Anonymous
Post 01/08/2019 23:23     Subject: Re:New Palace in Forest Hills!
The presence of the little wooden pail with a characteristic ladle, in the sauna, certainly supports either a Russian owner, or trying to appeal to a Russian buyer. Does any other culture routinely use those in the sauna?
Anonymous
Post 01/08/2019 23:04     Subject: Re:New Palace in Forest Hills!
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I can’t even tell what this is:


Garage.


I think it’s the basement.
Anonymous
Post 01/08/2019 23:00     Subject: Re:New Palace in Forest Hills!
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This house next door was sold in 2015:

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/3107-Fessenden-St-NW-20008/home/9992491


+1
Thanks. Glad someone spoke up against the “everything nearby is $1.5M” chorus. To further pushback, a place a block or so away on Ellicot sold for ~$9M. That’s, IMO, a better house and with a very flat 1 acre, IMO, a much better lot.


Murch families living large! lol
Anonymous
Post 01/08/2019 23:00     Subject: Re:New Palace in Forest Hills!
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The previous home was lovely, mainly on one floor as the house across the street. The other massive estate/house/mansion is now the ambassador of kuwait’s Residence.

This place was nonstop construction for more than a year. I walked by it all the time and there were at least 2 or 3 trucks outside all day. It certainly was a local job creator!


I love the house across the street. It reminds me of the mid-century modern house I grew up in.


I love the former mid-century house as well. I would have liked to have seen an architect like Robert Gurney update it and transform it. Instead, we got a McMansion.
Anonymous
Post 01/08/2019 22:49     Subject: Re:New Palace in Forest Hills!
Anonymous wrote:Too far from Metro. Hard pass.


This must be a joke. Do you think anyone who can afford this house is worried about the proximity to Metro?
Anonymous
Post 01/08/2019 22:35     Subject: Re:New Palace in Forest Hills!
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The previous home was lovely, mainly on one floor as the house across the street. The other massive estate/house/mansion is now the ambassador of kuwait’s Residence.

This place was nonstop construction for more than a year. I walked by it all the time and there were at least 2 or 3 trucks outside all day. It certainly was a local job creator!


I love the house across the street. It reminds me of the mid-century modern house I grew up in.


Pp here - yes I also love that house!
Anonymous
Post 01/08/2019 16:22     Subject: Re:New Palace in Forest Hills!
Anonymous wrote:The previous home was lovely, mainly on one floor as the house across the street. The other massive estate/house/mansion is now the ambassador of kuwait’s Residence.

This place was nonstop construction for more than a year. I walked by it all the time and there were at least 2 or 3 trucks outside all day. It certainly was a local job creator!


I love the house across the street. It reminds me of the mid-century modern house I grew up in.
Anonymous
Post 01/08/2019 16:17     Subject: Re:New Palace in Forest Hills!
The previous home was lovely, mainly on one floor as the house across the street. The other massive estate/house/mansion is now the ambassador of kuwait’s Residence.

This place was nonstop construction for more than a year. I walked by it all the time and there were at least 2 or 3 trucks outside all day. It certainly was a local job creator!
Anonymous
Post 01/08/2019 16:10     Subject: New Palace in Forest Hills!
Anonymous wrote:Probably built for some Russian oligarch, who had to back out at the last minute.


Javanka? This is Hannukah Heights!
Anonymous
Post 01/08/2019 16:08     Subject: New Palace in Forest Hills!
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Probably built for some Russian oligarch, who had to back out at the last minute.



There's a super interesting public records history here:
The original property sold on March 1, 2017. It was sold by the trust of a local philanthropist to an LLC. The LLC bought the home for $1.7m and financed $1.275m from a local NoVA bank.
However, in February 2017 someone put in a building application for a one-story brick house. The city granted that permit in June 2017.
In May 2017, someone submitted the full plans for the monstrosity you see here. The city granted the building permit for the massive house in August 2017.
In May 2018, the house received a permit to install an elevator. The city likely finalized inspections and granted the C of O sometime this fall.

To have a house this large means crews were working on this place nonstop for the past 12-15 months. That's a huge amount of people and a lot of capital.

In another weird twist, there are no property tax or home sale transaction records on the DC Property tax website. That seems to have been stripped from the system (very odd). The LLC is registered to an atrocious Mediterranean mansion in Fairfax; this house been put up for sale and then de-listed multiple times in the past 12 months.

The managers of the LLC (their names are on the loan docs with the DC Recorder of Deeds) seem to do real estate work in the NoVA area as a builder-agent combo. These guys have the title to the house (via the bank), but clearly someone else funded the construction. No clue who that could be, but these guys are holding the bag on the $1.275m mortgage note.


I can confirm:
-previous house was modest
-the crews+worksite were massive. Lots of heavy equipment, too.
Anonymous
Post 01/08/2019 15:42     Subject: New Palace in Forest Hills!
Anonymous wrote:Probably built for some Russian oligarch, who had to back out at the last minute.



There's a super interesting public records history here:
The original property sold on March 1, 2017. It was sold by the trust of a local philanthropist to an LLC. The LLC bought the home for $1.7m and financed $1.275m from a local NoVA bank.
However, in February 2017 someone put in a building application for a one-story brick house. The city granted that permit in June 2017.
In May 2017, someone submitted the full plans for the monstrosity you see here. The city granted the building permit for the massive house in August 2017.
In May 2018, the house received a permit to install an elevator. The city likely finalized inspections and granted the C of O sometime this fall.

To have a house this large means crews were working on this place nonstop for the past 12-15 months. That's a huge amount of people and a lot of capital.

In another weird twist, there are no property tax or home sale transaction records on the DC Property tax website. That seems to have been stripped from the system (very odd). The LLC is registered to an atrocious Mediterranean mansion in Fairfax; this house been put up for sale and then de-listed multiple times in the past 12 months.

The managers of the LLC (their names are on the loan docs with the DC Recorder of Deeds) seem to do real estate work in the NoVA area as a builder-agent combo. These guys have the title to the house (via the bank), but clearly someone else funded the construction. No clue who that could be, but these guys are holding the bag on the $1.275m mortgage note.
Anonymous
Post 01/08/2019 15:22     Subject: Re:New Palace in Forest Hills!
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This house next door was sold in 2015:

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/3107-Fessenden-St-NW-20008/home/9992491


+1
Thanks. Glad someone spoke up against the “everything nearby is $1.5M” chorus. To further pushback, a place a block or so away on Ellicot sold for ~$9M. That’s, IMO, a better house and with a very flat 1 acre, IMO, a much better lot.


Yeah, this home is much better situated. It makes much more sense.
Anonymous
Post 01/08/2019 15:17     Subject: New Palace in Forest Hills!
Anonymous wrote:So ghastly. I wonder who would buy it?


The kind of person who might otherwise be interested in River Road, Iron Gate Drive, etc. in Potomac but doesn't want to spend quite so much time in their car.
Anonymous
Post 01/08/2019 15:09     Subject: New Palace in Forest Hills!
So ghastly. I wonder who would buy it?
Anonymous
Post 01/08/2019 14:47     Subject: Re:New Palace in Forest Hills!
Too far from Metro. Hard pass.