Mandrell Estate will become exclusive sub-division

Friday, February 1, 2008
Mandrell estate destined for residential development
Nashville Business Journal -
Country music star Barbara Mandrell's former estate will be developed as nine large homes in a large-lot subdivision - the end product of a deal struck last week between Tower Land Co. and the estate's owners.
Terms of the partnership were not disclosed, but officials say 10 lots, including Mandrell's former 27,000 square foot log cabin home, will be sold.
Lot prices will start in the low $300,000s.
Tower's announcement has already generated interest from potential buyers, says Alex Marks, senior vice president of Tower Land Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Tower Investments LLC.
The developer has been building equestrian communities and large-lot subdivisions in the outskirts of Nashville in areas that include Leipers Fork. Tower has communities in Williamson, Maury and Fentress counties. This is the company's first subdivision in Davidson County.
Estate owners Dale Morris and Marc Oswald, co-managers of country acts Big & Rich, Alabama and Gretchen Wilson, bought the estate for $2.1 million in an auction in 2002. They approached Tower about the development because of Tower's focus on large-lot subdivisions.
"We don't do high-density subdivisions," Marks says.
Marks says he doesn't know what the log home, which was at one time the largest in the world, will sell for today.
Richard Exton, principal appraiser at Manier and Exton, says he has not done an appraisal on the property, but it could be worth more now since residential and land values have risen since 2002. He says it would need to have been occupied and well-maintained to have increased in value.
Marks says the three-story Fontanel Mansion was too large to be used as a clubhouse for the community.
Its 18 rooms, six bedrooms, indoor pool and spa, media room, gym, indoor pistol range, formal dining room and 2,500-square-foot great room make it a mammoth home.
The estate was the site of CMT's new reality show "Gone Country."
Tower Investments LLC is headquartered in Northern California and has an office in Nashville.