815 Woodland Drive holds the distinction as the most expensive house for sale in Irving Park this spring — 5,200 square feet overlooking the golf course, listed at $1.79 million. That comes out to a high-even-for-Irving-Park $343 per square foot, although in that category it ranks only second in the neighborhood (701 Sunset is just a bit less expensive at $1.785 million but also quite a bit smaller, coming in at $388 per square foot).
Built in 1925, 815 Woodland is a brick Georgian with five bedrooms, five and a half baths and a five-car garage. But there are two details beyond the home’s description that make it particularly interesting. After all, there are nine million-dollar homes for sale in Irving Park this spring, and some of the others are as grand and almost as expensive.
First, the owners are semi-celebrities — Martin Sprock III, Greensboro native, founder of Moe’s Southwest Grill, and buyer-and-seller of big expensive houses, and his wife, Leigh-ann, an entrepreneur in her own right and a former real estate agent in Atlanta for 10 years. They live in Charlotte now (a 4,000 square-foot home in Myers Park, built in 1925 and bought for $2.7 million in 2014).
The Sprocks’ real estate investments have made news well beyond Greensboro. In 2014, the Palm Beach Daily News reported that in recent years Martin had sold three houses there at prices ranging from $1.9 million up to $8.1 million. In 2015, he dropped $3.5 million for Middleburg Plantation near Charleston, S.C., a 326-acre spread that dates back to the 1690s.
Second, 815 Woodland has not been an easy sell. The Sprocks bought the home in 2004 for $1.7 million. This is the sixth time they’ve put it on the market since 2011 (original asking price: $2.19 million). They have experience with this kind of sale. A house Martin sold in Palm Beach in 2014 (6,600 square feet total, seven bedrooms and a guest house on almost an acre, now for rent at $45,000/month) was on the market for five years. It was listed originally at $10.5 million and sold for more than $8 million.
Note: This post has been corrected to state that 701 Sunset has a higher cost per square foot because it’s smaller than 815 Woodland rather than larger.
Greensboro Historic Homes For Sale 