After selling his Carmel estate for $12 million in less than a week on the market, Jim Irsay’s family has placed his lakeside retreat in northern Indiana on the market for just under $20 million. They say with great success comes a price, or in this case, several acres of waterfront serenity on Lake Maxinkuckee. Irsay built a compound in Culver, Indiana, for private, off-the-radar lakeside getaways. The property has previously been listed for sale, but not to the general public.
Jim Irsay passed away in May on his 65th birthday. He bought the two parcel property in 2000 for $6.2 million and then spent an unspecified number of years developing a 35,000 square feet multi-building estate on 6 acres of beautiful property. The estate is a link between two parcels connected by a 350-foot underground tunnel after crossing a public road and does include, main house, guest house, wellness center, and entertainment wing.
Waterfront Luxury With a Family Story
The main residence is designed with different European textures and is 4-level, stone-and-timber construction and is covered by mansard roof. The 14,000 square foot mansion has 8 bedrooms, 12 baths, and multiple screened porches. The living room includes walls of glass for a picturesque lakeside view, anchored by the large, open kitchen with generous eat-in kitchen space and remarkable finishes and appliances throughout. Other spaces are a traditional wood paneled office and walkout lower level full of light.
Located separate from the main residence, is a guest house next to another adjoining eight-car garage and wellness pavilion, which includes an indoor spa, small lounge with a fireplace, steam room, fitness spaces, and full-size indoor swimming pool with folding glass doors out to the lawn. The second structure includes a club style bar with seating for twenty, a four-lane bowling alley, arcade games, and indoor shooting range. The estate also includes a volleyball court, firepit, and large 4,000 square foot dock including two boat slips with solar-powered boat lifts, and 250 feet of private shoreline.
Retreat Built to Last
At the time of Jim Irsay’s death, Forbes estimated Jim Irsay’s worth to be $4.8 billion and he had been the majority owner and chief executive officer of the Colts franchise since 1997. Jim Irsay’s three daughters-Carli Irsay-Gordon, Casey Foyt, and Kalen Jackson- currently operate the team ownership and decided it would be appropriate to put the property on the market.
In a statement to The Wall Street Journal, the family shared, “This home has been a special place for our family and has a profound emotional legacy, this property is enjoyed away from the frantic pace of life, celebrating family milestones, creating innumerable precious memories of family getting together at the lake, boat rides watching the sun rise, long summer evenings playing games on the porch, simply put= every corner of the property holds a story.”
It is more than a piece of real estate, it is a history of a family. From toasting smores under a blanket of stars to relaxing summer days fishing from the dock, this lake house engaged, and eventually rehearsed and engraved the pacings of life before it was handed forward, in this case virtually $20 million of a family history, to who knows what is next.
