite fluctuating lake levels.
The real estate agent who represented the couple, Edward Gobbo, is Gabriella Smith’s father. He did not respond to a request for comment. Smith did not respond to a request for comment made to his family office, Villam Ventures.
The mansion had a $131,493 property tax bill in the 2021 tax year.
The couple recently have been selling other homes. On Sept. 8, they sold their six-bedroom, 7,000-square-foot mansion in Lincoln Park for $4.75 million, and they also have a six-bedroom house on 2.5 acres in Winnetka that is under contract to sell after listing it in August for $4.5 million and reducing its asking price in October to $4.15 million. The couple bought the Lincoln Park home in 2018 for $4.29 million, and they had purchased the house on 2.5 acres in Winnetka in 2021 for $4.02 million.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
Join our Chicago Dream Homes Facebook group for more luxury listings and real estate news.
