Celebrity Real Estate

Celebrity Real Estate

Estate Made Famous by The Beverly Hillbillies Drops for $350 Million

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In 1962, Jed Clampett and family moved from the Ozarks to Beverly Hills after oil was discovered on their land.  So started one of the most endearing television sagas of all time lasting nine seasons and 274 episodes.  In truth, the Kirkeby Mansion was built in 1933 by Arnold Kirkeby who built a chain of 16 upscale hotels. His first property was Chicago’s Drake Hotel and also included the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills.  The architect was Sumner Spaulding and has an 18th-century French Neoclassical design ethos. Other movies using the mansion include Mame and Cinderfella.

Mrs. Kirkeby was paid $500 per day for exterior filming along with a provision the grounds be returned to their original state after filming.  The interior shots were filmed on a soundstage and, as is often the case, bear little resemblance to the actual interior of the home.  Mr. Kirkeby was killed in a plane crash before the series began so never experienced the fame his home would achieve on television.

Load up the truck and move over to SecondShelters.com for more.
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Celebrity Real Estate

Don’t Wait for the Rebound: Grab Rick Carlisle’s Stoneleigh Residence Casa While It’s Hot

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I swear, every time I walk into a unit at the Stoneleigh Residences, I think I have seen the most beautiful condo in Dallas. It just gets better every time.

But this time, I actually may have seen the best home here ever, and it belongs to a very tall sports legend.

Dallas Mavericks head basketball coach Rick Carlisle and his wife, Donna Carlisle, are selling a scrumptious home on the 15th floor. With three bedrooms, three full en suite and one half bath, formals and huge den you get a whopping 3948 square feet of sky-high living which is, frankly, perfect: not so high the vertigo sets in, but high enough to get a stunning 360 degree view of Dallas from the Gold Towers on Central all the way to Downtown and the bridges southward.

And it has been decked out in transitional sophisticate, so light, airy and perfect it reminds me of a free throw. Seriously, this is move-in while they are moving-out ready: the concierge will bring your toothbrush.

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Celebrity Real Estate

Lance Armstrong Drops Price of Stunning West Austin Home to $7.9 Million

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Lance Armstrong ext Austin

It was about this time last year that Shonda Novak of the Austin American-Statesman first reported that former cycling champion Lance Armstrong listed his house in West Austin for sale. The price tag was $8.25 million for the 8,000-square-foot property which he bought in 2013.

The house is exquisite. 1706 Windsor Road, in the Old Enfield neighborhood, was built in 1924 and previously owned by Ben Barnes, a former Texas lieutenant governor, says Shonda, but it has been completely remodeled in a manner that retains every bit of charm but brings it fully into the 22nd century. It was remodeled by RWM Designs and was constructed by Michael Deane Homes. The property is a fantastic blend of original charm, modern amenities and timeless design. The Travis Central Appraisal District has the 8,157-square-foot house valued at $2,429,018 million. It is similar in tone to the Spanish Colonial-style mansion he sold in 2013, though the land mass is much smaller: .41 acres versus 1.7. This is the estate Lance told Architectural Digest he would never leave:

He pauses. “When their mom and I split, the kids and I moved around a bunch. But that’s over. This time I said, ‘You will graduate from high school in this house. I promise. Dad’s not moving again.”

That home was highly personalized with an emphasis on casual, family enjoyment. (Armstrong has said he doesn’t find much use for a formal living room.) Lance let each one of his children decorate their own rooms, down to the painted dinosaurs on his (then) five year old’s bedrooms walls. According to the AD article, Armstrong hired Roy W. Materanek, his “partner-in-design-crime since 1995, when the pair worked together on Armstrong’s first house (following up with homes in Spain and New York, a Texas ranch and a getaway in the Bahamas. He also has a home in Hawaii).

Armstrong moved into the Old Enfield neighborhood in 2013. He and his agent, Laura Gottesman, have now reduced the price on the Windsor Road masterpiece to $7.9 million. The listing detail does not give out the address of the home. Last year, Gottesman pulled the listing from its website after the American-Statesman reported on it.

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Celebrity Real Estate

The Late George Michael’s Highland Park Mansion Traded This Summer

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Ashley Tripplehorn Hunt CM

photo courtesy of CultureMap

It sold on July 25, 2016, snapped up by young designer Ashley Tripplehorn and her husband, Ward Hunt. Owned by Kenny Goss, former partner of pop singer George Michael and principal in the Goss-Michael Foundation, the 5,538-square-foot, four-bedroom, five-and-a-half bath home came to the market at just under $4 million. It closed at $2.9 after more than 507 days.

George lived in the home at 4449 Belfort when he and Kenny were together, throughout most of the early 2000’s. He died on Christmas Day at his long-time home in the historic village of Goring-on-Thames, one of several luxury homes he owned and left behind at the time of his passing.

Belfort was built in 1940,  designed by well-known Dallas architect Harwood K. Smith with landscape by Blackland Prairie Design. The homes’ clean lines and sharp angles hint at minimalism with nods to federal, colonial and art deco styles.

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Celebrity Real Estate

Just in Time For Christmas: Clay Stapp Lists The Ultimate Car Cave

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Somebody better snap this up before Jay Leno hears about the ultimate car collector’s garage. If Leno doesn’t get it first, maybe one of the other nine biggest car collectors in the world will shell out the $5.5 million asking price for a retirement home turned into a 20,000-square-foot garage, i.e. car cave.

“It is the ultimate Christmas gift for the guy who has everything,” says listing agent Clay Stapp.

The garage comes with a 33-car collection of fully-restored classic Corvettes, American muscle cars, and even some reproductions.  Also included: all the “automobilia,” hundreds of collectibles from vintage gas pumps to toddler pedal cars.

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Celebrity Real Estate

Rex Tillerson Bought the Late Charles Wyly’s Equestrian Ranch in Argyle: Horse Country Just Got Hotter

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Stargate aerial

As you may have heard this week, our next Secretary of State, if approved by Congress, could be Exxon Mobile CEO Rex Tillerson. He is the head honcho at the Irving-based multi-national oil and gas corporation, but he lives in Bartonville. His recommendation is said to have come from former Defense Secretary Robert Gates and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Rice and Gates have a consulting firm that works with Exxon.

Bartonville is north of DFW International Airport, bordering Lantana, part of that loamy-soil rich horse country near Argyle and Pilot Point dotted with huge horse farms, like this Ebby listing for Mustang Ranch where I was kissing a fabulous horse.

The area was settled in 1878 and was named for T. Bent Barton. In 1886 there was only a post office, by 1906 there no longer was a post office but a population of about 100. Families love the quiet, country atmosphere and great Argyle public schools. Getting from Irving to Bartonville is about a 30 minute limo ride.

“Everyone in Argyle wants acreage,” says Marilyn Hoffman, Hoffman International Realty, “there are probably more equestrian spreads there and in Bartonville, than anywhere else in Texas.”

She should know: Hoffman listed the ranch the Tillersons bought from the late Charles Wyly which was called, at the time, Stargate Sport Horse Farm. The name was changed to Bar RR Ranches (Rex and Renda). She had it listed for two years at an asking price of $12 million. After her listing agreement expired, Tillerson and his wife bought the spread in September of 2009 for way less than what Wyly had been asking.

Arabian Horse Times

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Celebrity Real Estate

Former CBS Producer Mary Mapes puts Her Swiss Avenue Home on the Market

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5533 Swiss Ave ext

Mary Mapes is the CBS News producer who lived the life fantastic as Dan Rather’s principal producer for 60 Minutes. In 1999, their collaborative work culminated in a prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for an investigative report on abuses in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.

But Mapes and Rather, as you may recall, are also known for leaving CBS after their famous 2004 report that questioned how George W. Bush got into the (largely noncombat) National Guard during the Vietnam era. It questioned whether he received favorable treatment and even fulfilled the required obligations before his 1973 honorable discharge. It was the early era of blogging and the web microscope. The authenticity of military documents Mapes and Rather used in the report was questioned by bloggers who contended that the typeface used in those documents (Microsoft Word) didn’t yet exist, strongly suggesting the documents had been doctored or were forgeries.

It was one of the most famous events in the history of American journalism. To anyone in broadcast journalism, Dan Rather was the Walter Cronkite of our generation, the shoulders of truth. The ordeal was surreal.

On Sept. 20, 2004, CBS News president Andrew Heyward apologized for the report, as did Rather on the air that same night.

And thus began a nightmare for Mapes, including dismissal from the sterling network brand. Rather resigned from CBS a year later, shipwrecking one of the most stellar careers in broadcast journalism. Mapes was put through the wringer:

Mapes eventually found herself on the receiving end of a more than 200-page report from a panel commissioned by CBS and headed by former Republican attorney general Dick Thornburgh and former Associated Press president Louis D. Boccardi.

The panel said it “had not been able to conclude with absolute certainty” whether the documents used in the report were “authentic or forgeries.” Nor did it find evidence of “liberal bias.”

All that time, Mapes was married to Dallas Morning News reporter Mark Wrolstad and living in Munger Place on Swiss Avenue right here in Dallas. The couple bought the home in 1998.

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Celebrity Real Estate

Former Texas Ranger Jason Botts Lists Victory Park Condo

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2323-n-houston-st-dallas-tx-706-MLS-2

The Terrace is likely the last place in the Downtown Dallas area where you can find great deals, and this penthouse-level unit at 2323 N. Houston St. is not only a bargain, but it comes with a little extra celebrity cachet.
Jason Botts2
Unit 706, a one-bedroom, one-bathroom with study condo inside The Terrace, is being sold by none other than former Rangers first baseman and outfielder Jason Botts. Botts, a switch-hitter who was on the Rangers roster from 2005 to 2008, played in 93 games over four seasons with five home runs.
His condo, a tidy seventh-floor unit, is listed by Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty agent Alison Houpt Howell for $315,000. The unit, which totals 988 square feet, has some great views, a fabulous amenity deck, a neutral color scheme, designer lighting, concierge service, and two assigned garage spaces. It’s the perfect lock-and-leave, low-maintenance unit for those who travel.
 
“The Terrace is one of the best opportunities to purchase in Victory Park,” Howell said. “With low HOA’s, stellar management, privacy, a great fitness center, and high-end finish-out it’s no wonder Jason Botts called The Terrace home while playing for the Rangers.”
Jump to see inside!

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