Thursday, April 11, 2013

Lance Armstrong Sells Austin Estate

SELLER: Lance Armstrong
LOCATION: Austin, TX
PRICE: Unknown
SIZE: (total of) 9,439 square feet with 9.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Word on the Lonestar State's celebrity real estate gossip highway is that publicly disgraced cyclist and tireless cancer advocate Lance Armstrong has done sold his central Austin, TX estate for an (as yet) undisclosed amount of money to local oil and gas rights executive Al Koehler. The ever-so-sassy and chicly bespectacled Dallas-based property gossip Candy Evans reported earlier today on Candy's Dirt that the house was listed for around $10 million and the Austin American-Statesman revealed Mister Koehler took a $3.1 million mortgage out on the estate that the Travis County Tax Man set value at $3.9 million in 2012.

Property records show Mister Armstrong picked up the two-parcel property near Camp Mabry in 2004 in two separate transactions, both for an undisclosed amount of money. By our rudimentary and possibly inaccurate calculations the double gated mini-estate encompasses 1.7 landscaped acres and includes a 7,806 square foot Spanish Colonial main residence with an unknown number of bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms and airy living spaces sprinkled with works by top-flight artists such as Andres Serrano, Antonio Más and Danny Lyon.

Mister Armstrong had the recent vintage abode photographed for the July 2008 issue of Architectural Digest and in one of the lush images seven of Mister Armstrong's Tour de France jerseys are seen hung in the upstairs media/game room. We don't know if he was even allowed to keep them but Your Mama imagines Mister Armstrong won't be so keen to hang those things on the walls of his next house—or any house—as a constant reminder of his reputation ruining conduct and professional shame.

Additional living quarters in a detached structure total 1,633 square feet and include another two bathrooms according to the Travis County Tax Man. The extensively landscaped grounds encompass a couple of motor courts, garaging for at least five cars, broad lawns and lots of meticulously clipped trees and hedges. A open air poolside cabana has a fireplace and a lovely view down a path lined with slender Italian cypress trees.

Avid celebrity real estate watchers may recall that back in 2008 Mister Armstrong received a mountain of bad press because of the vast amounts of water consumption. In June 2008, according to various reports, Mister Armstrong used more than twice the amount of water used by an average Austin household for an entire year. His water bill that month was reported to be just over $1,612.

According to the Architectural Digest article, in addition to his Austin estate the tarred and feathered former superstar owns (or owned) homes in New York, Spain, the Bahamas and Dripping Springs, TX, about 45 minutes outside Austin. At about the time he was being publicly pilloried for his rapacious water usage in Austin Mister Armstrong hoisted Mirasol Ranch—his 450-ish acre river-front spread in scenically scrubby Dripping Springs—on the market with an asking price was $12,000,000. By the spring of 2011 the price tag had tumbled to $8,500,000 and the impressive spread with its 7-plus miles of biking and running trails was later taken off the (open) market. Although we're not 100% sure a careful read through property records suggest Mister Armstrong sold his ranch property in August 2011 for an undisclosed amount of money to a corporate entity easily linked to the CEO of a Carrollton, TX property management software concern.

In addition to all the above mentioned residences, property records indicate Mister Armstrong continues to own a 5,683 square foot residence with five bedrooms and six bathrooms in the celebrity playground of Aspen that he scooped up in October 2008 for $9,175,000.

aerial photo(top): Jay Janner for Austin American-Statesman
other photos: Robert Reck for Architectural Digest

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

So if I get it, LandWest Design Group designed the house, but Lance didn't like it so he hired Ryan Street and Associates to overhaul it and the interiors were designed by Roy W. Materanek? I like it, even though it is only faux-Mediterranean and very American.

lil' gay boy said...

Looks like a cross between a TGIFriday's and a Quinta Inn -- would not be at all surprised if Al Koehler tears it down...

Anonymous said...

I appreciate the restrained decor..I recall when it was published in AD. Its seems incongruent to retain an almost 10 million dollar house in Aspen, and unload the TX properties. Mr. Armstrongs endorsements are (rightfully) gone, and his prospects for future earnings are probably dim. On another (semi related note) did Cheryl Crowe sell her LA house yet?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps he was concerned about getting nuked by the North Koreans.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Mr Armstrong is legally liable to those who should have won the various races Armstrong only took by way of the chemical enhancements to which he now admits? For example, can the men who came in second to Armstrong in his many stolen Tours de France now sue Armstrong and obtain money judgements (and perhaps punitive damage awards) for the amounts of endorsement and other income that Armstrong received but should have gone to those he cheated out of their wins? All that real estate would make a plaintiff's lawyer salivate. Perhaps the proceeds are being placed in hard-to-find offshore accounts or unreachable retirement accounts (a la O J Simpson)? He'd better liquidate the rest ASAP, and those plaintiff lawyers had better be moving to freeze and attach Mr Armstrong's no-longer-fixed assets mighty quick!

Anonymous said...

He's a scumbag pig. Infuriates me. Disgusts me. Fraudulent SOB.

Would love to see him pay back every underhanded cent he's ever deceptively accumulated or profit from through lying, doping and deceiving the LIVE STRONG board to needy causes, without benefit of tax loop holes. Downright thief.

Want to see him live in a cardboard box in the most impoverished place on earth and actively serve that community. His bank of yellow shirts should be bonfired with full press coverage.

Mama, delete me if my language is too strong. I'll understand.

Going anon.



Splenderosa said...

I'm a Houstonian and all of us in Texas are saddened by his fall from grace. He was revered and it may be that he cannot ever redeem himself no matter what he does. If it were me I'd just move to the Cape Verde Islands and be done with it. Too too bad. Personally, I just cannot imagine steroids making someone super human, and I also cannot understand why the sports people have so much trouble with this. Either they're illegal or they are not. If I can walk into a pharmacy and purchase this stuff why should they be illegal? Just saying.

FalseProfit said...

If you didn't see through Armstrong's bullshit, you need to ditch the blinders, stop drinking the cool-aid or whatever it is that makes you people so infuriatingly gullible. I get depressed when I hear from people who believed this tool and were actually upset to learn he was cheating. Puh-leeze!

Anonymous said...

so, false profit, you were onto him all along and weren't surprised when we learned what you already apparently knew long before us. you certainly are a false profit and a bigger tool than Armstrong is. take your meds and go to sleep.

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous house, and gorgeous grounds, the man has great taste. Lance Armstrong is still the champion in my book. If everyone or damn near every one was doping and he still beat them all the time, every time, doesn't that make him the best still?

Dam near all of the NFL and baseball are on steroids and no one cares.

Anonymous said...

Well said 5:38!! Thank you for that.

Anonymous said...

thank you 5:38. did not realize we were graced with a wise and gifted clairvoyant. if ever we need a psychic medium can just toss up a comment and wait for the all-knowing.

Anonymous said...

I would like to see every professional cyclist put under the scrutiny that Armstrong was. I feel very confidently that there would be no one left to ride.

Anonymous said...

What Lil' Gay Boy said.

Plus, I'd suspect that ditching the Austin house means he getting out of Dodge and heading elsewhere. GIven how closely he's been associated with the city, and how the public has turned on him, it's probably a good idea. Were I he, I'd go where exiles go: the middle of nowhere. Or Manhattan.

I wouldn't think for a second that he's selling the house due to money issues; there's no way he's not still an exceedingly rich man.

Anonymous said...

Amazing how much money you can accumulate by taking drugs and then lying about it. I suspect the collapse of his fraud has depressed many other fraudsters around the world. 10:09 he could go to Cyprus. It will be cheap and obscure very soon I suspect.

Jesse said...

I think it is just terrible and disgusting how everyone has treated Lance Armstrong, especially after what he achieved winning seven Tour de France races while competing on drugs. When I was on drugs, I couldn't even find my bike.

Subhash said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

"Iwouldn't think for a second that he's selling the house due to money issues; there's no way he's not still an exceedingly rich man."

The dozens of lawsuits haven't started yet with many experts saying they could go beyond $100 million.

Anonymous said...

Mama! Did you edit this article? I SWEAR yesterday you threw down the ever fancy and vocabulary expanding word "Pulchritudinous" in describing his ranch yesterday. Today, the word is not there. Don't pander to the masses. Use those big words. I learn from them. I looked up that word and added it to my vocab yesterday. Stay true to you and your pulchritudinous self, Mama!

WillLDS

Anonymous said...

5:12 is correct. A few good judgements against him and no endorsements rolling in and poof..all gone. Oprah W is beyond disgusting for accepting his "limited confession". She has sold out for sure.

FalseProfit said...

A lot of people knew he was cheating for about a decade before he finally admitted it to Oprah. Does that make us clairvoyant? Maybe we're just not sheep.

Anonymous said...

Profit- word!

Lance is such a polarizing figure. Many, myself included, found his repeat “wins” suspect, particularly in light of the cancer. He was a total douche to those that dared questioned him.
I just wish both he and Oprah would now disappear from public life altogether.

More to the topic at hand, this home certainly gives off a mid-priced hotel vibe. I do like the landscaping and pool areas. Seems like a nice place to retreat for a glass of wine and/or doobie smoke.

Anonymous said...

Banter aside (albeit a topic of blackening the Constitution's eye); Mr. Armstrong has made his bed(?) and now shall lie in it. With regret; I must agree with the majority(dishonored by the apparitions of one ill profited dufus among us).

… as George Washington said … “It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.”

Doug-G said...

@10:56 PM, your comment made me snort ice water out my nose! :)

MamasBoy said...

I live in ATX and I'm 100% with False Profit. This writing has been on the wall for a long time. However, I do agree somewhat with those who have expressed sentiments regarding how un-level this playing field is. If his competitors all wanted to sue him for his earnings and such, they'd have to answer to the same scrutiny. Ain't gonna happen.

lil' gay boy said...

Athletes & doping have always puzzled me; when all is said & done, cheating is still cheating.

So here's a thought; set up a separate competition for those who want to dope -- let them drug themselves to the gills and compete.

First one whose heart bursts wins...

;-)

Sandpiper said...

Hi Doug, 10:56 me too. Dry humor!

Anonymous said...

Word around Austin is he purchased a home in Barton Creek. Most don't think he'll leave Austin until the three kids with the ex-wife (who live with Kristen in Austin) finish school here.

Also, Mama, he sold the Bahamas place when he bought the house on Kona.

Anonymous said...

Who was surprised by the news? It was obvious. Word was that's why Sheryl Crow bailed. That's one smart lady.

abe parishb said...

that den with the yellow shirts makes me laugh it looks like some sort of hale bop cult room...

turesta, said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

Seems that he has somehow a good house to sell. Probably he needs to reduce liabilities to save from property taxes that is for sure, worth billions.