By OLIVER SALT, US ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
Published: 10:21 EST, 16 December 2025 | Updated: 10:23 EST, 16 December 2025
The buyer of Michael Jordan's unwanted $9.5million Chicago mansion reportedly wants to turn the property into a full-time tourist attraction after abandoning a failed effort to turn it into a $1m-per-owner timeshare.
NBA icon Jordan finally sold the nine-bedroom, 19-bathroom home in December 2024 after 13 years of waiting, with John Cooper - a partner in a commercial real estate firm - taking it off his hands for barely half of the $14.89m asking price. He initially listed it for $29m back in 2012.
One month later it was revealed that the businessman, who renamed the pad 'Champions Point', was offering $1m time shares that would allow co-owners one week of access to MJ's former mansion every year.
Yet according to Sportico, shortly after they blocked his timeshare plan, Cooper appeared again before the Highland Park City Council on Monday to request a zoning amendment and access to a nearby nature preserve in order to revamp it into a tourist attraction.
In an 18-page document he pitches the concept as a 'unique destination designed to inspire personal transformation' and describes Champions Point as a 'dynamic cultural institution where architecture, sports and philanthropy will converge to deliver an immersive, multi-sensory experience focused entirely on personal transformation.'
It goes on to add that the property will be a 'living platform dedicated to guiding every patron to realize their untapped potential and actively experience greatness from within.'
The buyer of Michael Jordan's unwanted $9.5million Chicago mansion reportedly wants to turn the property into a full-time tourist attraction
NBA icon Jordan finally sold the property in 2024 after 13 years to businessman John Cooper
Bizarrely, Cooper's pitch deck makes no reference to the legendary basketball player who used to live there, which may well indicate concerns over potential trademark or right-of-publicity claims involving Jordan - who is worth almost $4bn.
His initial concept involved selling off $1m equity time-share stakes, with each of them granting buyers one week of annual access to the 56,000-square-foot mansion.
Despite the Jordan appeal, paying seven figures to spend a week in the Chicago suburbs proved a hard sell for Cooper, before the city council put the final nail in the coffin by approving amending the municipal zoning code to prohibit timesharing in single-family homes. The vote was in direct response to his Champions Point proposal.
After being dealt that setback, Cooper started offering the property as a short-term rental at $150,000 for a single month or $89,000 per month over six-to-nine-month leases. It is unclear how many tenants he attracted.
Now, as part of his plan for the home to be transformed into an immersive museum, he is seeking a special-use permit that would allow regular tours of the property, access to the parking lot of a neighboring public nature preserve and the construction of a 120-foot pedestrian path connecting the nature center to Champions Point.
The proposal has been met with opposition from one neighbor who criticized Cooper for sacrificing environmental concerns in pursuit of personal gain.
Cooper, a general partner of real estate company HAN Capital, bought the home
The front gate of Jordan's Highland Park, Illinois mansion includes his old jersey number
'A nature preserve exists to safeguard fragile ecosystems, not to facilitate the monetization of private property,' the neighbor told city officials in an email posted online.
'This proposal makes it abundantly clear that Mr. Cooper does not understand the magnitude of destruction his plan will cause to (the nature preserve), and that is profoundly alarming.'
Cooper claims Champions Point, which is located in a quiet cul-de-sac, would be open daily for visitors from 8am to 7pm from May through October with reduced hours in winter months. He also wants to host up to six evening events per year, finishing by 11pm.
As part of the renovation, he also plans to move the iconic '23' front gate from the entrance to an interior location in order to reduce 'the desire for visitors to queue or stop on the street.'