Every few years, I put together a little thing known as “The 100 Most Expensive Homes in Dallas.” I don’t enjoy the work, but I’m good at it, sleuthing property records and so forth to discover who owns what and where. When we last published the list, in July, one of the properties gave me trouble. It’s the old Gene Phillips Estate in Preston Hollow, adjacent to President George W. Bush’s crib and the old Crespi Estate (formerly owned by Tom Hicks). The appraisal district puts the Phillips property at a little over 16 acres and values it at $42 million. The outline I’ve drawn here is not exact. Check the DCAD account for the actual boundaries.
Forget the property lines, though. The real mystery is who now owns the estate. DCAD says it is owned by a trust with the initials FGH, which is administered by a Dallas lawyer named Raymond Kane, who does not want to talk to me and who in September sued the owner of the old Crespi Estate, whose registered agent is Mehrdad Moayedi (a story involving drainage issues for another time). A real estate-watching FrontBurnervian told me this morning that he heard from a neighbor of the Phillips Estate that a Californian bought the property for tax reasons, but the wife refuses to move to Dallas. All of which suggests the estate needs a Kato Kaelin to look after the grounds and so forth, a role I’d happily fill. If only the property owner(s) would contact me.
My DMs are open.
Update (1:32 p.m.) Teamwork makes the dream work. The owners are Beth and Josh Friedman. Josh is what Page Six calls a “hedgie,” and here’s an old report from that outlet about how he upset his neighbors in Montecito, California. Here’s something more recent about why he moved his firm to Texas.
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