Is it a lasting monument to bad business decisions, an exercise in karma and American Ostentatious architecture or simply a beautiful, move-in-ready space for a successful corporate executive and a few hundred close friends?
Whatever it is, the house at 7 Montagel Way in Birmingham is a 55, 000-square-foot palace on 27 acres of land in Shelby County and it’s worth $4 million, if an object is worth what a buyer is willing to pay. It fetched that price at auction in late October, under the supervision of DeCaro Luxury Real Estate Auctions.
Larry House, founder and former CEO of MedPartners, wasn’t finished building it when a $7 billion buyout of his company by Nashville competitor PhyCor Inc. collapsed in 1997, causing him to lose $39 million on paper shortly thereafter. According to news reports, he’s been trying to sell it since 2003. County assessors recently assessed it at $12.1 million.
The deal hadn’t officially closed at press time and thus the name of the new owner was not available.
Text by Dave Helms
