A Chaloobi Style House - 90,000 Square Feet - $75,000,000.

[Baxter]

$75M mansion near Orlando selling 'as is'
by ANTONIO GONZALEZ, Associated Press
Wednesday, June 23, 2010

WINDERMERE, Fla. – Listed as a "monument to unparalleled success," the largest home for sale in the United States comes with plenty of space but no carpet, tiles or interior walls. It's up to the future buyer to finish it.

The mansion started by timeshare tycoon David Siegel boasts plenty of big numbers: 90,000 square feet. Twenty-three bathrooms. Thirteen bedrooms. Ten kitchens. A 20-car garage, with additional space for two limos. Three pools. A bowling alley. Indoor roller rink. Two-story movie theater. Video arcade. Fitness center. Baseball field and two tennis courts.

Click here to see more photos of the $75M unfinished mansion

All that and more for $75 million "as is." There's an option to buy it completed for $100 million.

Nicknamed "Versailles" for the French royal palace that inspired it, the edifice hit the market recently. Construction was halted last year to save money in a recession that proved particularly hard on Siegel's once-booming industry.

"This mansion is a great anecdote of the overconsumption that led to the housing bust, and it might be the poster child of such overindulgence," said Jack McCabe, a Florida-based real estate analyst.

The unfinished palace at 6121 Kirkstone Lane makes Tiger Woods' place just down the street in this gated Orlando suburb look more like a guest house.

It has the square footage of nearly two football fields, is almost double the White House and about 36 times the size of the average American family home. The master bedroom alone, which would have had a rotating bed under a skylight, is twice the size of a standard house.

"It's like a living piece of art," said Lorraine Barrett, a Coldwell Banker real estate agent who has the listing.

At least it will be upon completion.

Instead of stonewalled gates, a chain-link fence with a green covering keeps onlookers out of the 10-acre property. The driveway is overrun with dirt and rocks. Weeds fill the planned baseball field.

The home opens into a grand hall with symmetrical staircases and a ceiling complete with a stained-glass dome befitting a cathedral. The rest of the mansion is more an outline - only steel beams, insulation and most of the electrical wiring are in place. The two elevator shafts are empty.

Stone for the exterior is waiting in boxes that fill the cavernous garage. The Olympic-length pool that will have a waterfall flowing into another pool is a carved-out shell. A cleaning company has to come to the vacant mansion to keep things tidy.

"He figured it would be for his family. They'd never have to leave, because they would have everything they needed here," Barrett said during a recent tour of the mansion. "Nothing broke his heart more."

She said Siegel, who has 12 children, could have easily moved forward with construction but wanted to avoid cutbacks at his company, Westgate Resorts. Requests to interview Siegel were not returned through Westgate Resorts or Barrett.

http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/personal...-selling-as-is

Rage On !!!

[littlelolligagged]

I want 3 swimming pools and a movie theater.

Can do without the bowling alley, though. Although I suppose if it were my own I wouldn't have to wear the foul shoes.

Naked bowling! And nudeskate!

[GGT]

I saw the pictures, it's hideous. One of the worst architectural "designs" I've ever seen.

ps we have a term for that kind of design around here: Opulent Taco Bell

[Baxter]

But just think of the "evnironmental footprint". And I bowl naked regularly. Clears out the rest of the alley...

[Aimless]

Look that's just a really big and pretty ugly house. What a fucking waste

[EyeKhan]

An olympic size pool would be nice. Doing laps in the little kidneys houses around here typically have is as frustrating as it is pointless. And if I had a real bowling alley, then the kids could spend more Wii time on Supermario Galaxy. Too bad its in Florida, though. Not much burn time for the fireplaces, if any, though I suppose you could chill the house way down with AC, then build a fire. Where there's a will, there's

Look that's just a really big and pretty ugly house. What a fucking waste

Waste of what?

EDIT: The grounds clearly need a lot of work. The buyer's going to need a riding mower, to be sure.

EDIT2: SWEET skylight. I'd make that my bedroom.

[Aimless]

Waste of time, energy, space, money, metal, plastic, you name it.

Look, it's a giant ugly overpriced and unfinished house.

[EyeKhan]

Waste of time, energy, space, money, metal, plastic, you name it.

Look, it's a giant ugly overpriced and unfinished house.

Whose time? Would it be better if the guys that worked on it were unemployed instead? Space? Energy? Materials? The use of all that fuels the economy down there in Florida. Lots of people made part of their living producing all that stuff and nailing it together. That's what the economy's all about. 90% of everything 90% of everyone does is a pointless waste. Why pick on this gem?

[Aimless]

Whose time? Would it be better if the guys that worked on it were unemployed instead? Space? Energy? Materials? The use of all that fuels the economy down there in Florida. Lots of people made part of their living producing all that stuff and nailing it together. That's what the economy's all about. 90% of everything 90% of everyone does is a pointless waste. Why pick on this gem?

Because it's uglier than a pile of dog-poo

Puhleeze, as if you couldn't have employed all those people and driven the economy building better houses.

[Ominous Gamer]

We once stayed in a 3 story log cabin outside of the Smokeys that had a theater room. Made me want one, even if it was only going to be used only a few hours a week. How would you fill a two story one? Charge general admission?

[Aimless]

I suppose it's a convenient and subtle way of saying, "Hi guys once upon a time I was almost 80 million bucks richer but then I had a stroke."

[EyeKhan]

Puhleeze, as if you couldn't have employed all those people and driven the economy building better houses.

Yeah, if you're a communist running a planned economy. Those millions of dollars came from someone who wanted a big ass house or more likely some group of investors who thought they could sell a big ass house for a big ass profit. This is how a capitalist economy works - it wastes money and resources on stupid things and in the process provides a living for lots of people.

[Aimless]

You're not getting me. A big-ass ugly house that wasn't even finished. That's not just how a capitalist economy works, that's how a capitalist economy works when it's powered by tasteless people

[wiggin]

You know, I don't think there's fundamentally a problem with someone buying items within their means. I suppose there may be a moral element involved where copious consumption levels could easily be instead diverted towards other activities (investment, charity, whatever), but if the consumer in question is already involved in such activities but still has spare cash, why not spend the money on a nice place? If one doesn't have the means, of course, it's symptomatic of the same problem facing many households in developed countries today.

The arguments about externalities - energy usage et al - are silly. Externalities are a problem because the full cost of a given product is not factored into the price a buyer actually pays. Thus, pollution and other concerns are not priced into energy prices normally. The solution is not to have an artificial limit on consumption that is largely arbitrary and awfully moralistic. Instead, the solution is to price the externality into the cost of the good (in this case energy). Thus, if the resulting price of energy is high enough to dissuade a rich individual from building an energy-wasteful house, great. If they instead decide they can still afford it, what's the problem?

[EyeKhan]

You're not getting me. A big-ass ugly house that wasn't even finished. That's not just how a capitalist economy works, that's how a capitalist economy works when it's powered by tasteless people

Taste? Are you kidding me? And probably it was left unfinished because the buyer or investors went belly up. The current price tag is probably discounted.

[GGT]

I suppose it's a convenient and subtle way of saying, "Hi guys once upon a time I was almost 80 million bucks richer but then I had a stroke."

It's hideously ugly. Obviously, money can't buy taste.

[EyeKhan]

Externalities are a problem because the full cost of a given product is not factored into the price a buyer actually pays. Thus, pollution and other concerns are not priced into energy prices normally. The solution is not to have an artificial limit on consumption that is largely arbitrary and awfully moralistic. Instead, the solution is to price the externality into the cost of the good (in this case energy). Thus, if the resulting price of energy is high enough to dissuade a rich individual from building an energy-wasteful house, great. If they instead decide they can still afford it, what's the problem?

Note that many of the artificially low externalities are low because they are subsidized by one or more government entities in a variety of ways. That subsidy money comes from taxes. And someone that can afford a big ass house like this pays a lot in taxes. So arguably, much of the externalities are paid by the homeowner anyway. Its the people who don't pay much in taxes but still benefit from the subsidies who arn't paying their own way. Indeed, their costs are artificially low because this guy is paying the difference. Of course, that's the justice of a progressive tax system which is a good thing.

[GGT]

http://www.sallyforsterjones.com/themanor

Only $150,000,000. And it's finished.

[EyeKhan]

Sounds like a deal. I wonder how much your net worth has to be to reasonably buy a house like that? A billion+?

EDIT: That's a really nice house. I think it would be better with a bigger pool, though. I like the ceiling woodwork in the library. Nice. Sweet Florida room too - I suppose they don't call it that, but you know what I mean. And how about that dual stairway? I wonder if there's ever any trouble deciding which way to go? Right or left?

[wiggin]

How much is a person's net worth who buys a $500k house? Probably not over $3 million.

It all depends on cashflow, not net worth.

[EyeKhan]

How much is a person's net worth who buys a $500k house? Probably not over $3 million.

It all depends on cashflow, not net worth.

Net worth for the uber rich often determines cash flow since income is likely largely based on capital gains. Not that I'm accusing the uber rich of not workin' for a livin' or nothin'.

[Aimless]

I'm not talking about morality, and people certainly have a right to be silly with their own money even if it means half-building an expensive and ugly palace

With that said, what's this business about indirectly paying for externalities? Like, how awesome is it to indirectly pay for externalities, anyway???

[EyeKhan]

I'm not talking about morality, and people certainly have a right to be silly with their own money even if it means half-building an expensive and ugly palace

With that said, what's this business about indirectly paying for externalities? Like, how awesome is it to indirectly pay for externalities, anyway???

I'm not sure what you mean??? What I'm talking about is subsidies. When the price of an item is artificially lowered by government subsidies, it's being lowered by spending tax dollars. And the wealthy pay much more in taxes than the middle class on down. So a wealthy guy isn't getting that item cheaper than it would be without a subsidy, he's paying even more for it so everyone else can have it cheaper. Same goes with subsidizing the oil, coal and gas industry. With the key pollution currently ignored, CO2, nobody is paying the real cost for using today's fossil fuels. Hell, nobody can even say what that cost is likely to be. But for past pollution, like superfund sites, again, that's tax money and the wealthy pay a bigger share than everyone else.

[Hazir]

The Spelling house looks quite ok, the other place looks hideous. And puhleeze.. 10 kitchens? That's just stupid.

[Cracky]

I have a similar monstrosity (though I think it's only around ~30,000 square feet) across the road from me, 20 mil, and barely worth a dime of it. It's mostly a big driveway...

[EyeKhan]

The Spelling house looks quite ok, the other place looks hideous. And puhleeze.. 10 kitchens? That's just stupid.

Sounds like it might be set up to convert into an apartment building - just in case.