Tom Hicks’ Preston Hollow home — one of Dallas’ most expensive — is for sale

by Candy Evans of Candy's Dirt

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It's been called the most refined, sophisticated residence in Texas.

DALLAS — Fasten your seatbelt, it’s going to be a wild ride in real estate this spring. The ink is not yet dry on our post detailing 5911 Glendora, Howard and Cindy Rachofsky’s family home that just hit the market. Now I’ve discovered that, while it is not in MLS, Douglas Newby is indeed marketing the 25 acre estate of Thomas O. and Cinda Hicks on Walnut Hill Lane and Hollow Way Road.

For years, the Crespi Estate has headed every list of the Most Expensive Home in Dallas. But, having been inside it, I can tell you this home is about so much more than money. There was speculation when former President Bush bought his home on Daria that he wanted to be near the Hicks' and perhaps utilize their helicopter landing area. (Hicks does not have a concrete helicopter pad, I learned at the time, but he does have the lighting.) The Hicks have a rear auto estate entrance just a few feet from the Dallas North Tollway service road. The Hicks family hosted numerous Mayfllower Estates homeowners meetings introducing the Bushes to the neighborhood.

According to Doug, who couldn’t be happier about his hip pocket, Mr. and Mrs. Hicks acquired the Crespi estate 16 years ago, and Cinda spent five to ten years completing the architectural vision of the original architect, Maurice Fatio. She brought in international architect Peter Marino from New York and worked painstakingly on the home, refining and honoring Fatio’s proportions and architecture. I have heard from knowledgeable sources they spent close to $100 million on the expansion and remodel. The Hicks' have raised six children in the house and are now empty nesters in a home DCAD sizes up at 28,996 square feet for the main structure, 6,300 for the guest house, and 7,200 for the pool house. That might be a little large for two people, eh? Tom Hicks is the former chairman of Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, an investment banking firm, and he once owned the Stars and the Rangers. Hicks sold the Rangers for about $590 million in 2010. He recently just this January settled disputes with Texas Rangers Baseball Partners administrator Alan Jacobs. He is now the chairman of Hicks Holdings and currently making several exciting business acquisitions.

Doug says the dirt in Mayflower Estates is valued at $2 million per acre, which would be about $50 million, and the residence with pool house, guest house, and main house comprises 42,500 square feet for a grand total of $85,000,000.

So it appears it will take $135,000,000 to buy The Crespi Estate. This makes Mt. Vernon look like a Blue Light Special.

But really, $135 million is nothing for the most refined, sophisticated residence in Texas on an expansive 25 acre estate that is merely 8 minutes from downtown Dallas and the Arts District; 40 minutes from D/FW, or 15 minutes from your private jet hangar at Love Field. I have been in this home and seen what the Hicks have created, and it would be impossible, impossible to replicate it. A new owner could even add a stable: one horse per acre in Preston Hollow!

As Doug described it so aptly to The Huffington Post:

“A winding private drive descends to the home beautifully placed in front of a creek flowing across the 25-acre estate property. It is majestic, dignified and graceful. The home is also warm and fun. The design exudes elegance and the architecture, a subtle power. The architectural massing of the main house, guest house and pool house convey a home that is grand yet serves primarily as a place for a family to live. The sensibility for the past is blended skillfully with the technology and resources of the present, presenting visual continuity. The estate owners honored the original family, architecture and history of the home with an inspired approach — one that creates the impression that the home has not been renovated or expanded, but truly and magnificently completed.

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