(FiveNation.com)- Last December, the empty lot next door to Barack and Michelle Obama’s Chicago home sold and the buyers are likely to build a house on the site.
The Obama home was the center of some controversy when Barack first ran for president. The 6-bedroom home was purchased with the help of Chicago real estate broker Tony Rezko.
In 2008, Rezko, a fundraiser for Obama and other Democrats, was found guilty of 16 counts of money laundering, bribery, and fraud.
The empty lot next door was under the same ownership as the Obama house until 17 years ago when both properties were one single lot until they were divided into two parcels in 2005, with one lot containing the 3,700 square foot house and the other lot vacant. Rezko and his wife purchased the empty lot the same day the Obamas purchased the house next door.
The empty lot was sold in 2008 for $675,000 to John and Marjorie Poulos. Initially, they had planned to build an 8,000-square-foot home on the lot. But 18 months later, they listed the property at $1.3 million. By March 2019, the Pouloses had dropped the price to $699,000.
The lot was then purchased at the lower asking price in December 2021 by Maurice and Robyn-Ashley Taylor, giving John and Marjorie Poulos a measly $24,000 in gross profit on the sale.
According to Crain’s, the Taylors haven’t filed any building permits or plans with the city. However, given the low profit in the sale of the lot, Crain’s concluded that the Taylors weren’t purchasing the lot as an investment, but to build.
Maurice Taylor is in finance and his wife Robyn-Ashley is an attorney.
The chance of the Taylors ever clapping eyes on their famous neighbors is unlikely. The Obamas have made little use of their Hyde Park home since Barack was elected president.
And since leaving the White House, the Obamas are spending most of their time at their lavish oceanfront estate on Martha’s Vineyard or their equally lavish oceanfront estate in Hawaii.
