Got in touch with attorney Andrew Sommerman today, who lives next door-ish to the Cuban properties on Averill Way and Jourdan Way. I gleaned a little more info on why Cuban may have wanted to pick up 8601 Jourdan Way.
Recall that it was Eric Nicholson who figured out that Cubes bought the 76 year old, 7000 plus square foot mansion on 1.46 acres. Paid $2,900,000. And this is what he says Cuban would like to do with a real estate developer named Michael Romo — is he related to Tony or the famous plastic surgeon in NYC?:
According to Sommerman, Romo detailed plans for an office high-rise on the west side of the property, with a stouter, two-story office complex planned for the east. The plans also call for putting a stoplight at Northwest Highway and Jourdan Way, a tiny, rutted street midway between Preston and Douglas, intersections that also have stoplights.
Sommerman reminded me that commercial buildings would not only violate the zoning in the area, the deed restrictions call for a minimum 1 acre lot to build a home. We had those same restrictions when we owned 5511 Park Lane. People who own acres are very, very protective of those hefty parcels and will guard them with their life. The one-plus acre lots in Preston Hollow, Sunnybrook, and a few other areas of town are extremely rare for urban living.
But then Mr. Sommerman said this: when you buy a lot in this part of Preston Hollow, your property line goes to the middle of the street. So in effect, Mark Cuban has just bought a whole street in Preston Hollow since he owns 8601 Jourdan Way and also the properties across the street: 5830, 5926 Averill Way plus 8500, 8530 (and now 8601) Jourdan Way. So basically when you turn onto Jourdan Way from Northwest Highway, you will be on Mark Cuban’s kingdom!
Then, Mr. Sommerman says Michael Romo told him they planned to build an estate home at 8601 Jourdan Way, across the street from the commercial buildings — the “office high-rise on the west side of the property, the stouter, two-story office complex planned for the east.”
“I don’t believe him,” said Mr. Sommerman, ” and you can quote me as saying that. Why would anyone build an estate property right across from commercial?”
That retail in the far right lower corner is Ebby Halliday’s The Little White House, owned by Ebby Halliday, who has said she has no intention to sell.
Other neighbors in this ‘hood will weigh in, surely: Gabriel Barbier-Mueller, Baxter Brinkmann, Lisa Blue and Howard Rachofsky. All vigorously opposed the Transwestern deal across the street Behind the Pink Wall.
“We thought it was too dense for the area,” Andrew told me today.
