One of Mercer Island’s more recognizable lakefront homes, once owned by Seattle sports investor Walter Schoenfeld, is back on the market with a list price of $16.5 million. The midcentury Northwest property stretches across roughly 19,500 square feet of shoreline and has been extensively renovated to open up sightlines and overhaul its mechanical systems.
Current owners Kent and Lisa Sacia have put the home at 7374 SE 71st St on the market at $16.5 million, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal. Public listing data and sale records also back up the details and show the Sacias purchased the house in 2015 for about $5.5 million, per Redfin. Marketing materials cast the residence as a Northwest contemporary tailored for lake living and large-scale entertaining.
Renovation and waterfront features
As detailed in Seattle Magazine, the Sacias teamed up with Studio AM and landscape designer Sander Groves to keep key midcentury elements intact while opening up the floor plan and upgrading plumbing, windows and HVAC systems. The idea was to keep the home’s original character but make it function like a modern build.
The current listing points to about 118 feet of west-facing shoreline, a private dock with two lifts and roughly 6,400 square feet of interior living space, according to Coldwell Banker. A series of landscaped terraces and layered plantings softens the home’s strong geometry and helps screen it from boat traffic on Lake Washington.
Schoenfeld’s local legacy
Walter Schoenfeld, credited as a founding investor in the SuperSonics, Sounders and Mariners, commissioned the original house, according to his obituary in The Seattle Times via Legacy. The property changed hands in 2013, and records show Kent and Lisa Sacia paid about $5.5 million for the home in 2015, per Redfin. That thread of Seattle sports history is layered onto what is already an architecturally notable piece of waterfront real estate.
Where it sits in the market
Mercer Island waterfront continues to command some of the highest prices in the region. A waterfront report from Windermere shows island sales regularly reaching into the tens of millions, with several recent top deals above $10 million, per Windermere Real Estate/Mercer Island. At $16.5 million, the Schoenfeld-commissioned property lands squarely in the upper tier of local waterfront pricing without being the priciest listing in the area…