Well-known Twin Cities businessman, Irwin Jacobs, is trying to find a buyer for his sprawling Wayzata estate, a can’t-miss-it manse on a tree-studded hilltop along County Road 15 (Shoreline Drive) in Orono. The property includes a 13,000 square-foot brick main house with slate tile roof, a 3,500 square-foot guest house with two bedroom suites, a pool house, a barn and a gate house.

At $22 million, it’s not the most expensive listing in the Twin Cities. Meredith Howell of Coldwell Banker Burnet has the $24 million listing for the Pillsbury/Jundt estate just down the street. That 32,000 square-foot-plus house is on 13 acres on Brackett’s Point.

Co-listing agent, Bonnie Velie, director of Distinctive Homes/Previews division for Coldwell Banker Burnet, said that while the house is “the most classic of traditional homes, and you might expect a house of this era to be quite formal,” it’s also a highly livable house that with no shortage of casual areas.  The main house, which has been expanded several times, was built in 1939.

Jacobs, 72, is well-known for buying properties at rock-bottom prices and flipping them quickly for a profit. Not so in this case. Jacobs has lived in the house for more than 40 years, and Velie said that with adult grandchildren, Jacobs is hoping to downsizing to a house that is “less complicated to maintain.”

Jacobs feels that the time is right to find, especially with the pace of upscale houses on the rise. By October of last year sales of  $1 million-plus properties had outpaced the previous year before by a long shot. And with housing construction on the rise, especially in closer proximity to downtown Minneapolis, there’s a growing shortage of developable land. Because of that, this 32-acre property, which has 720 feet of shoreline on Smith’s Bay and 1,231 feet along Tanager Lake, might appeal to a developer for subdivision. Here’s a link to the listing.