The billionaire who White Sox fans are hoping will turn the team into a high-spending, perennial playoff contender has turned hundreds of small businesses into massive moneymakers. Justin Ishbia is the co-founder of Shore Capital Partners, the Loop-based private equity firm that has boosted his net worth beyond $4 billion. The 47-year-old son of the founder of America’s largest mortgage lender already has stakes in three professional sports teams. And in four years, he could take the reins from Jerry Reinsdorf as the controlling owner and top decision-maker for the Sox. The team announced the potential transition plan Thursday that could see Reinsdorf sell his controlling interest as early as 2029 to Ishbia, who otherwise will have the option to take over in 2034. A native of suburban Detroit and a Michigan State University grad, Ishbia and his wife are building what’s considered the most expensive home in Illinois history along the shore of Lake Michigan in Winnetka. Ishbia declined an interview request in the hours after his Sox succession plan was laid out. Through a spokesperson, he called his growing stake “an investment in the future of the Chicago White Sox” and an “opportunity to deepen my commitment to the city and the team. “I love Chicago, have always loved baseball, and am thrilled to marry two of my passions,” Ishbia said. That statement might aim to quell talk of a potential team relocation to Nashville, a possibility floated by Reinsdorf in his campaign last year for a new, publicly financed baseball stadium in the South Loop. But Ishbia has deep ties to that city seven hours south of 35th and Shields. He got his law degree at Vanderbilt University, keeps a Shore Capital office there and owns part of Major League Soccer’s Nashville Soccer Club. His team loyalties span westward, too. Ishbia bought part of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury in 2023 along with his younger brother, Mat Ishbia, the majority owner. But Justin was always more into baseball, he told Forbes last year, describing his brother and himself as “both alphas.” Justin Ishbia had been in talks to buy the Minnesota Twins before the Reinsdorf family approached him about upping the limited stake he’d had in the Sox for several years, The Athletic reported in February. While Ishbia’s wealth could put more team “skin in the game” for a new stadium as lawmakers have urged, he hasn’t said where he wants the team to play long-term. The Sox are under lease at the state-owned Rate Field through 2029, the same year he could take over. Whatever direction they take, Ishbia is no stranger to controversial local politics. Since 2020, he’s been building a massive lakefront estate in Winnetka for his family under an agreement that originally called for a swap of park district beach property, prompting fierce opposition from some neighbors and advocates dead set against handing public land to a private owner. While Winnetka officials are still wrangling over a land-use debate spanning nearly five years, the eventual estimated price tag on Ishbia’s estate of more than $77 million would be the biggest for any Illinois house ever, Patch.com has reported. Ishbia and his family regularly wade into national politics, too. He and his brother gave $5 million apiece to a super PAC that funded Democratic Florida congressional candidate Eric Lynn ahead of his 2022 loss to GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, federal campaign finance records show. Lynn was listed as the secretary of the nonprofit Ishbia Family Foundation Inc., which is headed by Justin. The possible future Sox chairman has given much smaller amounts to federal politicians on both sides of the aisle dating back to 2010, more often to Democrats. Ishbia gave about $3,500 in cash and in-kind contributions to former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s campaign in 2011, according to state records, but otherwise hasn’t apparently pumped big dollars into state and city politics. Ishbia’s parents, meanwhile, have mostly supported Republicans at the national level, including $1.8 million to one of President Donald Trump’s political action committees last year.