Friday, January 6, 2012

Elin Nordegrin Knocks a Big One Down

Yesterday Your Mama done missed the the celebrity real estate boat. While we prattled on about Paris Hilton's old house in L.A. and deceased playboy Gunter Sachs' very contemporary Manhattan townhouse all the globe's other property gossips starting with TMZ went gaga over the news Elin Nordegrin knocked down the North Palm Beach, FL mansion she bought not quite a year ago for, as per the property records we peeped, $12,250,000.

Miz Nordegrin is, of course, the former Swedish nanny who married and procreated with philandering professional golfer Tiger Woods. Sometime in 2009 when Missus Woods wised up and figured out her dear huuzbund was sleeping with hussies–ahem, excuse us–women all over the United States of America she snatched up the kids, lawyered up and was granted somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 (or so) million bucks from her divorce decree. Miz Nordegrin reportedly now dates financier Jamie Dingman, a globe-trotting son of a billionaire who also, rather ironically and allegedly, got bizzy with VIP lounge hostess Rachel Uchitel,

The Palm Beach County Tax Man's records also show the original ocean front mansion, the one Miz Nordegrin knocked down, was built in 1932 and measured in at a rather monstrous 17,178 square feet with 2 fireplaces, 7 car garage parking, 8 bathrooms, and an elevator. At the front of a the house two gated drives met in a massive motor court at at the back a stone terrace with in-ground swimming pool and elevated spa hugged the house. A broad lawn ringed by half a dozen palm trees and sliced in two by a wide walkway that extended from the terrace to a small sunbathing deck set into thick foliage above the beach and to a private stair to the sand and surf.

That's all gone now, of course, soon to be replaced with whatever visions Miz Nordegrin and her team of smart architects and nice, gay (or maybe lady) decorators conjure up as her post-divorce dream house. The folks at TMZ managed to get their hands on a small cache of photographs of the house taken mostly from inside the gates during and after the demolition.

A little digging around on the Palm Beach County Tax Man's website and Your Mama discovered Miz Nordegrin's 2011 tax bill was $240,435, a staggering amount of money for most people for sure but, we imagine, much less we imagine that she'll have to cough up once her new (and probably more valuable) house is finally finished.

Ex-Missus Woods and the erstwhile couple's two young kiddies currently (and reportedly) shack up in a nearby ocean front condo she leased for the duration of the demolition and construction of her new(er and presumably better) mansion. As far as we know Miz N. still owns and maintains a luxury apartment in Stockholm's upscale Östermalm neighborhood as well as a rustic, accessible only by boat retreat on Falgaro Island near Stockholm.

aerial photo: Bing

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is a mystery to me that with her take from her divorce from Tiger she would want to remain in muggy super humid Florida amongst the snakes, alligators, boa constrictors or pythons or what have you, not to mention all the bugs and other creepy crawlies that infest the state, when she could move to almost any utterly divine place on earth. No imagination or what?

Anonymous said...

I agree with 12:55. I also wonder why she would spend so much of her settlement on housing? When all is said and done, she will have 25M of her 100M in this place. Certainly she earned the gold digger golden shovel award in her settlement, but even that will run out..ask Heather Mills McCartney.

angie said...

@ the first two anons, I've chosen to live in Florida after having lived on all 4 sides/coasts of the country including California's San Francisco Peninsula. Your idea of what it's like here is very negatively biased. Most people choose not to live in or near the everglades and swamplands. Runaway imagination or what? lol

I'm disappointed Elin chose to demolish a classic 1930's mansion. Oh the enjoyment I would have derived from judiciously restoring and updating it.

Anonymous said...

I adored this Georgian Pile but alas it is gone. The House that She designed in Jupiter Florida that Tiger now lives in is a Swiss Modern Pile with pitched ceilings and modern twist... far from the old world charm of the recently departed home.

Good Luck to her. She went through Hell with that Womanizer Toolshed named Tiger

Anonymous said...

ewwww. out of all the fabulous places for a young single woman to live, why would she chose to live amongst the geriatrics in palm beach or florida? ugh. paris, new york, london, san francisco, monaco, st. barts, french rivieria, beverly hills. ugh!!

Anonymous said...

This is just disgusting on her part and I am going to laugh, she is going to be broke in 5 years. Between her extravagant spending on housing and that financial boyfriend of hers, she will be cleaned out in no time.

I don't think she grasps the concept that there is not $100 million coming into the household every year like it was when she was married to Tiger.

Anonymous said...

You'd have to look at the property records to see the value of the house and land broken out. It could be that the value was in the land. I love old houses, but you can reach a point where the costs of rehab are equal to, or more than, demolition and rebuild. If a house has no historical significance, and there are no emotional ties, sometimes a bulldozer is your best long-term investment.

Casey said...

I'd imagine she's staying in Florida because that's where her children's father lives.

The Devoted Classicist said...

The value is in the land. Many will say she got a bargain. Lots fifty feet wide in the Altos Del Mar district of Miami Beach are listed for sale for $5.9 million.

angie said...

@Casey, I'm sure. A transfer contingent promotion is what brought our family here and everywhere else we've lived. Clearly single people with limited life experience have a lot to learn ;)

Anonymous said...

South Florida is only good during the winter time. The weather is near perfect, but once winter is over get the hell out. It gets muggy, and buggy and the people in Florida are less than desirable, not exactly the cream of the crop. She is there because she has to, not because she wants to be I am sure.

Anonymous said...

When people with children divorce, they usually must live within 15 minutes of one another if they're sharing custody. Obviously, it's difficult to co-parent from a distance and any change in location would alter the custody agreement. No matter how awful a husband Mr. Woods may have been, she has no legal right to move their children to "any utterly divine place on earth."

As for the house, I hope it was deconstructed and the usable parts recycled.

Lady J

angie said...

Very astute comment Lady J. Yup, once kids enter the picture, there's no going back to being 'single' again regardless of circumstances. You stay/go where you have to for their sake and/or the family's sake and make the best of it.

Anonymous said...

From what I have read and heard the house Ms Nordegrin brought in North Palm Beach was in very bad condition, or she would have paid a lot more than $12M+ for it. Also, her new home is sandwiched between two very beautiful and large houses one of which is practically brand new. Both of these houses make hers look old and outdated, so I am not at all surprised she decided to tear it down. Most people with the money she has would be doing the exact same thing.

Also, Ms. Nordegrin is no idiot, and you can bet she has some very smart people advising her what to do about her home and also about her money. Give the woman a break. She went through hell. She can easily afford this home and to live comfortable a very, very long time. Count on it.

Tiger never was a bad Father. He was just a horrible husband. The children should live near him.

Anonymous said...

The house she knocked down was beautiful in my opinion, I am sure in that tax bracket, upkeep wasn't a problem.
As for her burning through her settlement, I think she receives spousal support & child support of a substantial amount. As their Father is obligated, to not downgrade their lifestyle. For all Tigers many faults, he seems to love his children & is probably helping to finance their new home. Ellin is not an uneducated waitress, & probably has financial planners.

Anonymous said...

Bringing the house up to code would have cost more than knocking it down and building new.

She also donated a bunch of the materials to Habitat for Humanity.

Get Off My Lawn said...

Thanks Angie, your Florida comments are spot on.

For the uninitiated, Florida is a quaint place with quirky wonderful people and some of the loveliest beaches you'll ever see. It's the transplants who are the rude arseholes -- along with the geriatrics who moved south to drive slow.

Bugs? I live in a house built in the 30's and have no problem with bugs, thank you. I must confess I dislike the perpetual humidity however it's great for the skin and a helluva lot easier to deal with than snow.

In conclusion, not everyone who lives in FLARDA is an elderly barefoot hillbilly lacking command of King's English. But these misconceptions are the vicissitudes of life that one must bear with equanimity when dealing with the less-traveled.

Anonymous said...

Get Off My Lawn,

Excellent points. Also, the ex-Mrs. Woods can travel in the summer and on holidays anywhere her little heart desires, too. It's not like she has to be in North Palm Beach 24/7, and I am sure she won't. People bitch about the darnest things. Seriously, who cares about humidity when you are looking out over the Atlantic from from an enclosed veranda while you have people all around asking you what they can do for you? Damn, I wish it was me.

Anonymous said...

Poor baby, she went through so much hell. From being a babysitter, to being married to an almost billionaire and all the things that go with it, popping out a few kids and walking away with $100 million. What a stressful life, how did she do it. I know when I have to sail on my private yacht or fly in my private jets it just gets to tedious and can you imagine the stress of having to coordinate all the nannies, maids and drivers?

She does not get spousal support either genius, that is why she got a settlement. And if she does get any child support it would barely cover the property taxes on this place.

Florida sucks after the spring and the population that is left there sucks too. God help you if you have to interact with those people.

angie said...

@3:01 (Poor baby), I'm one of the people here left after Spring. I don't know why some feel the need to diss Florida and disrespect it's population, or attack Elin for that matter. If the people and life in general are so much better where ever you are, you'd be too busy enjoying them to give us a second thought. I had a glorious day myself, so what is it that's really bothering you?

Anonymous said...

OK. Here are the details why the house was torn down. It was as many people thought the better thing to do considering the condition of the home. Straight from "People":

"The 17,000-ft., six-bedroom home in a gated community in North Palm Beach, Fla., was built in the 1920s, Dan Reedy of Onshore Construction and Development, tells PEOPLE. "It wasn't built to the South Florida wind-loading codes of today that were put in place because of hurricanes. We had an architect and a structural engineer out here and everyone agreed that it made more sense – structurally and economically – to tear it down and start over."

But it wasn't a total loss. Nordegren gave Habitat for Humanity of Martin County, Fla., four weeks to methodically go through the structure and salvage tens of thousands of dollars worth of cabinets, hardware and fixtures. That's when termite and carpenter-ant infestations were discovered, says Habitat's director of deconstruction, Bobbi Blodgett.

"When we pulled out the windows, the bugs were everywhere," says Blodgett. "To rebuild that house would have been ridiculous. We're so grateful to Elin. It's rare we get this kind of donation."

Finally, the ex-Mrs. Woods got NOTHING she didn't deserve. NOTHING. You play you pay. Woods paid, and he damn well should have.

angie said...

@5:45, thanks for the info. I took a gander at her street after expressing my disappointment with her decision to demolish, and have to say the other homes are so much newer (there's only about 5), it did look a bit odd and out of place for the neighborhood. Kudos to her for doing what she could to recycle and help Habitat.

I agree that Elin is undeserving of harsh judgement. She was an exemplary wife and mother who was thoroughly betrayed and treated so shabbily by Tiger in return, there aren't words.

angie said...

Assuming the sources are credible, I found a few details describing what the new house will be like:

"According to plans found at the Palm Beach County Building Office, Nordegren wants an 18,984-square-foot, three-story home erected on the lot and, while she is in the early stages of obtaining permits, the former first lady of golf has a very clear vision.

Under a cedar-shake roof, Nordegren wants to strategically use French doors set in stucco siding to take the most advantage possible of the sparkling ocean views just yards away.

She has enlisted architectural firm Dailey Janssen of West Palm Beach to bring her dreams to life—dreams that include a wine room, gym and theater with stadium seating in the basement.

On the ground floor, the plans call for a great room, a library, a family room, a playroom for daughter Sam and son Charlie and a kitchen measuring 29 by 18 feet.

Nordegren's 1,200-square foot master suite, replete with bedroom, sitting room, bathroom, closets and dressing area, all with breathtaking views of the Atlantic Ocean, will be found on the second floor, along with three more guest rooms with their own private baths.

She is looking to have the place ready to move into by December 2014."

Anonymous said...

The Devoted...

I fail to see what the asking price of a lot in Miami Beach has to do with the value of a teardown and lot in Palm Beach?

Do we not know the area at all? They aren't really even close and are entirely different real estate markets.

camiecam said...

If anyone wants to see it on Bing maps its on Seminole Beach Rd, I found it just so I could see the front of the house but theres so many dang palm trees you cant really see...

Kelsey said...

She seems like a smart woman...her house will be interesting when it's all done.