Oprah sells her spread
2004-12-16 20:54
Chicago - US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey has found a buyer for the Midwestern estate that has served as a weekend refuge from her base in the Windy City for the past 16 years, a Chicago daily said on Thursday.
The 50-year-old will sell the 66ha spread in Indiana farm country to a Chicago entrepreneur for an undisclosed price, the Chicago Sun-Times said.
The sale is expected to close on December 30.
The property in LaPorte County, northern Indiana, has been on the market for about a year, and was originally listed for $8.5m, but the price was later dropped to $6.9m, according to Chicago real estate agency Koenig and Strey.
The estate includes a 900msup2; five-bedroom main residence, a guest house, a pool house, a caretaker's house, a log cabin, stables, and an orchard, according to a listing brochure.
The billionaire businesswoman, who is head of a diversified media empire, is said to be spending more time in her $50m estate in Montecito, California.
The Chicago realtors handling the sale would not confirm the planned sale.
Calls to Winfrey's Chicago production company were not immediately returned.