25 Keofferam

Troubled times call for bold action
That's my opinion; this builder obviously disagrees. This perfectly nice house on a great street in Old Greenwich hasn't sold at $5,995,000 so yesterday it was reduced 3.3% ($200,000) to $5,795,000. I'm friends with this builder and he builds a good house, but baby steps toward the new market reality will only, I fear, prolong the day of reckoning.

Around the corner, at 403 Sound Beach Avenue, the same builder has applied the same approach and reduced another project 3%, from $3,765,000 to $3,665,000. Who knows? Perhaps he has information the rest of us don't. I hope so.

Wanna guess who's next on the bankruptcy rolls?. Here's the part I like best about this Florida entrepreneur's delusions:

Another current McKinney project is a $135 million spec home, The Manalapan Residence. This three-story 67,670 square foot home includes 14 bedrooms, 24 bathrooms, an 18 car garage, a 6,140 sq. ft. master bedroom suite, lavish Grand Rotunda room for entertaining, dual water walls, aquarium ceilings and walls, movie theatre, casino and club room with stunning aquarium wet bar, oceanfront gourmet family kitchen, catering kitchen, outdoor summer kitchen, his/her offices, 10 wet bars, two wine rooms (one for red, one for white), gymnasium with beauty salon, two swimming pools (classical lap and grotto waterfall/waterslide), shark tank, two elevators, bowling alley, tennis court with pavilion, archery range, 1/4 mile jogging/go cart track, butterfly gardens, Italian and Floridian gardens, sculpture gardens, citrus orchard, guest house, staff house, back-up generator, full home automation, and more.

One reader has suggested that Greenwich residents who want to build a dream house just wait a few months and take something off the hands of a failed builder for pennies on the dollar. If you're also thinking of a little vacation spot in Florida, you may want to apply that advice to our south, too.