Liquor company CEO lists suburban Chicago home for $7.5 million
The head of a family-run spirits company with offices in suburban Chicago and New York City put his mansion in the northern Chicago suburb of Glencoe on the market for $7.5 million.
Brett Berish, CEO and president of Sovereign Brands, and his wife, Alana, bought the house in 2017 from Eric and Elizabeth Lefkofsky for a little under $5.2 million. Eric Lefkofsky is a co-founder of Groupon and founder of the biotech company Tempus.
The couple put the property — a six-bedroom, 11,000-square-foot house and outdoor swimming pool on 1.85 acres — on the market this week. The listing agents at Baird & Warner declined to comment.
Brett Berish did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
With his brother, Brian Berish, and his father, Barry Berish, former CEO of bourbon maker Jim Beam Brands, Brett Berish launched Sovereign Brands in the Chicago area in 1999. Its brands include McQueen & the Violet Fog gin, Bumbu rum and Luc Belaire sparkling wine.
In 2014, Sovereign sold the Champagne brand Armand de Brignac to a company headed by music mogul Jay Z, who had reportedly been a fan of the brand since featuring it in a music video eight years earlier. Last year, French spirits group Pernod Ricard announced it was taking a large stake in Sovereign Brands, although no specific figures were released.
The company maintains an office in suburban Highland Park, but the corporate address listed on its website is in New York. Brett and Alana Berish also have homes in Manhattan, on Long Island and in Florida, according to online records.
The house has a theater and an indoor basketball half-court, and a second building on the property has a large open entertainment room and guest suite. The listing indicates a sunroom has been added to the home since 2017.
The couple’s asking price, $7.5 million, is the third-highest in Glencoe at the moment, behind a new-construction house priced at $9.75 million and a lakefront property that came on the market in October of last year at $13.8 million but is now listed at $9.7 million.
The only Glencoe home to sell for more than the Berishes’ asking price in recent sold in December 2021 for $8.7 million.