Tuesday, October 14, 2008

UPDATE: Valery Kogan

Last April Your Mama discussed a little known Russian billionaire named Valery Kogan and his wifey Olga who pissed off their nabob neighbors in notoriously staid Greenwich, CT when they submitted plans to demolish the 19,096 square foot house (or 19,250 depending on the source) they purchased in 2005 for $18,500,000 (shown above) and replace it with a 27,000+ square foot hotel sized mega-mansion that was reportedly to include Turkish and Finnish bathing facilities, a dog grooming salon, a home gymnasium with locker room facilities, a theater, wine cellar, staff quarters (natch), underground garages, 8 bedrooms and a bewildering 26 terlits.

Their original request was, not unexpectedly, dee-nied.

But the intrepid Russian billionaires did not give up their dream of a ridiculously large residence in the good ol' U.S. of A. and according to the Greenwich Time newspaper (via City File) the couple recently resubmitted plans and requests for a slightly less Brobdingnagian crib.

The new and allegedly improved plans call for a still mammoth mansion measuring 21,127 square feet with 15 terlits. No date has been set for the planning and zoning commission to review the new and slightly more modest plans, but if Your Mama was the betting type, and we are not, we'd wager our long boded bitches Linda and Beverly that these Kogan people are going to have to do a bit more shrinking and reducing before they're going to get their approvals.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

link to previous post?

Anonymous said...

Why not try Mama's blog search tool?

Anonymous said...

I don't know, Mama, there's not that much difference between 19,000 sq. ft. and 21,000 sq. ft. - that's barely 10% bigger, not like trying to add another 8,000 sq.ft., after all. I wouldn't be surprised if they managed to pass their new plans, or even if they were given a ballpark number to shoot for when the first plans were shot down.

Anonymous said...

If they are only adding 2,000 sq ft, wouldn't it be more affective to just renovated and expand the house than completely demolish it? That is the problem, I'm sure they could get permitts and approval for expansion, the neighbors don't want the house leveled.

Anonymous said...

a-holes. in this day and age, this display is disgusting.

Anonymous said...

The existing home is beautiful and should stay as-is. If approved, I'd bet a month's income that the replacement house will be nowhere near as grand as the existing. The grounds appear to be lacking, but consider the bare trees, covered pool, etc., it was probably late fall/early winter that the photo was taken.

The existing house screams "Greenwich" and should stay. If I were on the planning commission, I would not approve anything that involves demolishing the existing house.

Anonymous said...

They should just enhance the existing house, it really is beauitful. The grounds don't look that grand, yes it appears to be fall but they could do something better with beautiful gardens, redo the driveways and stuff to make it all grander. Get a good architect and design an addition to the house. I think zoning needs to really crack down on which houses are allowed to be demolished, its one thing if its an old shack, but these beautiful grand houses are such a waste of resources to destroy. If you don't like the house, don't buy it.

Anonymous said...

just did a google earth of simmons ln., and was surprised to see that in this neighborhood of extremely large homes, this one already dwarfs all others...

Anonymous said...

anon 4:47 PM:

Did you notice that the area is generally "hit or miss" as well? There are some beautiful grand homes but also plenty of modest homes (albeit on good sized lots and probably worth a pretty penny regardless). I was expecting "Billionaires Row."

Anonymous said...

they will unload it for 5 MM in a few months maybe less

esp after the russian govt freezes their assets after the market crashes further

so_chic_darling said...

What happened to the dog grooming salon and where will they put all that Versace?

Anonymous said...

First, congratulations, Mama, on overcoming your dyslexia by successfully navigating that little bit of Swift.

Second, if you need to install a locker room in your own house, then you need a better class of friends.

But then again, I'm sure those bathing facilities will inspire some occasionally entertaining Viggo-style mano a mano.

Anonymous said...

Why do these jealous people in these highend communities always deny these plans. If someone wants to build a gigantic mansion then they should be allowed to jealously is disgusting.

Anonymous said...

from big time listings

Former model Barbi Benton and her developer husband George Gradow, who was released from federal prison in July 2007, have placed their eight-bedroom, 11,608-square-foot mansion in Los Angeles’ Bel-Air area on the market for $17,500,000.

they also are selling the "copper palace" for 25 MM ?

Anonymous said...

or check out this guy, he puts russians and trump combined to shame

Mohamed Hadid

http://www.hauteliving.com/la/julyaug-2008-deutsch/hadid%E2%80%99s-modern-masterpiece/

Anonymous said...

hey! here's an idea:

BUY A HOUSE THAT LOOKS THE WAY
YOU WANT IT TO LOOK.

sorry, i guess i'm a
stickler for the old school
style... one Pickfair was enough!

Anonymous said...

Not that it's the most accurate source, but Zillow claims this property has dropped in value from its $18.5 2005 price to a range between $9-$14 million today. What kind of monopoly money are these folks playing with?

Anonymous said...

I've heard that the Russians buy up so much land and so many homes in the U.S. and other desirable countries so that if the political climate changes in Russia and they are no longer billionaires (like that one oil guy who was jailed for tax evasion and had his business raided/liquidated by the Russians), they still have assets to unload and live off of. It makes sense!

Heck, I may have heard that here! Who knows...

Anonymous said...

Zillow is tempting, but tends to be accurate only for "cookie cutter" relatively modest neighborhoods where they can compare apples to apples easily. Even those within the company admit that their calculation algorithms "have problems" and they've been trying to overcome those - to little avail.

It is a good source for all kinds of property info, including the last sale date and price, square footage, bed/bath specs, aerial shots, etc. Otherwise, it just can't be relied on as an accurate predictor of a realistic sales price.

lil' gay boy said...

At the risk of being "devil's advocate", the existing house is far from "a grand old home"; take a closer look at the house & grounds will realize that there is something very "off" about this structure; while not technically a "McMansion", it has all the earmarks of a severely over-remodeled manse with no sympathy to the basic bones of the structure.

Despite the axial views (spoilt by the diagonals), there is no underlying Beaux Arts organization to the composition ––– it seems to employ the assymetricality of the Shingle Style with some attempts at rectilinearity. And it fairly looms over its neighbors.

Let 'em tear it down if they want; given that the construction industry is estimated to shrink by more than 23% by 2010, they could be employing some soon-to-be out-of-work contractors.

Anonymous said...

Such hostility/////They should just take their money and spend it elsewhere. Let all the people who would benefit from the construction find other sources of income................

Anonymous said...

this looks like the result of Sir John Vanbrugh dropping acid and playing with Legos. I wonder what the cost would be to take it down........environmentally irresponsible but aesthetically desirable.

Anonymous said...

Vanbrugh could not have produced this monstrosity under any circumstances or refreshment. Its present uncoordinated appearance marks it as totally American. The only sensible course of action of any right thinking owner is to demolish. My instinct is that what replaces it will be just as unfortunate. I pity the neighbours.

Anonymous said...

If you follow simmons ln and go south on Lake ave, turn left to go on butternut hollow road and turn right to go on dekraftrd, you'll find a gigantic mansion on gigantic grounds on your right, just before wheeler road. Anyone has any info on this place?

Anonymous said...

Ah well, a link will do:

http://maps.live.com/#JnE9eXAuc2ltbW9ucytsbiUyYytncmVlbndpY2glMmMrY3QlN2Vzc3QuMCU3ZXBnLjEmYmI9NjcuNjA5MjIwNjA0OTYzOCU3ZTQzLjI0MjE4NzUlN2UyOS4zMDU1NjEzMjU1Mjc3JTdlLTMzLjM5ODQzNzU=

Anonymous said...

Man... Now the proper link:

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=qvdh4y8vxj1w&style=b&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=15426759&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1

Anonymous said...

the existing home really should not be demolished, it is beautiful and the new home is in very, very poor taste. Someone above quoted Zillow as saying the price had dropped to $9-14 M, I wouldn't read much into the zillow valuations, their very rarely accurate. I doubt this home is worth much less than what they paid.

Anonymous said...

It really amazes me the double standars.People demolish and build whatever size of property they can buy all over this country.....Palm Beach area is being doing since the 30's, Beverly Hills, Coral Gables, the Hamptons....and the list goes on and on....
No. I am not Russian. But I feel that, if anyone that is playing by the rules...within the local codes....paying the local taxes...and also... not ruining the enviroment...people..anyone....should have the right to buil what they want. The comments above mine sounded very much racist. If was Mr. Warren Buffet that was building a house in the middle of the ocean, NOBODY would say a word.
C'mon people, we have other problems and priorities in the world to be concern about it.