George Washington never slept here, but Donald Trump did; in fact, he owned it.

/

With 25 Seldon Lane finally shuffling off the scene, I asked FWIW’s official MLS historian — that would be Gideon — what property is the new title holder for our oldest listing. The answer is 21 Vista Lane, first listed in 2009 for $50 million, and expiring, still unsold, in 2023 while priced at $29.9 million. There’s no reason to believe that the current owners have changed their mind and decided to stay put, so we can anticipate its resurfacing any day now.

I forget when the Donald left the premises, but leave he did, leaving it to Ivana, who, I believe, was the seller to these owners in 1999. (UPDATE: She was; see Town & Country article here, including history of the house itself). They de-Donaldized the place, removing the gold leaf from the bannisters and trim, peeling off the red velvet wall coverings, and generally undoing the Liberace look and restoring the original style. The result certainly looks better, but so far, no one has liked the new version enough to fork over this kind of money.

Fabulous location, though.

Selden Scene

/

In fact, never before seen, at least in the past 16 years, a “pending sale” has been reported for 25 Seldon Lane, currently priced at $3.495 million. There may be an older listing on our GMLS, but this one has held a coveted spot on the unwanted list for three decades, and that’s impressive.

Even more impressive is Steve Archino’s ability to hold on to this listing for eleven years, beginning in 2013 — Steve’s a great guy, and an excellent agent, but his ability to inspire such loyalty in a client is astonishing (it’s not true that he’s been holding the owners’ beloved Labrador hostage all these years, despite what competitors like Gideon may whisper).

Shelly Tretter began this voyage of price discovery in 2008, when she put a price of $7.750 million on the house, and even though that delusional aspirational number was dropped to $4.195 in 2009, no buyer appeared, and Shelly disappeared.

After retreating from the market to lick their wounds, the owners eventually regained their courage and brought in Steve in 2013 — he set the price at $3.995 million, and the long trudge to happy destiny began anew.

The house actually dropped as low as $1.899 million in 2019, but fortunately for the owners, and Steve’s commission, no one bit, with the eventual happy result we see today.

Congratulations, even though it’s sad to think we won’t have 25 Seldon Lane to kick around anymore. Next ….



CNN? Whoo, boy, Kampalla must really be in trouble

/

No quarter given.

A CNN segment reported Wednesday on how Vice President Kamala Harris is using imagery of former President Trump’s border wall after condemning it for years as "useless" and un-American.

During CNN’s "Erin Burnett OutFront," host Erin Burnett spoke to CNN’s KFile senior editor Andrew Kaczynski about how Harris' past comments about Trump's border wall are coming back to "haunt" her. 

Kaczynski found 50 instances of Harris slamming Trump's border wall, but now her campaign is featuring the border wall in ads.

Watch:

Taxes

/

Powerline’s Chart(s) of the Day

Stephen Hayward:

The Daily Chart: Kamala’s Tax Dream

So Kamala says her proposed tax on “unrealized” capital gains (which is just a wealth tax by another name) would only be applied to the very very rich. Who can afford it because as we know all rich people are fully liquid. But I digress. More to the point: does anyone believe this promise? For one thing, an unrealized capital gains tax on anything other than publicly tradable financial assets (stocks and bonds) will be extremely difficult if not impossible to implement—never mind the capital allocation distortions it will cause. So if progressives really want to generate revenue from unrealized capital gains, it will end up being applied to stockholdings, which means socking it to the middle class, which as always is where the real money is.

We’ve seen this progressive progression before. When the income tax was first proposed, opponents warned that the rate might someday reach 10 percent! Here are where the initial rates an income thresholds were set in 1913:

New in Cos Cob

/

49 Indian Mill Road, $4.695 million. Clients of mine came very close to buying this one’s previous iteration back in 2013, after it had been on the market for four years and dropped from $1.795 to $1.250; $1.250 was an excellent price even as a land buy, as the present owner obviously noticed. He’s built new (although it appears that he' kept the foundation) and, though I’m not wildly enthusiastic about the price he’s chosen, it’s a nice location, offering direct access to the Mianus River Park trails. Of curse, that means people on those trails have direct access to you, but my guy was ex-Mossad, and he didn’t see that as a major worry.

It’s got the zebra

and a daring departure from the traditional orange

original

And who can forget that era’s kitchens?

Had a house but couldn't keep her (UPDATED)

/

373 Taconic Road, designed by the late, gifted, Rick Moisan, sold new in 2005 for $9.350 million. That buyer put in some additional finishing touches, including a pool and spa, and attempted to resell it, an effort that began at $9.750 in 2016, and finally ended in 2020 when he unloaded it for just $4.6 million. That was a bargain, but apparently too tempting a one for the impecunious buyer; he couldn’t afford to keep it, and it’s been put up for sale today by his bankruptcy trustee for $7.1.

That’s probably still a good deal.

UPDATE: Reader “Revere” reminds me that this owner’s financial (and other) woes extend far beyond mere bankruptcy. In fact, I wrote about his difficulties last year, twice, but forgot that I had.

April 5, 2023:

The woes of Billionaire fraudster Ho Wan Kwok/Guo Wengui were discussed here last month when the FBI raided his home at 373 Taconic Road. In the latest development, Mr. Ho has requested that he be allowed to move from his current Manhattan residence in the Metropolitan Detention Center to his old Taconic home. It doesn’t seem likely that he’ll be back in town soon, however; not if the feds have their way.

Wengui, 54, who was arrested on an indictment last month under the name Ho Wan Kwok, is in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., facing several charges, including wire and securities fraud and money laundering.

Federal prosecutors said Wengui used the proceeds from the fraud scheme to purchase and maintain his homes and a 145-foot luxury yacht, which former Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon was aboard when he was arrested in 2020 in Long Island Sound, the court documents show. 

Under the terms of a motion filed by his attorneys, Wengui would put up $25 million in bond, surrender his travel documents and those of his wife and daughter in the U.S., and be subject to home detention at his mansion in Greenwich.

The terms outlined in the court memo also state Wengui would agree to GPS monitoring, not enter into any financial transactions without the government's approval or have contact with the co-defendants, as well as "24/7 surveillance by a security company." 

In court documents, the government said Wengui was known to travel between his Greenwich home and others in New York City and New Jersey in a "caravan of luxury automobiles" while surrounded by "around-the-clock armed security guards," paid with the proceeds of fraud.

But the government balked at the request to allow Wengui to spend his time in the lead up to a trial at the Greenwich home, which they allege was purchased with the proceeds of fraud. 

"To say the least, it would be inappropriate for Kwok to live in the palatial Greenwich estate that he maintained with the proceeds of his fraud as a means of avoiding pretrial detention," prosecutors wrote in response to the request.

Point, counterpoint:

His lawyers argued Wengui is not a flight risk because he is wanted by authorities in China, where he would likely face execution.

But the government suggested if Wengui was released, he could flee to the United Arab Emirates, where his business enterprises have a presence. The government noted in court documents that only two of his passports have been located, and Wengui is suspected of having as many as 11.

Prediction? “Gu ain’t going nowhere.”

Complete with rifle scope crosshairs

/

MIT anti-Israel activists spread map of Jewish orgs they want to ‘dismantle,’ provoking condemnation from MIT

The group said its ‘goal in pursuing this collective mapping was to reveal the local entities and networks that enact devastation, so we can dismantle them. Every entity has an address, every network can be disrupted.’

MIT President Sally Kornbluth condemned the anti-Semitism of the project.

At an Aug. 28 orientation event for MIT students, several anti-Israel activists handed out flyers with a link to the Mapping Project, which provides an interactive map locating organizations that supposedly support “the colonization of Palestine.” 


The map includes the locations of several Jewish organizations, including the Synagogue Council of Massachusetts, the Hillel Council of New England, and the Jewish National Fund’s New England Regional Office.

The Mapping Project states that its “goal in pursuing this collective mapping was to reveal the local entities and networks that enact devastation, so we can dismantle them. Every entity has an address, every network can be disrupted.”

The map also includes local police departments, politicians’ homes, and U.S. military bases. 

Nothing to worry about — Islam is the religion of peace.