Monday Morning Millionaire II: Giraffe-Jerky Noshing Hedge Fund Manager Puts Highland Park Palazzo Back on the Market

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4223 Bordeaux extThat would be the pad of big time game hunter and Highland Capital Fund Manager co-founder (who likes to have FUN) James Dondero. He once apparently told the Dallas Morning News, as D Magazine reported, that giraffe makes very tasty jerky.  Well looks like Mr. D is going to be doing some HOUSE HUNTING mighty soon. He has just listed his tasty mansion at 4332 Bordeaux again with the gorgeous Gianna Cerullo at Dave Perry-Miller. Listed at $6,995,000, as it was before. And for a game hunter sort of guy, the house is not gamey at ALL! I spy one zebra rug, no biggie, and absolutely gorgeous, sleek, stunning decor everywhere.

Clearly, Mr. D’s tastes are elevated.

Where to begin?  The home is 13,496 square feet on a 100 by 200 foot deep lot. Back on the market after a trial run in fall of 2012, it is described as an Italian Eclectic. It is nestled in Highland Park, no bickering about that. There are six bedrooms, seven full and two half baths, four living areas, and the utmost attention to detail, which you can tell just by driving by and checking out the stonework. Rooms are quite spacious, but the home also features a paneled formal library that has leather floors. There was no sparing of woodwork in this formal living with built-in bookcases around the entire room.  The billiard room also has a wet bar with copper sink, granite counters, wine cooler, refrigerator drawers and dishwasher. (OK, where are you hiding the kegerator?) The kitchen has it all: Wolf double ovens and six burner gas range, double Sub Zero refrigerators with freezer drawers, Bosch dishwashers,  granite island the size of Manhattan with copper sink, ice maker and Miele espresso and coffee maker. The kitchen even has a clone — catering kitchen right off the dining room. There is a sunken wine vault with an adjoining wine dining room, and of course a full media room. How can I forget the gorgeous outdoor patio. The six-car garage is in the basement of the home, which leaves a great deal of land for a back-yard. No pool, but certainly room enough to have one, just call Harold Leidner!

I love the formals, but in this house it is the master suite raises that my pulse to dangerous levels: it’s huge, 23 by 22 feet with an adjoining master study and total spa baths, his and her’s. The room has a stone fireplace, hand painted ceiling accents, a balcony overlooking the yard, and his and her bathrooms each with walk in closets.  An adjoining master study includes a wet bar with YET ANOTHER refrigerator, copper sink, granite counter tops and YET ANOTHER built-in coffee maker. You can totally fit a massage table in “her” bathroom side, and his side has a shower big enough to wash a Porsche. All the marble, inlaid mosaic imported treasures, custom closets with glass doors to keep clothes fresh and crisp, and enough storage for an army.

4223 Bordeaux foyer 4223 Bordeaux foyer 2 4223 Bordeaux LR 4223 Bordeaux DRWorried about upkeep? Don’t: there is a full quarters on the first floor with bath. I toured this home back in 2005, when it was built by Wayne Lewis of Andrew Merrick Custom homes. If you will recall, Wayne also built 3500 Beverly Drive, where the Ginsburgs now live. Back when I wrote about 3500 Beverly, “The Most Expensive Spec House Ever Built in Dallas,Wayne took me to see 4223 Bordeaux: the home was one of a group of uber high end homes, one of three double-digit million-dollar homes he lovingly built from scratch to sell as specs in the Park Cities, sparing no expense: 3500 Beverly Drive,  4041 Grassmere Lane (at the time, $10.8 million) and 4223 Bordeaux Avenue (at the time, $11.9 million).

4332 Bordeaux kitchen 4223 Bordeaux bfast 4223 Bordeaux billiards 4223 Bordeaux morning 4223 Bordeaux master 4332 Bordeaux master bath hers 4332 Bordeaux master bath hisI recall Wayne’s confidence back then, circa 2005, when the real estate market was beginning to crack for the rest of the country. Not us, not here. He was as confident as, well, a billionaire hedge fund manager that his homes would sell. And ultimately they all did. He built his homes, he told me, to last 100 years so when his grandchildren drove by, they could say, “my grand daddy built that house.”

Here we are, 2013: this is one of the homes that Wayne built.4223 Bordeaux rear

 

Candy Evans, founder and publisher of CandysDirt.com, is one of the nation’s leading real estate reporters.

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