Headline homes: Nashville's top 10 sales, March 2008

Superstar buyers of Northumberland home revealed, Preds' forward upgrades digs after contract extension, and new neighbors in Adelicia penthouses range from horse trader to office developer to 'Idol' creator

Email | Print By E. Thomas Wood

The new Urban-Kidman in-town abode in the gated Northumberland development (Microsoft VirtualEarth photo)

The rural Urban-Kidmans have settled on an in-town pied-à-terre — finally.

NashvillePost.com has learned from a party with knowledge of the $3.47 million sale of 27 Northumberland last month that the buyers are Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban. Kidman has been called the most bankable actor in Hollywood. Urban is a country music star.

For months last year, the rumor mill had the Aussie supercouple eyeing West Meade, the palatial and historic mansion that local entrepreneur Tom Black had put on the market. When that property sold for $5.1 million, however, the buyer turned out to be a hedge fund manager migrating from New York.

Last fall, the couple bought a 36-acre spread near Leiper's Fork from retired Nashville attorney Jim Doramus. There are two houses on the property, but the new owners reportedly plan to build their own mansion. In the meantime, they are now ensconced in a gated community closer to town.

That transaction tops this month's list of headline homes. But whatever the star value of Keith and Nicole, the buyers and sellers further down the top-10 list also tend to be folks you'd like to know more about. Here they are — the ten largest single-family home transactions recorded in Davidson and contiguous counties in March, ranked by dollar value:

1. 27 Northumberland, 37215

Buyers: Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban (through Mary Ann McCready as trustee)
Sale price: $3.47 million
Sellers: Dick & Anne Ragsdale
Seller's agent: Emma Roy (Worth Properties)
Buyer's agent: Rick French (French Christianson Patterson)

When first revealing the sale of the Ragsdales' manse, we reported that some observers suspected pop-culture phenom Jessica Simpson might be the buyer, since she has spoken of relocating to Nashville and is one of the few stars possibly able and willing to pay so much for a local hideaway. But her talkers, through a London tabloid, issued a denial last week. We had not vouched for the Jessica move, but we have definite confirmation now that Keith and Nicole are the new owners.

2. 100 Westhampton Pl., 37205

Buyers: Charles & Louise Cline
Sale price: $1.95 million
Seller: Buck Forcum
Agents: not known

Charles Cline heads Nashville-based Union Station Brick & Materials Co. Forcum is a well-known figure in commercial real estate sales as a principal at Newmark Knight Frank, whose local brokerage he opened in 2006 after many years at Grubb & Ellis/Centennial. [We had his current position wrong as originally filed.] Data at the Metro Property Assessor's website shows that this Belle Meade home sits on just over an acre and has five bedrooms with six baths.

3. 900 20th Ave. S. (Adelicia condominiums), unit #1710, 37212

Buyer: Adelicia Investors LLC
Sale price: $1.91 million
Seller: Adelicia Development LLC
Agents: not known

Rex Allen, president of Chattanooga-based office-building developer Commercial Management Corp., is in charge of Adelicia Investors. This two-story, 4,700-square-foot condo is perched at the "prow" of the Adelicia, where one side of its broad facade curves to meet the other. The views of the Vanderbilt campus and beyond must be outstanding from that vantage.

4. 1512 Kimberleigh Ct., Franklin, 37069

Buyer: Jean-Pierre "J.P." Dumont
Sale price: $1.8 million
Sellers: Arthur Keith and Laura L. Torrent-Keith
Seller's agent: Dianne S. Rucker (RE/MAX Elite)
Buyer's agent: Danny R. Anderson (Zeitlin)

Canadian-born Dumont, a forward with the Nashville Predators, slaps the puck upmarket after recently signing a four-year, $16 million contract extension. Arthur Keith is senior vice president and general manager of Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center. The house, in the LaurelBrooke development off Vaughn and Sneed Roads, comes in at a bit over 10,200 square feet, with six bedrooms and four fireplaces.

5. 9562 Hampton Reserve Dr., Brentwood, 37027

Buyer: Keith & Kirsten Leimbach
Sale price: $1.58 million
Builder/seller: Shalibo Homes LLC
Owner/agent: Steven Shalibo (Battle Ground Realty)
Buyer's agent: Tracie Bonds (Hodges and Fooshee Realty Inc.)

The Leimbachs are relocating from California's Bay Area, where Keith has been an IT exec and consultant. Last year he joined ServiceSource, the San Francisco-based sales-support firm that opened a Nashville center early this year. Their new home has 7,500 square feet of living area, with a home theater and two laundry rooms.

6. 900 20th Ave. S. (Adelicia condominiums), unit #1701, 37212

Buyer: Falk Family Partners LP
Sale price: $1.57 million
Seller: Adelicia Development LLC
Agents: not known

The registered agent of Falk Family Partners is local healthcare entrepreneur Bob Falk, CEO of Burton Hills-based Healthcare Corp. of Tennessee. Falk built a chain of dialysis centers that he sold to a publicly traded company in 1995. Like the Adelicia's other nine penthouses, this one has an upstairs and a downstairs as well as a living area whose picture windows span both stories. Its 3,700 square feet include three bedrooms and three and a half baths.

The Falks still own their home on Belle Meade Blvd.

7. 900 20th Ave. S. (Adelicia condominiums), unit #1704, 37212

Buyers: Ken & Barbara Ellenberg
Sale price: $1.42 million
Seller: Adelicia Development LLC
Agents: not known

This is a roughly 3,100-square-foot unit situated on the flat side of the Adelicia. Ken Ellenberg owns a vending-machine maker in Minnesota, Edina Technical Products, and is widely known in the world of thoroughbred racing.

Ellenberg is a "pinhooker," one who buys horses with the intent of reselling them. His best-known transaction came when he sold Thunder Gulch for a reported $500,000 in 1994 after buying him as a yearling for $40,000. Six months later, in May 1995, Thunder Gulch beat 25-1 odds to win the Kentucky Derby.

8. 900 20th Ave. S. (Adelicia condominiums), unit #1705, 37212

Buyer: Simon Fuller
Sale price: $1.42 million
Seller: Adelicia Development LLC
Agents: not known

Fuller is one of the world's greatest pop-culture mavens, named last year by Time magazine to a list of the 100 most influential people on the planet. He has the perhaps dubious but undoubtedly profitable distinction of having invented the "idol" series of television shows, starting with "Pop Idol" in his native U.K. and then sweeping the globe with clones including "American Idol." Fuller is also a talent manager; clients include soccer star David Beckham and his pop-singer wife Victoria (a/k/a Posh Spice), supermodel Claudia Schiffer and singer Annie Lennox.

Like the Ellenbergs' pad across the hallway, Fuller's home offers just over 3,100 square feet of living space across its two floors.

9. 515 Belle Meade Blvd., 37205

Buyer: Gregory & Andrea Powell
Sale price: $1.4 million
Seller: Leigh Ann & David Floyd
Agents: not known

We have been unable to identify or reach the Powells, so far. The Floyds are both brokers with residential real estate firm American Heritage Inc.

10. 4421 Shepard Pl., 37205

Buyer: Truitt & Carrie Ellis
Sale price: $1.27 million
Seller: Brett E. and LaTashia Lindsay
Seller's agent: Trudy Clark (Fridrich & Clark)
Buyer's agent: Lucy S. Smith (Fridrich & Clark)

Dr. Truitt Ellis has recently moved to Nashville from Birmingham and joined an anesthesiology practice. He is a Vanderbilt med-school grad. Wife Carrie is a Nashville native. This 4,500-square-foot Tudor home in Belle Meade dates from the 1920s and has recently been extensively renovated.

Know of a big home sale in March that we missed? Got info on people involved with any of these deals? Send a note via the byline link above, and we'll update this story.

Headline homes of prior months:

February 2008: Buyers include the guy who treats the Preds' bruises, execs from Athlon and CHS, Amy Grant's Ma and Pa, a leading banker, Lonestar's ex-singer, and two new penthouse-dwellers in the Adelicia.

January 2008: Buyers include a leading pastor, a 24-year-old rock star, a renowned healthcare entrepreneur, a relocating restaurant company chief, and a former spouse whose new home came along with a $10 million divorce settlement.