Sold! Kush mansion sells for $1.625 million

Nov 18, 2008 (Omaha World-Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- CBG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Shortly before noon Tuesday, Frank Krejci pulled out his checkbook and, using a ledge in the foyer of the Rod Kush mansion as a desk, wrote a $162,500 check.

It was the down payment on the house he'd just bought for $1.625 million.

Krejci said he will pay the rest in cash, too. Cash is what enabled him to bid as much as he did and still expect to come out with a profit.

"If you pay cash, you don't have to worry about servicing debt," he said.

An Omaha developer for 47 years, Krejci said he has no specific plan for the 35 acres of land that came with the house.

As for the house itself, he may donate it to charity, he said, "if the accountant says that's the thing to do."

Krejci has no use himself for a 17-room, 10-bathroom house. Nor for the pool, basement basketball court or three-hole golf course.

"This is more house than I need," he said.

He said he had looked at only part of the house and not really looked at the land. "Just drove by."

The house sits on 23 acres along U.S. Highway 6 north of Gretna. In addition to the house and its grounds, Krejci, owner of Century Development Co., bought a three-quarter acre piece of land with another house on it and 10 acres of farmland with a 10,000-square-foot utility building. The three parcels are connected.

Krejci wants to develop the land but hasn't looked at the multiple-use development plan for the 35 acres that the City of Gretna has approved.

Tuesday's auction came after other attempts to sell the house and land failed.

A plan to demolish the 12-year-old mansion and sell the land for mixed-use redevelopment fell through in September.

After that, it went on the market for $1.99 million. The house did not sell when it was offered for $3.4 million in 2003. It reportedly cost $2.5 million to build in the late 1990s.

Krejci bested Arun Agarwal of White Lotus Development in Omaha in the bidding.

Auctioneer Scott Moore of CB Richard Ellis, a realty firm, started at $1.1 million. Several minutes usually passed between bids being raised by Krejci and Agarwal, who stood to each side of a 30-foot-wide entrance to a room overlooking the backyard swimming pool.

With Krejci at $1.575 million, Moore waited almost 15 minutes for Agarwal to bid up to $1.6 million. Then Krejci moved quickly to end it.

A cluster of people gathered around Krejci when the auction ended. After photographers and television cameramen dispersed, Kush slipped down a hallway and shook hands briefly with Krejci, then left.

Kush was in the house during the auction but stayed out of sight most of the time. After each round of bidding, Moore announced that he would check the bid prices with the seller and, without mentioning Kush's name, went upstairs. Kush could be seen at times looking over a balcony to the auction below.

Kush and his wife, Kathy, moved out after Kush closed his chain of furniture stores in 2006. He has started a new furniture business. He and his wife now live in a smaller house in Saunders County.

Although he got the house and land for less than its advertised price, Krejci, when asked what limit he had set for himself, said: "I was about there."

--Contact the writer: 444-1081, virgil.larson@owh.com

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