Greenwich Resists 26-Toilet Home in Hedge-Fund Town

Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Author: Tom Moroney, Bloomberg

It was the 26 toilets that triggered alarm among residents of Greenwich, Connecticut.

``Who needs that many toilets?'' asked Charles Lee, who lives across the street from where Russian millionaire Valery Kogan proposes building a 54,000-square-foot (5,000-square- meter) mansion with that much plumbing.

Kogan, chairman of East Line Group, which operates Moscow's Domodedovo International Airport, plans to raze the 20,000- square-foot home on the site, which he bought in 2005. Kogan and his wife, Olga, seek to erect a house with two wings and extensive subterranean space, including room to park 12 cars.

``It looks like they want to duplicate the Winter Palace here in Greenwich,'' said Leslie McElwreath, 45, who lives one street over. ``It'll be an eyesore.''

McElwreath, Lee and other opponents are urging the Greenwich Zoning and Planning Commission to deny a permit when it votes this evening on what would be the largest single-family home built since the town began reviewing plans in 2001. A hundred and seventy-five people signed a petition against the project.

Greenwich, 27 miles (43 kilometers) north of New York, is the hedge-fund capital of the U.S. More than 60 funds occupy 80 percent of its commercial property, according to real-estate broker CB Richard Ellis. The Greenwich Association of Realtors puts the average price of a home in the town of 65,000 at $2.8 million.

Parties for 300

Residents have two main objections to Kogan's house: It would dwarf the five others on Simmons Lane, and it would swell traffic on the 15-foot-wide (5-meter-wide) private drive during construction and when the Kogans entertain. The town's review of the design says the house could accommodate 300 guests.

``This is a road where our kids learn to ride bikes, rollerblade, and people take walks,'' said Morris Sachs, 47, a hedge-fund trader who lives in a house purchased from Pat Riley, former New York Knickerbockers coach. `` It's a very quiet street.''

Kogan's house would cover about half of the 7-acre (3- hectare) lot, design plans show. That would make it about four times the size of the biggest house now on Simmons Lane, said Lee, 58.

``This is going to be a palace on a postage stamp,'' he said. ``It's too much.''

The proposed structure appears to meet zoning limits on size, town officials said. That's only on the surface, according to opponents.

Burying Ground Floor

Plans submitted to the commission don't call for excavating a deep site. Instead, builders would construct at ground level, then truck in earth and mound it around the three-story house, putting the first level below grade.

The house would have 27,065 square feet aboveground, in compliance with the town's limit. The rest of the space, almost half the total, would be underground.

The Kogans' architect, Richard Granoff of Greenwich, ``is clearly gaming our building codes to construct a commercial sized building,'' Greenwich residents Richard and Jean Bergstresser wrote town officials last month. Granoff didn't respond to numerous requests for comment. Kogan declined to comment, said Eldar Tuzmukhametov, an East Line spokesman.

Unlimited Toilets

Greenwich has no restriction on the number of toilets in residences, said Diane Fox, town planner. Commercial properties are required to have a certain number of toilets in relation to the square footage, she said.

The town has several homes with more aboveground square footage than Kogan envisions for his, but they were built before reviews were required for permits, Fox said.

In 1998, Steven Cohen, manager of SAC Capital Advisers LLC, bought a mansion on 14 acres for $14.8 million and annoyed neighbors with an expansion that included an ice rink that he maintained with his own Zamboni. Eight years later, Joseph Jacobs, president of Wexford Capital LLC, withdrew plans to build a 39,000-square-foot home in Conyers Farm after neighbors objected. Cohen declined to comment, said Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman who works for Sard Verbinnen & Co. Jacobs didn't respond to requests for comment.

Residents also may be able to argue against the project on the basis of regulations requiring that a home is in keeping with the character of its neighborhood, Fox said.

Standing-room-only crowds are attending the planning board's hearings, she said. A lawyer for Kogan, John Tesei, discussed his client's proposed house at the April 8 session.

`Grand Estates'

``It's one that one would obviously call a mansion,'' he said. ``But this again is Greenwich, Connecticut. It's a home of many grand estates.''

If the board grants Kogan a permit, residents are prepared to go to court to block it, said Lee, an attorney.

Greenwich isn't the only foreign real-estate headache for Kogan, 57, whose net worth was put at $600 million in the February issue of Finans, a Russian financial news magazine. Kogan and his wife also own homes in California and Manhattan, according to documents filed in Greenwich.

The couple recently bought five houses in the town of Caesarea, on Israel's Mediterranean coast, with the intent of tearing them down and building a $50 million home, according to the Haaretz newspaper.

Bloggers in Israel are criticizing the size and scope of that project, Haaretz reported.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Moroney in Boston at tmorrone@bloomberg.net.