The house at 5500 Cooper Point Road N.W., which is listed with Jim Greene of Greene Realty Group of Olympia, sits on 22 acres, has five bedrooms, seven and one-quarter bathrooms, five fireplaces and about 500 feet of waterfront. The monthly mortgage payment for the house at 5.25 percent would cost $11,927.10, according to a mortgage payment example on the Greene Realty Group website.
“This one-of-a kind estate boasts a slate roof, sprinkler system, castle-like wine cellar with sparkling limestone arches and 1-foot or more thick walls,” a property description states.
Jim Greene declined to comment at length about the property, except to say that he has had the listing for 30 days. He instead deferred to the owners of the property, First Citizens Bank and Trust Co., for comment. Spokeswoman Barbara Thompson could not be reached.
Vo also could not be reached, but Thurston County assessor data and another South Sound real estate agent shed some light on the property and its history.
Michael and Peggy DuPont paid $685,000 for the property in 1997, assessor data show. The house was built in 1998.
In 2001, a deal for half interest in the property, valued at $1.25 million, was struck that created a venture called Cooper Point Exclusive Properties. That ownership group sold it to Vo in July 2006, when the real estate market was red hot, for $2.9 million.
The real estate market has fallen sharply since then, and this year the house was foreclosed on by First Citizens Bank.
Longtime Van Dorm Realty agent Duane Rodgers has worked with the property a few times, including selling the land to the DuPonts and later acting as listing agent for Vo before the property went back to the bank, he said. Vo had spent more money to remodel the property, and although he was planning to live in the house, he never did, Rodgers said.
The slower real estate market has resulted in a number of Vo’s mixed-use development projects winding up in foreclosure, including the Lacey Gateway Town Center in Hawks Prairie, Bellatorre in Tumwater and downtown Olympia’s Larida Passage.
“I admire the fact that he (Vo) was able to put together what he did,” Rodgers said. “I feel sorry for him because he was doing everything right, and it didn’t work.”
“We haven’t seen or heard the last from him,” Rodgers added about Vo.
Rolf Boone: 360-754-5403
rboone@theolympian.com
www.theolympian.com/bizblog
