President Reagan & Charles Price
Think of it as wretched excess…
Remember the Beverly Hillbillies television show? Where an unassuming family of hillbillies discovers oil, then drives their run down jalopy to a spiffy, new mansion in Beverly Hills, California.
Dream come true, huh?
Well, right now Kansas City’s Cates Auction Real Estate Company could use some rich hillbillies to ante up for the 9,000 square foot “penthouse it intends to auction “in The Walnuts at 51st and Wornall Road.
Just one problem.
The sellers – who allegedly plowed $6 million into it – have been trying to dump it for $3 million, when according to Zillo it only sold for $419,000 in 2009.
That’s quite a markup – even for a home that once hosted Prince Charles, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, according to Cates’ listing for the January 30th auction.
Not surprisingly it used to belong to former US Ambassador to England Charles Price.
Cates hopes to unload the condo on the highest bidder over $1.5 million.
That could happen, but as old world and prestigious as the penthouse is, there’s something kind of sterile and uninspiring about the multi story abode that Zillow now estimates to be worth only $631,617.
Looking at the dozens of photos of its luxurious digs leaves one with the feeling of being in a really rich, old person’s home. Someone like – you know – Nancy Reagan.
The place is actually huge to a fault – conspicuous consumption anybody? – and it wouldn’t surprise me if a big chunk of that $6 million investment was in the form of museum quality antiques to furnish it. And frankly, it doesn’t show all that well absent those antiques.
But seriously, who in Kansas City really needs this much sheer excess?
One clue as to that is answer is that the auction house bought a two-page, inside front cover double truck ad in society weekly The Independent.
What does it have? Read on. What it doesn’t have…how about warmth and charm?
The listing includes stuff like, gold plated door knobs and hinges, fabric walls, silk brocade draperies, a fully appointed service kitchen (adjoining the main kitchen), a massive silver service closet, a paneled informal dining room that looks more formal than probably 99.9 percent of the formal dining rooms in the Greater Kansas City area, a gigantic marble-floored ante room just outside a master bedroom that comes with old-people-looking wool carpeting, and a brass Pegasus inlay in the marble hallway leading to it, a marble steam shower, parquet floors and paneled walls galore, a house manager’s office, a game room with a 100 square foot window, a conservatory with glass walls and ceiling, a gigantic rooftop terrace with irrigated landscaping that overlooks a manicured English garden.
The list goes on.
But look, here’s the problem boys and girls; it’s just too darn much. Plus it looks like someplace Grandma Moses decorated after she won the lottery. In another time, Price might have been mummified and buried there and slaves would have topped it with a pointy thing.
In any case, whoever buys it – assuming they’re under maybe 80 – is likely going to have to plow another however many million bucks into it to just to replace all those wildly expensive fabric walls, parquet and marble floors that don’t quite match their exact, post Y2K taste.
Empty the place looks like somebody broke into an abandoned museum. One that might well be haunted by the ghosts of Price, Thatcher and the Reagans.
It’s a sad, sterile testimony to the wretched excess of a very wealthy family from that same bygone era my parents hailed from.
On the other hand, maybe all it really needs are some really rich old hillbillies.
Takers?
Great job Hearne, you’re keeping up with an article but busienss journal published last year before Christmas! Groundbreaking stuff!
The Walnuts penthouse condominium auction: http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/blog/2014/12/the-walnuts-penthouse-auction.html
Slaves topping it with a “pointy thing”.
Heh, heh…..
Funny stuff.
You are so lame, Greedo…
You rush in here breathlessly that you’ve got some huge bust. Get a clue.
First of all, the Business Journal is read by probably the same number of people as you have IQ points. Second, the dude who wrote that served it up as a blowjob for the auction house – as in with ZERO reporting.
Not that you’d notice, but what the seller house DIDN”T want was the information I provided, like that it sold for only $400,000 in 2009 and it’s estimated worth is $600,000 and change.
Plus extensive specifics, photos and a viewpoint that it’s a sterile-looking geezer relic that’s probably gonna take whoever buys it however many million bucks to undo and redo.
Now wipe that smirk off you face, get back in bed and try and make something of yourself. Silly goose.
I would buy this penthouse. Except I most certainly cannot afford it. But if I were to hit black gold, I’d buy it and not change a thing. I’d decorate it with the antiques suitable for such an abode. You hit it right on the head when you said post Y2K. I can’t put my finger on the word used to describe this. The best I can say is that would you rather have a 62′ chevy pick up or 2014? You’d probably say 2014 (the euphemistic “you”) but I appreciate the workmanship you don’t see these days. Try finding another place like this, or replicating this one. I can assure you it would cost far more than 600k. You are 100% right Hearne. This home embodies the greatness of work and pride the American worker once had. Now we live in a society of “disposable things” where the next upgrade is only a year away. That’s neither good nor bad, its just what it is.
Maybe one day this millenial will have the money to drop on a place like this, but not today. Maybe I can start a kickstarter? For now, I’ll peruse the houses on cliff drive that I could find for 150k that, while not quite as grandiose, possess some great woodwork. I hope whoever does buy this place doesnt do as you say and rip everything out. Hopefully the person that buys it appreciates the IMMENSE work that was put into it. Because try finding a Journeyman today that can replicate some of these intricacies. This embodies the greatness that was America. Not the cheapest shoddiest work I can get by with and collect a payday.
Great points, I’dBuyit…
What I meant is that they’re probably want different fabric on the walls, perhaps some different flooring than parquet, certainly different carpet than in the master, different colors, updated kitchen appliances, that built in hidden TV well may be a CRT and you’d have to totally redo it to fit a 60 or 70 inch LCB, different faucets, bathroom sinks, toilets.
These people were really old – my parents age – another’s been a lot of water under the bridge since most of this work was probably done.
They wouldn’t have to knock out a bunch of walls and rip down the wood wall paneling, but most people who buy really nice houses redecorate some. And that could cost a fortune.
If it’s only worth $600,000 and they plowed $6 million into it that tells you how fast the money can go.
The thing that got me though – and I know in part because it’s empty – that the place is just too damn big. I can’t help but thing that it would be kind of creepy for a married couple – even with a couple kids – to rattle around in all that space.
Geez, the dining room looks like it’s bigger than most upper bracket houses’ full basement rec rooms.
But that’s just me.
On the other hand, there’s a reason they haven’t been able to dump it after all this time and are trying to get the job done via an auction.
Two ways to look at it:
Either it’s a steal at 1/4 the money the previous owner allegedly has in it. Or you’re paying at least triple what it’s worth.
You make the call.
Hearne. Hearne? You do know you’re old, right?
Ok geezer….just checkin…sometimes folks your age forget….