Dans Bois Crete, aka Our $19.5 Million Heartthrob on Inwood: Owner Tells All to the New York Times

You recall this listing, yes. As if we can ever forget. Definitely one of the most beautiful homes in Dallas, inside and out. The home’s name, “Dans Bois Crete”, means “in wood ridge”. In a wood ridge it is, indeed, located on that elegant stretch of Inwood Road just south of Walnut Hill, not too far from the heart-throbbing estates of Kelcy Warren, Roger Staubach, and Windle and Shirley Turley. My friends built the home with every detail imaginable then settled back and enjoyed it, from the wonderful gourmet chef’s kitchen to the downstairs movie theater with a full-service ticket booth plus candy and popcorn concession stand. Then the new owners and current sellers embellished the already embellished. At 14,139-square-feet, the very, very French mansion sits on 5.3-acres tucked inside formidable black iron gates at 9806 Inwood Road. It is listed for $19.5 million.

The family who bought 9806 in 2007 are Audrey and Erich Spangenberg, they being owners of Dallas-based IPNav, a company that specializes in patent infringement law. When 9806 Inwood hit the market, the Spangenberg’s were reluctant to reveal their name and their agent, Briggs-Freeman’s Christy Berry, was totally mum. And we, of course, respect that. It wasn’t until The Wall Street Journal spilled the beans that we revealed ownership. If you know me at all, I am always DYING to know what owners of these mega manses do to afford them.

And now, from this fantastic New York Times story, we know! We learn that Erich Spangenberg once owned  “…16 cars and a mansion with a gold leaf ceiling and a Baccarat chandelier.” Yep, been there. Then, the Times says, he “snapped out of it a few years ago, after he bought so much wine at a Christie’s auction that it was delivered in an 18-wheel truck. His son said he’d need to live to 200 to consume all of it.”

Well, 9806 sure has enough room for all that wine and autos!

Even more interesting: Erich is from Buffalo, New York and was a high school drop-out who did make his way to law school, eventually, at Case Western Reserve University. Not too shabby:

“He earns about $25 million a year, he says, which is at least a couple of million more than the country’s top bank executives. Until recently, he lived in a 14,000-square-foot home in Dallas; it is now on the market for $19.5 million. He often flies on a company jet, and at one point he owned 16 cars, six of them Lamborghinis.”

The articles says he once worked four days straight without sleep, and was taken to the hospital in an ambulance after having a mild seizure. He stands at 5-foot-6 and was bullied as a child, his nose broken by “an assortment of fists.” Hence his distaste for bullies.

The Spangenbergs are now living in a 2,000 square foot Dallas apartment, and a few other homes across the world including an apartment in Paris, whose time zone is convenient for conversations with employees around the world. The Spangenbergs are also fond of Impressionist art, and are seeking to buy a Monet because, perhaps, it will remind them of their glorious yard at 9806 Inwood Road.