Billionaire Phoenix Suns' owner sparks fury 'by blocking access to public beach' while building $44M mansion on Lake Winnetka

The billionaire hedge fund manager building Chicago’s most expensive home has been accused of waging lawfare against neighbors in a bid to deny them access to the public beach at the back.

Phoenix Suns owner Justin Ishbia has razed three separate homes on the shores of Lake Michigan to realize his dream of a 68,000 square foot mansion in the ritzy Winnetka neighborhood.

Local doctor Ted Wynnychenko has now been cited for trespass after pushing through a fence erected by Ishbia’s construction team on the beach.

And police have warned the public to ‘keep their feet wet’ if walking on the beach to avoid a similar charge.

‘I think they’re doing it because they want to establish that this is going to be a private beach,’ Wynnychenko told the Chicago Tribune. ‘They’re trying to make people scared that they’ll be in trouble.’

Billionaire Justin Ishbia with wife Kristen who tearfully addressed Winnetka Village Council trustees in December 2022 as they voted on whether to allow the project to go ahead

Neighbors claim the couple are now using scare tactics in a bid to make the beach at the back of the $44 million development private 

Ishbia, 47, who co-owns the NBA team with his brother Mat, has been fighting a four-year battle to build the $44 million home on 3.7 acres just south of the city’s botanic garden.

Winnetka Village Council moved to protect shorefront bluffs after the billionaire levelled those on his land to make room for his sprawling development.

He obtained part of the site through a land-swap deal with the one of the local authorities. 

And his wife Kristen Ishbia tearfully addressed trustees in December 2022 as they voted on a complicated land swap deal allowing the three neighboring sites to be developed as one.

'When we first bought property here in Winnetka in the summer of 2020, we thought that we would be able to send our son to kindergarten here,’ she told them.

'Unfortunately, as time passes by, we are unable to build our home.

'Our children are missing out on being able to attend school here, play in our yard, and make friends in the neighborhood. They are missing out on being able to live our dream of a quiet authentic suburban life.'

The Tribune reported that neighbors who had strayed onto the beach claimed they had found themselves challenged from the local Winnetka police department.  

Police told Wynnychenko that security cameras recorded him walking on the contested beach for around an hour on June 9.

Justin Ishbia (left) and his brother Mat (right) are co-owners of the NBA's Phoenix Sun's

The village council moved to protect shorefront bluffs after the billionaire levelled those on his land to make room for his sprawling development

Since 2020, the private equity mogul worth $2.7 billion has acquired four parcels of land on the shoreline, three of which he blended to build his dream home with 68,000 square feet of living space and both indoor and outdoor pools

Ishbia has increased the size of the beach with hundreds of tons of sand fill but Wynnychenko says police were unable to specify at what point he was on private land.

‘I’m walking from state land to state land,’ he said. ‘I’m just abating a nuisance that is illegal.’

And he has demanded to know why artificial extensions to public land should be privately-owned.  

Locals on the Nextdoor app have mocked the billionaire for the construction plan with one referring to it as 'a cathedral erected to worship greed, narcissism, and wholesale disregard for nature’.

'This house will become the 'Michael Jordan house' of Winnetka in 30 years and will never be able to be resold,' wrote another.

Ishbia defended his project last year insisting that his construction team, composed of 'some of the best architects and the best builders', has worked diligently to 'follow all the laws’.

'Some people don't have all the information,' he added, but 'everything we are doing has been fully permitted.'

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources told Wynnychenko in an email that the public right of access to the beach remains, but that Ishbia has permission to fence it off while construction of his mansion takes place.

‘The Department’s permitting process is present to ensure that the permitted activity of a Permitee in public waters, such as Lake Michigan, does not unduly interfere with the reasonable access and use of the water by the Public,’ general counsel Renee Snow wrote.

A view across idyllic Lake Michigan where Ishbia is building his $44 million mega-mansion

‘The other side of this standard is that the Public cannot unduly interfere with the reasonable access and use of the water by a Permitee.’

A spokesman for Ishbia said they reported Wynnychenko because he breached a fence on an active construction site.

Police arrived at his home with a citation 11 days later, and Wynychenko faces a $750 fine when he appears at the Skopie Courthouse on July 22.

‘They’re trying to grab state land for private things,’ he said. ‘They’re trying to keep people away.’