Lake Michigan mansion near South Haven lists for nearly $6M

In the late 1980s, Chicago stockbroker Jay Feuerstein and his wife, Penny, bought land overlooking Lake Michigan and hired an up-and-coming architect to design a luxurious home that would stand the test of time.

Jackson Matson, a broker with @Properties Christie's International Real Estate, last month listed the lakefront home at 364 74th St. in Casco Township, just north of South Haven, for $5,999,000 on behalf of its second owners, who asked not to be named for privacy reasons.

The original occupants, the Feuersteins, hired architect John Allegretti, owner and principal at St. Joseph-based Allegretti Architects Inc., to design the home in 1988, and it was built in 1991.

Jay Feuerstein then sold it to the current owners in 2016, after his wife died.

Allegretti refers to the 8,927-square-foot home as "organic beach style" because of its liberal use of Douglas fir for the interior floors, ceiling, trim and banding on the walls, as well as the feeling of being in nature imparted by its abundant windows on the front and back of the home.

The house has six bedrooms; six-and-a-half baths; three attached garage spaces with a bunk room over the garage; a crow's nest; sun room; basement wine cellar, rec room and gym; and an outdoor pool and patio area with a fireplace.

It is on a 2.5-acre parcel that includes a tennis court parallel to the pool and a walking path to a terrace with a private staircase leading down to 150 feet of Lake Michigan frontage with access to miles of sandy beach.

Keep up with all things West Michigan business. Sign up for our free newsletters today.

Matson, the listing agent, said he set the price at $672 per square foot by comparing the prices of active listings and recent sales along the Lake Michigan coastline.

"I did look at … South Haven proper, which there have been a couple sales over $5 million. Then I looked at the active market of what's available between South Haven and Saugatuck, then blended those two together," he said. "There was a sale last year at 711 North Shore Drive that traded at $5 million, but it didn't have much elbow room (like this home), so I gave that a lot of weight."

Matson said the property had generated "quite a bit" of interest but he had received no offers as of Friday. He attributes this to Chicago's second homebuyers "going into hibernation" at the end of April and first half of May because of weddings and graduations.

"The activity is picking up, and we’ve had interest, but the bulk I believe are going to come out of the woodwork when the weather really pops," he said.

The house, which is nestled among the trees and sheltered from view, has the best of both worlds: privacy but also easy access to downtown South Haven by bike, Matson said.

"It's not something that you come across very often, to have that estate-like feeling while still being close to downtown," he said.

Allegretti said the secluded setting was an intentional design choice.

"It has presence with regard to maintaining as many trees nestling into the site (as possible)," he said. "That's always been our mantra, to make homes and environments for people. … People feel better and they feel healthier when it's quiet."

Customized to lofty tastes

The Feuersteins asked Allegretti to incorporate "high, open spaces" into the design. The front entryway has three floors of windows and a visually open staircase that leads up to a two-story loft balcony.

The foyer has a clear sight line from the front door to the back patio all the way out to the lakeshore. Toward the back of the main floor, a sunken living area with a vaulted ceiling and a grand stone fireplace overlooks the yard.

"I like the idea of coming in to a nice, open entryway, where you’ve got closets and shelves and stairs all tucked into one area, and then the idea of stepping down into a sunken living room with a big deck in front, a nice fireplace off to the right as you come in, opening into other spaces up high," Allegretti said.

On the second-floor balcony above the foyer, there's a spiral staircase leading up to the lookout tower, which has a 360-degree view of the grounds — and doors leading to a deck.

The house has decks on every level, with many of the bedrooms treated to their own sunset views through the trees.

The kitchen, two dining areas and a family room are to the right of the foyer.

On the back southeast corner of the house, kitty-corner to the pool, there's a sun room that Allegretti said the Feuersteins had him design. To hide the duct work for a second-floor bedroom, Allegretti used a wood pyramid approach for the sunroom ceiling.

Save for the kitchen, which the current owners hired Wilmette, Ill.-based designer Mick DeGiulio to update around five years ago, Allegretti said the Feuersteins and their successors over the years rehired him to do the design revisions on the house. Holland-based CL Construction Co. was the contractor on those projects.

The updates have included renovating the pool/patio area to include a covered porch and fireplace that flows from the sunroom, adding a bunk room above the garage, giving a facelift to the bathrooms, building the family room off the north side, remodeling the dining room and the area between the dining room and new family room, and retooling the mudroom and doorway from the garage.

Allegretti said the nice thing about being hired back to update his original design was that it maintained the home's continuity over the years.

"It always was modern, but there were certain updates, little tweaks and things of that nature (regarding) the aesthetic of the marketplace … to meet what the owner felt they would like to incorporate," he said.

He noted that throughout all the changes, the exterior of the home retained a balanced, mostly symmetrical appearance, with a stepped "almost ziggurat" shape.

"It's a very interesting home, and it feels good to be in," Allegretti said.

More from Crain's Grand Rapids Business:

East Grand Rapids ‘Hickory Hill’ mansion on Fisk Lake awaits its next owners for $2.7M

Grand Rapids Heritage Hill home tour includes 7 residences, 3 historic buildings

French Revival-style family home in Grand Rapids Township hits the market for $949K

For $2.6M, ‘Harwood Haven’ offers the best view on Spring Lake