Your Medicaid Tax Dollars at Work Over on Strait Lane? Dallas Real Estate News

10711 Strait

I’m not going to do too much work here, going to defer to Byron Harris over at WFAA-TV Channel 8 to do most of the heavy lifting. Keep your eyes peeled to him for a report coming up involving these properties. My eyes are permanently peeled to Dallas real estate. In March, I was alerted to the fact that Richard and Stephanie L. Malouf, who live at 10711 Strait Lane (DCAD appraisal $9,535,700) bought the house next door to them, 10647 Strait Lane (DCAD appraisal $5,190,730). WTF, I thought. The Malouf’s home (10711) is amazing — a 15,000 square foot French Manor, designed by Robbie Fusch and built by Bob Thompson in 2003. Construction stopped for a while, the Maloufs bought it in 2008 (paid $10,500,000) and then finished it out ROYALLY — huge pool, cabana, sports court, gardens, etc.

10647 Strait

10647 had been on the market a long time — I wrote about it when precious Lynn Gardner Collins had it listed, first for $12,900,000 back in February of 2008 (she worked her fingers to the bone trying to sell that home) then reduced it to $7,950,000.¬† Built by Nickey Oates. Owen Wilson’s parents live just behind, Dirk is not too far, and Phil Romano’s spread is across the street. Well, on 12/06/2010 the Maloufs bought the house next door for $6,975,000, or $488.45 a square foot.¬† I recall thinking, God, that’s like half price for a 14,000 square foot home built in 2006 — previous owners (James and Kathy Tucker) had dished out $4.5 million on two acres —$4.5 million not counting the land. The Maloufs got a steal. I assumed they were going to tear it down and create an “environment”, which is what the wealthy are doing these days — you don’t build an estate any longer, you build an environment, like Troy Aikman’s place, with guest house, pool, sports courts, batting cages, go-carts, maybe even a pond. Hell, I know some gadzillionaires who would build an ocean if they could. Anyhow, I did a drive by and of course wanted to know what the owner did for a living.

He’s a dentist!

No way, I thought. That’s a hell of a lot of cavities to fill.

Then I saw Byron Harris’ report on May 13. Richard Malouf is a dentist, but he owns the All Smiles Dental conglomerate — like a General Motors assembly line for kids’ orthodontics — braces. (Full disclosure: both my kids got braces to the tune of $6000. I wish I had gotten braces, I hate my teeth.) According to Byron’s May 13 report, Malouf is beautifying a lots of kids’ teeth but the government is paying for it:

“On Garland Road in Dallas, two clinics are paired off like gas stations across from one another.¬†All Smiles Dental sits directly across the street from the Smiley Dental Clinic. Smiley’s vans, used to pick up patients, prominently display “Medicaid Accepted” in their bright¬†yellow¬†paint scheme.

Last year, Smiley took in nearly $2 million in Medicaid through its affiliates in North Texas. All Smiles collected $7.5 million. Together, the two chains collected more than twice as much as the entire state of Illinois paid out last year.

According to Byron, Texas is handing out $184 million for kids’ braces, nine times more than the entire state of California spends on kids braces. News 8 found that Navarro Orthodontix, (not owned by Malouf), controls 11 clinics across the state and was paid more than $22 million in Medicaid last year –¬† more than the entire state of California collected. ($19.4 million.) Taxpayers paid for all of this in this fiscally conservative state.

The day I did my little drive-by, a youngish kid in a pick-up truck stopped and asked why I was taking photos of his home. (Because I’m a nosy you know what — no, really, I have this little blog… I told him.) Is it your home, I asked? No, he said, it’s my bosses. I am the house manager. Oh then, I asked, so when you tear the house down next door, what are you going to build there?

Oh we’re not tearing it down, he explained. We are turning the house into a gymnasium sports center. We are just changing out the exterior brick.

As I left, I noticed a crew taking down what appeared to be a huge stage and serious TV lighting. This was about the time Good Christian Bitches was filming in Dallas so I asked, did they film GCB here at all?

Nah, he said: that was just for a kid’s birthday party we had over the weekend.

Brick renewal