Crain’s Chicago Business | September 6, 2021 | Dennis Rodkin
‘Empire’ mansion finds a buyer
After eight years and more than $8 million in price cuts, a Barrington Hills mansion, owned in real life by strip club owners and on the TV show by a hip hop magnate, lined up a buyer.
The enormous, opulent mansion in Barrington Hills that played the home of a hip hop magnate on the TV series “Empire” is under contract to a buyer after eight years on the market and more than $8 million in price cuts.
The mansion, nearly 17,600 square feet on about 8.4 acres on Lakeview Lane, was used—for both exterior and interior shots—on the six-season Fox series as the palatial home of Lucious Lyon, the patriarch of a family-run recording empire.
Initially listed for sale at $15.9 million in June 2013, the mansion was priced at $7.5 million when it went under contract with a contingency Sept. 3.
Listing agent Michael LaFido of Exp Realty marked the listing “contingent,” an indication that the buyers or sellers have something to resolve, such as the buyers getting their present home sold, before proceeding toward a sale.
The sale price will not be released until after the deal closes. At $7.5 million, the property appears likely to be the first in the Barrington area to sell for more than $5 million in at least five years, and the only one to come near the $7.5 million that buyers paid for a Barrington Hills estate in 2012.
The mansion is owned by Sam and Geralyn Cecola, owners of the Admiral Theater, the only all-nude strip club within Chicago’s city limits. In an echo of “Empire,” the Admiral is also a family business, run by the Cecolas’ son, Nick. Sam Cecola is also the former owner of a strip club in Las Vegas, Club Paradise, and adult bookstores in two states.
Sam and Geralyn Cecola could not be reached for comment. LaFido said in a text message that since cutting $2 million off the price in May 2020, to $7.5 million, “we have had a lot more activity for this home.”
The potential buyers and their agent are not identified in real estate records, and professional rules prohibit LaFido from disclosing them to Crain’s.
Built in the early 2000s, the three-story French Provincial-style mansion has six bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and finishes that include wrought iron stair railings, arched doorways, beamed ceilings and rows of glass French doors. Outside is a vast stone terrace surrounding a swimming pool and fountains, and a boat dock on one of two lakes that border the property.
There is another echo of “Empire” in the home’s real-life history.
In the TV show, Lucious Lyon’s wife, Cookie, has recently been released from prison when she sees Lucious’s plush mansion for the first time. In 2000, Sam Cecola completed a prison sentence for a conviction on federal tax charges related to skimming money from his adult bookstores in Downers Grove and Bristol, Wis., according to the Las Vegas Sun. A few years later, according to Cook County land records, Sam and Geralyn Cecola bought the Lakeview Lane acreage and began building the mansion. They completed it in 2008 and put it on the market five years later.
The home was for sale during its years being used as a set for “Empire,” but the connection to the show was not mentioned in listings until 2019, near the series’ end. “The seller was hesitant,” LaFido told Crain’s at the time, “but now he’s allowing us to leverage that.”
In the end, the home sold for its “timeless design, plus the amazing private lot (and) the two lakes,” LaFido said today.
