How do you market a project that calls two different towns home? Some builders might pick the suburb perceived as having more prestige, but in the interest of full disclosure, Red Seal Homes is selling the new Enclave at Sheridan Pointe as “located in Wilmette and Evanston.“
The Red Seal Homes‘ development of 15 high-end single-families is located on part of the former National-Louis University campus, a rare redevelopment opportunity in a highly developed part of the highly desirable North Shore. The seven-acre site, located around Sheridan Road and Maple Avenue, straddles the two North Shore suburbs. It‘s also a block from Lake Michigan and next door to the Baker Demonstration School.
Land is hard to come by in these parts, where most residential development is in the form of tear-downs. Red Seal’s development of low-density houses will not be your typical suburban subdivision, given the premium parcel. The houses will have three to six bedrooms, starting at 3,200 square feet, and some are on lots as large as one-third of an acre. Prices range from $1.5 million to more than $2.3 million. Expensive to be sure, but nothing out of the ordinary in da heart of da Shore.
The two-story houses have formal living and dining rooms, libraries, large family rooms with fireplaces and two- or three-car attached or detached garages. The overall aesthetic appears to be neo-Hansel und Gretel — all stone and gables, bay windows and cozy wood trim. Don’t mind us, these houses will say. We’ve always been here. Really. No, really.
The development is scheduled to break ground in July, and first occupancy is slated for spring 2007. Sales began in March and, perhaps for the sake of fairness, are not being handled in Evanston or Wilmette for the time being, but from the Red Seal corporate office, at 425 Huehl Road, building 18, in Northbrook.
National-Louis is in the process of moving its Evanston-Wilmette campus to a new site at 5202 Old Orchard Road, in Skokie.