Joining him is Larry House, founder and former chairman and chief executive officer of MedPartners, a large physician practice management firm that came close to merging with Nashville-based PhyCor via a $7 billion deal in 1997.
House’s 34,000 square foot, 22-bathroom home was auctioned off for a measly $3.95 million over the weekend, according to the Birmingham News. “That’s $60 a square foot. You can’t buy a mobile home for $60 a square foot,” an auction worker told the paper.
Shelby County Ala. officials’ last revaluation put the home’s value at roughly $10 million, and the construction wasn’t even finished. Great Gatsby’s Auction Gallery of Atlanta says the home cost more than $26 million to build.
Located at 7 Montagel Way in the Shoal Creek area of Shelby County, the house rests on more than 27 acres. Its many amenities include a guitar-shaped driveway and a 25-seat home theater. Gatsby’s allowed “serious prospective” buyers to tour the property for $100,000 a pop, the paper says. That money pre-approved them to submit bids on the house.
House faces $8.1 million in state and federal tax liens. The Birmingham News says he moved to a smaller home and slipped from the public eye after a contentious divorce that went all the way to Alabama Supreme Court.
The 1997 divorce, along with the failure of MedPartners and a second company called Venturehouse, apparently put a dent in House’s wallet. House owes $130,000 to his capital funding business and is required to pay alimony and child support of roughly $4,000 per month. That’s down from the $15,000 in the original divorce agreement, the paper says.
MedPartners and PhyCor were pioneers in the PPM industry and its largest players. Their merger fell through when PhyCor found questions regarding MedPartners’ practices and bookkeeping. Instead of receiving what Forbes estimated would be a $83 million golden parachute, House lost $39 million on paper when the company’s stock plunged 45 percent in one day, the paper says.
House was present at the auction but declined to comment.
For those who couldn’t swallow the $100,000 to submit a bid, wannabes paid $10 to park and bought everything from lawn furniture to televisions.
The Birmingham News talked to one shopper as she walked to her car after paying $84 for a 19-inch color TV-VCR combo for her son in college. “I think the reason for it was kind of sad. You don’t want to see anybody have bad luck,” she said.
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