R. Kelly Puts Chicago Mansion On Market For $2.9 Million

Jet, August 14, 2000

Famed Grammy Award-winning singer R. Kelly recently listed his 8,000-square-foot Lincoln Park mansion in Chicago for $2.9 million, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The four-bedroom home, originally a Baptist church built in 1895, was purchased by the singer in 1994 for $1.107 million, the newspaper reported.

It features a 40-foot indoor lap pool, an indoor basketball and racquetball court, media room, a 27-foot stairway, 1,500-gallon shark-filled aquarium and a marble chess board embedded in the floor.

Kelly recently built a new mansion in the Chicago suburb of Olympia Fields. He originally purchased the land for the 4-acre property for $1.5 million, according to the newspaper.

After demolishing the site's landmark 15,000-square-foot-stone mansion, which was owned by James Maros, one of the 50 original operators of the McDonald's restaurants and the creator of the Ronald McDonald doll, Kelly built a 20,000-square-foot home made of stone and timber wood.

Kelly, whose hit song I Believe I Can Fly earned him Grammys a couple of years ago, recently performed the song Bad Man for the soundtrack to the action flick Shaft.