President Trump is coming to Dallas today. Word is that he will first meet with local police and religious leaders at Gateway Church on Northwest Highway and the Dallas North Tollway. on Hillcrest.
The President plans to announce a plan for “holistic revitalization and recovery” at a roundtable with “faith leaders, law enforcement officials.” Small business owners will be in attendance, too, presumably to discuss and seek solutions to the kind of issues that have torn up our nation over the last 15 days: economic, health, racial, and justice disparities. I understand everyone who meets with him has to get a COVID-19 test, and it’s on the White House.
But then comes the fun part: a big fundraising bash for couples who can shell out $580,600 per couple (that’s $290,000 for a single person!) to meet the President and share a photo op. I mean, that’s politics, right?
The shindig will be held on Strait Lane.
But the big secret is where the party is being held on Strait Lane. We are certainly not going to say, for security reasons. A lot of people believe it’s going to be held at the former Malouf estate, as in Richard Malouf, the Medicaid dentist who recently was ordered to pay the State of Texas $12 million. The president should at least take a look at the house for Melania. I have a bit of a history with the Maloufs.
That estate is on the market for $25 million, having been tastefully refurbished by the current owner, Mehrdad Moayedi.
“There is no party scheduled for President Trump at any of our homes on Strait Lane,”
The Most Impressive Estates in Dallas
Strait Lane is a long, straight country lane dotted with impressive estates on large tracts of land. The homes are on anywhere from one to 25 acres, set far back from the road, surrounded by gates, fences, and tons of security. Helicopters can fly overhead because you are far enough away from former President Bush. On the east side of Strait Lane, the land looks over Bluffview Creek.
Strait Lane has long been home to the most impressive estates in Dallas. A veritable Who’s Who claimed residency here at one time or another. Luminaries like Nancy Dedman, Phil Romano, Jessica and Dirk Nowitzki, Robert and Laura Wilson – parents of Owen, Luke, and Andrew – Lisa and Kenny Troutt, John and Ann McReynolds, Brint and Amanda Ryan, Norm and Kelly Green, Ralph Oats, Mehrdad Moayedi, Naomi Aberly and Larry Lebowitz at 10210 Strait Lane, and, of course, Margot and Ross Perot have all called, or now call Strait Lane “home.”
Strait Lane is one of the most well-known, name-dropping streets in the state. Owen Wilson supposedly considered buying Phil Romano’s place across from his parents ranch home estate, back when Phil owned it. Phil sold to Mehrdad and Mehrad sold to Evan Stone.
Highland Park has Beverly Drive, Overhill, Crescent Court, and Alice Circle. Highland Park has Volk Estates and Vasser. Dallas has Preston Hollow — Park Lane, Hollow Way, DeLoache (Mark Cuban), the Dentwoods (Laura Miller, Steve Wolens), Meadowwood Drive and Circle, and all the streets among. Roger and Marianne Staubach live on Ravine. I’d take any home on any street in the area.
Strait Lane is technically not in Preston Hollow. It’s known as the “Dallas estate area”, and you can have horses, mules, whatever.
Back in 1997, Bill Clinton was president. A couple named George and Dominique Perrin had just sold their not-yet-complete, 45,000-plus-square-foot Strait Lane estate to Dallas real estate investor John Lau for about $8.5 million. The following year, Lau sold Strait Lane to Jean Boulle and the whole thing burned to the ground. The grounds were purchased by John and Ann McReynolds who keep buying up the land around their original swath now owning at least 12 acres. They built a 15,000 home in 2017, not sure if complete yet.
So what other U.S. President has graced Strait Lane?
President Barack Obama once spent the night at the Philip Johnson house owned by Naomi Aberly and Larry Lebowitz and currently listed with Briggs Freeman’s Faisal Halum Group for $19,500,000.
In April of 2013, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama attended a fundraising dinner for the Democratic National Committee. After spending the night in the Philip Johnson house on Strait Lane, the first couple attended the dedication ceremony of the George W. Bush Presidential Center and a memorial service at Baylor University’s Ferrell Center in Waco, to honor the victims of the West Fertilizer Company explosion.
| Note: an earlier version of this story speculated whether the overnight stay came when the first couple attended the the memorial service for six Dallas police officers in July of 2016. |
