Ragen Seattle Mansion Sells for $9.6 Million

This estate in the Denny-Blaine neighborhood of Seattle (page 30 in Lake Washington 130 Homes, http://www.hundredhomes.net/) sold for $9.6 million in December 2009. This is one of Seattle’s fine old waterfront mansions that has not been torn down for a modern home. The home buyer is listed as Janis Cunningham, a partner with the Perkins Cole law firm. She may be acting as a trustee for an anonymous buyer. The former owner and seller was Brooks Ragen.  He co-founded Seattle-based Ragen Mackenzie Group, a full service brokerage firm.  The firm grew to 300 employees with offices in Washington, California, Oregon and Alaska managing over $11 billion in assets when it was acquired by Wells Fargo in 2000.  Nearly simultaneously Brooks left the firm and co-founded McAdams Wright Ragen in Seattle and the firm is now one of the region’s largest brokerage firms. The estate has 4,020 sq ft of living space on 0.6 acres with 153 feet of waterfront.

Gould Buys Briggs Madison Park Mansion for $10.6 Million

This house in Madison Park (page 19 in Lake Washington 130 Homes,
http://www.hundredhomes.net/) sold for $10.6 million in December 2009. The home was purchased by Frederick Beau Gould and Julie Pigott Gould. The Goulds moved from a nearby Madison Park home and their boat is named “Julie.” Frederick is a Seattle attorney. Julie is active in numerous local charities with other members of the Pigott families. The former owners, Jack and Carol Briggs, were also active in charities and the home was featured as a wonderful site for many fund raisers. The home has a pool, two kitchens and three fireplaces. The selling brochure said: “The home is wonderful for entertaining inside and outside. Inside there are large entertainment rooms with French craftsmen detailing. The outside features the pool, beautiful, well-maintained landscaping, sculptures and fountains.” The estate has 7,470 sq ft of living space on 0.7 acres with 135 feet of waterfront.

Bill Gate’s Convention Center

A – Grand Staircase – 92 feet long, descending 84 steps with roof 63 feet above the stairway.  The Grand Entrance is at the top with a 6,300 sq ft garage for guest limos.  The gate for the road to the estate is in the upper right.  The driveway continues past the Grand Entrance through a second gate to the family four car garage above the inner sanctum [D].

B – Library (hidden behind [A] and trees), 2,100 sq ft and home to Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester.

C – Guest and convention wing with reception hall, guest rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, meeting rooms, theaters, etc.

D – Family 11,500 sq ft “inner sanctum” with 4 bedrooms. A 60 x 17 foot indoor/outdoor pool is below and the lakefront building is the boat house.

E– Executive offices and main reception hall.

F – Security offices, activity center and exercise room.

Since 1997 Microsoft and Bill Gates have been holding an annual very exclusive “CEO Summit.”  The inaugural 1997 conference introduced his 50,000 sq ft, $150 million, Lake Washington estate that was near completion. Usually about 100 top-level people from around the world attend. Sessions and meetings are held at the Microsoft campus and Bill’s estate, aka his personal Convention Center.  Most of the meetings and social events are closed to the media and public and advance notices of the times and places of these are not provided. The above is a guide to his lakefront convention center as viewed from the public waters.  The estate along with more information is in my book, Lake Washington 130 Homes, on pages 118 and 119 (www.hundredhomes.net).

Nathan Myhrvold’s T-Rex House

Nathan Myhrvold became fascinated with dinosaurs and visited the filming of the “Jurassic Park” sequel in 1996 and met the film’s consultant and world-leading paleontologist, Jack Horner. Horner convinced Nathan to use some of his Microsoft multimillions to fund a dinosaur bone digging foundation. His foundation has recovered more tyrannosaurus rex skeletons than the total previously found by everyone else. He has given most of them to museums including the Smithsonian. In-side the big rounded windows of his living room he has one of the t-rex skeletons he helped dig up.

He co-founded Bellevue-based Intellectual Ventures in 2000 and the company has been featured in recent news. Intellectual Ventures invests in invention. The company has created and purchased thousands of patents and original inventions with the purpose of protecting the inventors and collecting royalties from larger companies. Nathan personally holds 18 U.S. patents and has applications pending for 100 more. He was born in Seattle, earned a PhD in theoretical and mathematical physics from Princeton at the age of 23 in 1981. He joined a computer startup company, Dynamical Systems, Inc., and became CEO. The company was purchased by Microsoft in 1986 and he joined Microsoft as Chief Technology Officer. He is a prize winning nature and wildlife photographer and a master French chef, occasionally working as an assistant chef at top-of-the-line restaurants.

The mansion along with more information is in my book, Lake Washington 130 Homes, on page 97 (www.hundredhomes.net).

Lytle Mercer Island Mansion Auction

The Lytle mansion on Mercer Island is scheduled for auction in April 2010. The minimum bid is $15 million. The mansion is 22,800 sq ft on 2.0 acres with 150 feet of waterfront, 5 bedrooms, and 9 baths. It was built in 1977 and extensively remodeled and enlarged in 2000-01. It was first listed for sale in 2004 for $40 million. The listing price was $35 million when I published my book, Lake Washington 130 Homes, in August 2009. Late last year the listing price was reduced to $23 million. My book also includes their new house in Hunts Point that was under construction at the time.

The Mercer Island home to be auctioned features a large indoor pool area with marble columns that is reminiscent of Las Vegas’s Caesar’s Palace. The mansion includes two fish ponds, two wine cellars, three kitchens and a mirrored gym.

The auction web site is: www.sheldongood.com/mercerisland.php

The home was featured on KING 5's Evening Magazine on April 12, 2010.

 

Hunts Point Home - Picture From 2009 Under Construction

The new Hunts Point house is now complete and they are anxious to not have both houses. They are empty nesters and are downsizing from 22,800 sq ft to 10,600 sq ft. The new house must have small closets.

The Lytles, Charles and Karen, are the founders of Leisure Care, one of the largest developers and operators of retirement communities. Both houses are in my book (pages 46 and 157): http://www.hundredhomes.net/.

(Updates are in 9/27/10 and 5/24/10 posts.)

Mercer Island Proctor Landing Mansion Sells For $15.7 Million

This house on Mercer Island (page 57 in Lake Washington 130 Homes, http://www.hundredhomes.net/) sold for $15.7 million in a private transaction with an undisclosed buyer in the second half of 2009. The property was listed for sale in the early 2000s for $34.5 million and in May 2009 the listing price was $23.9 million.

The estate has 17,780 sq ft of living space on 1.37 acres with 255 feet of waterfront, 8 bedrooms and 15 baths. The original house was built in 1932. It was purchased in 1998 for $7.9 million by the seller who extensively expanded and remodeled, maintaining the original English Tudor architecture. The interior of the home has been described as a mini “Taj Mahal.” The home features an indoor/outdoor pool, a two bedroom guest house, a children’s room in the tower and a three office carriage house.

The house was featured on KING 5’s Evening Magazine and the link for the web view is: http://www.king5.com/archive/64596642.html

Lake Washington 130 Homes was also featured on KING 5’s Evening Magazine and the link for the web view is: http://www.king5.com/archive/64598997.html

Machael Mastro's Mansion

These are photographs of Michael R. Mastro’s Medina/Evergreen-Point mansion. It is 7,050 square feet with 176 feet of waterfront. The Mastro’s paid $15 million for the mansion in July 2006. I took these photographs and they are from my book, Lake Washington 130 Homes, http://www.hundredhomes.net/.

The Seattle Times and Puget Sound Business Journal have reported Michael Mastro, age 84, declared bankruptcy this summer. His investors included many “family and friends” who begged to let them invest in his commercial real estate projects. His projects, up until 2008, had substantially higher than average returns for more than 20 years. The publications also reported Mastro, regarding allegations that he tried to put this mansion, Rolls-Royce and jewelry out of reach of creditors, stated, “These allegations are misleading, incomplete and inflammatory.”

HDTV homes of the rich and famous

In August 2009 I wrote and published Lake Washington 130 Homes. I have expanded my initial scope of a guide book for cruisers to offer a book in a style that has never been used and will be interesting to a wide audience.

The book contains photographs, stories and statistics of 130 mansions and estates that are creatively woven with current and historical information about the homes, owners, their businesses and communities. This book is for anyone who has a fascination with unique homes of the rich and famous or an interest in the Seattle area. This is the first book of its kind as traditional print-publishers have not followed the Internet in publishing pictures of homes, their locations and public information regarding the owners and residents.

KING 5 Evening Magazine aired a HDTV show on October 7, 2009 about LW 130 Homes. It can be seen on web TV at:
http://www.king5.com/archive/64598997.html It's 4.3 minutes long and there is a brief commercial at the beginning. It includes the homes of Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Kenny G (former home), Craig McCaw, Steve Ballmer, Howard Schultz, Detlef Schrempf, and many others. The Dykstra house is near the end (don't blink).

I was interviewed on KIRO radio and the interview is the soundtrack for a tour of the Lake and the book. It can be viewed on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkm9fHmmQ8Q&feature=related

The book's web site is:
http://www.hundredhomes.net/