Check out Bob’s column (already available online) from this coming Sunday’s Chicago Tribune, breaking the story that chewing-gum heir and Wm. Wrigley, Jr. Co. Chairman Bill Wrigley, Jr. just placed his unfinished Chicago penthouse on the market for $14,000,000, making it Chicago’s highest-priced residential listing. Wrigley also just officially placed his mansion in Lake Forest, Ill. on the market for $14,500,000 after previously having it for sale privately for $16,000,000. Bob also breaks the news that Wrigley paid $11,000,000 in April through an LLC company for a mansion on Lake Worth Lagoon in North Palm Beach, Fla. And, Wrigley paid $11,530,000 through a different LLC company in May for some land in Aspen, Col.

Also featured: former Chicago Bears and current Houston Texans quarterback Rex Grossman reduces the asking price of his 2,437-square-foot, 36th-floor unit in Chicago’s Trump International Hotel & Tower from $2,350,000 to $2,295,000.

Singer Lisa Marie Presley has placed her compound in Hidden Hills, Calif. on the market for $8,995,000.

Our friends over at the Real Estalker wrote on Monday about Presley’s listing of her longtime California outpost, which contains a ranch house with a Long Valley Road address that has either 7,077 square feet large (according to public records) or 8,000 square feet (according to listing information, which we have no reason to doubt). Listing information tells us that there are three separate guest quarters on the property, which makes some sense, given that it’s actually a two-parcel spread that also contains a four-bedroom, 2,842-square-foot house with an Eldorado Meadow Road address as well.

Built in 1981, Presley’s main house has five bedrooms and five and a half baths and sits on a 3.07-acre parcel, according to public records and listing information. The adjoining 2,842-square-foot house that she owns on Eldorado Meadow Road (which was built in 1954) sits on a 1.47-acre tract. So in all, Presley (shown here with fourth husband Michael Lockwood) owns 4.5 acres, all of which butt up against the Santa Monica Conservancy/Ahmanson Ranch, which “ensures privacy,” according to listing information. Other features on the estate include a pool/spa with waterfall, barns/tack rooms, and extensive extra parking, according to listing information.

Presley purchased both properties in 1993 through the name of Fletcher Haaga, a Presley estate adviser. She paid $2,600,000 for the larger parcel with her main house, and $625,000 for the smaller one, according to public records. Presley then transferred the properties to her Promenade Trust in 2001.

Presley has owned some other noteworthy property in the past. In 1996, she purchased a large waterfront house at 1100 Osceola Avenue North in Clearwater, Fla. Presley sold that 5,200-square-foot house (according to news accounts; public records say it’s 6,556 square feet large) in May 2000 to actress Kirstie Alley’s True Blue Productions company for $1.5 million. Alley then turned around and sold that house in March 2001 for $1.6 million, but she then repurchased it in March 2008 for $1.6 million, according to public records.

Check out Bob’s weekly column in the Chicago Tribune this coming Sunday (link already available online) about Mike Flannery, a Chicago broadcast journalist who has covered politics for decades, placing his house in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood on the market for $1,250,000. Also featured: actor Steve Martin’s house in the movie “Planes, Trains & Automobiles,” which just sold for $1,400,000. In addition, the widow of the late Northwestern University football coach Randy Walker sells a home in Wilmette, Ill. — which she and her husband purchased just before his death — for $1,555,000.

“X-Files” creator Chris Carter has paid $5,450,000 to purchase a three-bedroom, Spanish-style house in Santa Barbara, Calif.

In a Big Time Listings exclusive, we can report on yet another recent real-estate transaction by Carter. A month ago, we provided what we had believed was a comprehensive post about Carter’s properties — headlined by his listing of a 4,209-square-foot house in Malibu, Calif. for $17,495,000. However, in the process, we missed the fact that Carter’s Lucklucky Trust also had paid $5,450,000 in March for a house in Picacho Lane in Santa Barbara.

Set on a 1.12-acre parcel, the house that Carter (shown on the right with some other familiar faces from the world of the X-Files) purchased has been completely remodeled and has four and a half baths, and a sitting room in the master suite, according to public records and listing information. Outdoor features on the property include a swimming pool and an attached, three-car garage

Records show that Carter’s trust closed on the purchase on March 13, with the deal being recorded on March 31. The house had been listed for $5,950,000.

Consult our September 28 post on Carter’s real estate portfolio for a list of the other properties that he owns in California. We have no indication that Carter plans to sell any of the other Santa Barbara-area real estate that records show that he owns, which includes three different lots — at least one of which has a house on it — on Hot Springs Road in Santa Barbara, and also a house on a 3.27-acre vacant on Jameson Lane in Santa Barbara. In fact, it appears to us that this newest acquisition basically backs up to Carter’s three lots on Hot Springs Road.

Here we go again.

On Thursday, the New York Post’s Jennifer Gould Keil reported that actor Jeremy Piven had been in New York the previous week to promote his new movie, and while he was in town, he stayed for a week in a three-bedroom, 4,800-square-foot triplex penthouse in the Prime condo building, at 333 W. 14th Street. Keil also noted that Piven is looking to buy in downtown Manhattan and that he is considering buying the triplex penthouse.

To that we would say: don’t hold your breath.

More than any other celeb that we have run across, Piven (shown here on the beach in Malibu with a lady friend) is notorious for getting his name in the paper for his temporary housing whereabouts and for rumors of the sort that he is “considering” buying something. If a person didn’t know better, he might think that 1) Jeremy allows his name to be used by developers as a (free) publicity draw; and 2) in exchange for being used, Piven gladly accepts free lodging for his time in NYC.

By our count, this is the third time that Piven has been involved in a similar kind of situation. Keil obviously is new to the celebrity real estate beat, and she likely was pushed hard on this item by the real estate development PR machine, which undoubtedly lured her in with the promise of an exclusive (and hey — we can relate to that, since exclusives are hard to come by and always welcomed!).

Our guess, however, is that the past is prologue, and it’s just more of the same for Piven when it comes to New York housing shenanigans. Count on the fact that that one-week stay was the last that Piven will ever see of the Prime condo building. Let’s roll the tape, shall we:

–August 17, 2005: The New York Post reports that “we hear” that Jeremy Piven is buying a penthouse condo at Sundari Lofts & Tower, a new 50-unit development near Madison Square Park with a 58-foot lap pool. Piven was attracted to the private elevator and teak hot tub on his roof deck.”

–August 31, 2005: Real Estate Weekly unwittingly unmasks the (paid!) connection between Piven and Sundari (and the fact that the 8/17/2005 Post item was a complete, publicity-driven fabrication): “On Saturday, August 20, Sundari Lofts & Tower hosted the final day of the Mercedes-Benz Polo Challenge at Bridgehampton Polo Club. A record-breaking crowd of 2,500 attended the sneak preview of Sundari, which included a massive 5′ high model of the condominium’s signature glass towers. The event was emceed by Jeremy Piven.”

–September 17, 2005: The New York Post’s Andy Wang interviews the head of development for the company developing Sundari. Ever the gullible one (and apparently oblivious to the fact that Piven’s on Sundari’s payroll), Wang writes, “We hear Jeremy Piven’s going after a penthouse here.” Ummm, yeah.

–November 12, 2005: The Wall Street Journal’s Deborah Schoeneman, to her credit, pens a lengthy (and terrific) piece about the whole concept of celebrities as development marketers, writing: “Typically, developers and brokers say a celebrity resident accepts a discount in exchange for allowing his name be used to promote the project. Often, that means having a publicist “leak” the A-list name to gossip columns. Having a celebrity neighbor doesn’t increase values, brokers say, but it does get more potential buyers looking at a building.” In the final few paragraphs of the story, Schoeneman addresses (and unfortunately, herself is taken in by) Piven’s apparent role at the Sundari. Schoeneman writes: “Although there is no offering plan yet for the Sundari Lofts & Tower in Manhattan, for example, one of the building’s developers has already lined up his first customer, actor Jeremy Piven, of HBO’s Entourage. The developer, Andrew Heiberger, says he gave Piven first dibs after meeting him through a mutual friend. “His persona is consistent with the persona I’m trying to target for the building,” says Heiberger. Piven’s publicist, Siri Garber, says that in addition to planning to buy a unit, “Jeremy is even going to the ribbon-cutting at the groundbreaking.”

–November 4, 2008: It’s three years later, and it’s time for Piven to get free rent from another building. How about the Atelier? The New York Post now at least acknowledges Piven’s practice, writing: “The Atelier building is still luring celebrities. An insider tells us “Speed-the-Plow” star Jeremy Piven (above) is moving into a space in the West 42nd Street tower this week. Page Six reported Piven was subletting Sean Avery’s Gramercy Park apartment, but we’re sure the free rent the Atelier offers boldfaces (Maggie Rizer, James Blake, Nick Lachey and Lindsay Lohan) is a sweet inducement - especially for a star on a theater salary.”

Several years of history would tell one that there is little chance that Piven will cough up the dough for the triplex penthouse in the Prime. We will gladly purchase a prime (steak, that is) — and the rest of dinner, at a restaurant of her choice — for our New York Post counterpart Ms. Keil the next time we’re in New York (and we’re there often), if Piven goes through with this purchase.

In the meantime, where is it that Piven actually *has* put down his money and actually purchased property? He currently owns a 2,424-square-foot house in Malibu, Calif., which he purchased in May 2004 for $3,500,000 from hockey star Chris Chelios (”Cheli” now owns another house in Malibu). Although Piven kept the bar and built-in icemaker from Chelios’ ownership days, “I did change almost everything else,” he told Cargo magazine in its March 2006 issue. “Chris has a family of four, and I’m an army of one, so I sanded the floors, knocked down walls, opened it up a bit. I flipped into a Zen-beach-cowboy-bachelor vibe. I have a Tibetan swing on my patio that I love. It’s where I sit and meditate while looking out at the ocean.”

In the past, Piven has owned the following two properties:

–A 1,736-square-foot house at 703 10th Street in Santa Monica, Calif., which Piven sold in 2004 for $1,975,000 (after having listed it for $2,195,000) — which was right at the same time that he purchased his house in Malibu;

–And a top-floor loft unit (#721) in the building at 540 N. Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, which Piven had owned through a bank trust from 1998, when he purchased it for $296,000, until October 2005, when he sold it to a neighbor for $495,000. Actress Joan Cusack, a longtime family friend of Piven’s, had owned in a condo unit next door from when she bought it in 1992 for $240,500 until she sold it in 1998 for $310,000. The unit that Piven sold had a spalike second bathroom with a rain shower, a 12-person Jacuzzi tub and a hot rock sauna, according to listing information.

Rolling Stone founder and publisher Jann Wenner and his partner Matt Nye reportedly have paid $11.9 million for a three-story, waterfront house on Old Montauk Highway in Montauk, N.Y., on Long Island’s South Fork.

The New York Post’s Jennifer Gould Keil broke the story on Thursday of Wenner’s purchase of the eight-bedroom, 6,300-square-foot house, which had been on the market for $14.9 million. The deal hasn’t cleared public records yet for us to confirm either the amount or the buyer’s identity, but we’ll of course take Keil’s word for it. Records show that the property had been in the hands of something called 372 Assets, LLC, which is a company owned by the fellow who Keil noted had developed the property and built the house, George Filopoulos of Manhattan-based Metrovest.

Built in 2005, Wenner’s new, eight-bedroom, traditional-style mansion has six and a half baths, a vaulted living room and dining room and huge stone fireplace, an additional great room with an eating area, an office, and an exercise room, according to listing information. Outdoor features on the two-lot, 1.5-acre property include lush landscaping, multi-level patios and decking including an oceanfront hot tub, 200 feet of ocean frontage, and existing plans for a guest house and pool, according to listing information.

Wenner (shown here on the far left, along with his actress pal Ellen Barkin and New York nightclub owner Steve Walter) owns plenty of other properties as well. Records show that he owns the following:

–A 9,030-square-foot brownstone on West 74th Street in Manhattan, which Nye has worked out of and which Wenner purchased in 1996;

–A five-story, 6,540-square-foot town home on West 70th Street in Manhattan, which Wenner and his then-wife Jane purchased in early 1987 from the estate of the late designer Perry Ellis for either $4.2 million or $5.7 million, depending on which news account one believes;

–A ski condo in Sun Valley, Idaho (Ketchum), or rather a “ski locker,” as it’s called (or a “major convenience,” as Wenner has called it in the past), in the aging, Bavarian-style Edelweiss apartment building, at 204 Picabo Street in Ketchum. Wenner owns that condo not for sleeping in, but rather because its building is literally across the street from the No. 10, which goes directly to the top of Bald Mountain and is the best ski lift in Sun Valley;

–A much bigger, 200-acre Sun Valley ranch (in Bellevue) that Wenner long has owned through his Hyndman Creek LLC company;

–A 4,068-square-foot house that was built in 1843 on a 67- to 70-acre spread on Davis Lane (off Woods Road) in Tivoli/Red Hook, N.Y., in upstate Dutchess County, which Wenner’s Teviot Property LLC company purchased in December 2007 (deal recorded January 2008) for $5,800,000. A listing sheet for that property is here.

Wenner also still technically has his name on the deed of an oceanfront house on 11.59 acres on Further Lane in East Hampton, N.Y. that he had owned with his ex-wife (and that she still occupies). He and his ex separated in 1995, which was the same year that he paired up with Nye, a model turned fashion designer.

The buyer of disgraced financier Bernie Madoff’s four-bedroom beach house in Montauk, N.Y. has been revealed, and it’s real-estate mogul Steven Roth, who paid $9.41 million for Madoff’s scruffy property.

The Wall Street Journal’s “Private Properties” column on Friday broke the story of the identity of the buyer, plus what he paid for the 1.2-acre estate, which is at 216 Old Montauk Highway in Montauk. The seller was the U.S. Marshals service, which seized the property from the now-imprisoned Madoff on July 1 in order to start to repay the victims of his Ponzi scheme.

The Journal reported that Madoff paid $250,000 in the early 1980s for the land, then built the 3,014-square-foot house, which has three baths, a grand columned porch with views of the Atlantic Ocean, a second-floor entrance that leads to a small master bedroom with a private terrace, a staircase that descends to a living room with vaulted ceilings, exposed beams and a stone fireplace. Outside are a small swimming pool overlooking the ocean, and a private path that winds to the beach through pine trees.

Did Roth, who chairs the Vornado Realty Trust real-estate investment trust, get a good deal? Who knows for sure — Madoff wrote in a filing last year that he thought the property was worth just $3 million, while the U.S. Marshals (not exactly master appraisers!) had believed it was worth around $8 million. Roth, 67, clearly knows what he’s doing when it comes to valuing properties, so he undoubtedly sees major potential with the property.

Two other properties of Madoff that have been seized by the feds remain on the market: a 4,000-square-foot duplex penthouse at 133 E. 64th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side that hit the market last month for $9.9 million; and an 8,753-square-foot, waterfront mansion at 410 N. Lake Way in Palm Beach, Fla., which came on the market last month for $8.49 million. Madoff and his wife, Ruth, paid $3.8 million in 1994 for the Palm Beach mansion, which was built in 1973.

Check out Bob’s weekly column in tomorrow’s Chicago Tribune (but available online now) about Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, who is renting a house in Lake Forest, Ill. for $3,750 per month. Cutler also has two houses in Colorado on the market, one for $1,675,000 and another for $699,900.

Also featured: retired hockey star Alexei Zhamnov, who just sold a house in Chicago’s Lincoln Park for $2,725,000; and noted Chicago lawyer Thomas Demetrio, who is trying to sell a house on Chicago’s Gold Coast (just two doors down from actress Joan Cusack) for $4,300,000.

Check out Bob’s weekly column from this past Sunday’s Chicago Tribune about retired Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon selling his 9,626-square-foot mansion in Northbrook, Ill. for $2,850,000. Also featured: former NBA star Antonio Davis, who took a loss on a 5,438-square-foot house he sold in Naperville, Ill. for $1.4 million, and who also has a mansion in Burr Ridge, Ill. that he is expected to close on at the end of this month after having had it on the market for $3,299,000. Davis also has a waterfront lot in Plainfield, Ill. on the market for $399,000.

Retired NBA star Calbert Cheaney is trying to sell his six-bedroom mansion on 2.3 acres in Potomac, Md. for $4,350,000.

In a Big Time Listings exclusive, we can report on Cheaney’s listing of his longtime mansion, which he purchased for $2,100,000, according to public records.

Cheaney (shown here with his wife) was a star with the Washington Bullets/Wizards from 1993 until 1999. However, he hasn’t played in the NBA since 2005-2006, and in August he was named a special assistant of the team where he spent his final three years, the Golden State Warriors.

Built in 1991, Cheaney’s two-story mansion is in the Falconhurst area of Potomac, according to public records. Custom-built by something called Gene May, the mansion has seven full baths (six of which are en-suite with bedrooms) and one half bath, a movie theater with nine leather Shiatsu recliners, an updated chef’s kitchen, a great room with 20-foot ceilings, formal living and dining rooms with fireplaces, a private library with a fireplace, a master suite with a sitting room, a walkout lower level with a custom wet bar, and a gym, according to listing information. Outdoor features on the property — which is on a cul-de-sac — include a heated pool, a cabana, and a guest house, according to listing information.

The mansion’s precise square footage is something of a mystery. Public records say it measures 8,818 square feet. However, some listing information calculates it at 11,318 square feet, while other listing information states that it’s 15,000 square feet.

It’s not clear where Cheaney is off to. Public records do show that since 2004, he has owned a 2,003-square-foot house in Newburgh, Ind., which is near his native Evansville. We doubt that that’s where he’s planning to move (more likely, it’s a house he bought for a relative, and Cheaney instead is house-hunting in the Oakland, Calif. area, where the Golden State Warriors are based), but who can say for sure. We will keep you posted as we learn more.

Belated thanks to a wonderful and anonymous tipster (you know who you are) for this great tip!