Hard Times Find Replica of White House for Sale
By ROBBIE BROWN
Published: January 7, 2009
ATLANTA ? The replica of George W. Bush?s desk still sits in the Oval Office beneath the Iranian and American flags. The seal of the president of the United States still adorns the floor mats across the hall from the zebra-skin rug. And the porch overlooking the 75-car parking lot is still called the Truman Balcony.
But soon enough, change is coming to Fred Milani?s replica of the White House, an outsized casualty of the national housing crisis.
For the last seven years, almost as long as President Bush has been in Washington, Mr. Milani, an Iranian-American home developer, has lived in a scaled-down version of the presidential mansion in Atlanta. A private Xanadu for Mr. Milani, a headache for neighbors and a destination for camera-wielding gawkers, the 16,500-square-foot home has become a kooky symbol of this boom-boom city?s ever-growing residential skyline.
But now, like the current occupant of the real White House, Mr. Milani is planning to leave his home.
?I still do not want to sell,? he said. ?But I will.?
Last month, Mr. Milani, 57, placed his house, in the North Druid Hills neighborhood, a few miles northeast of downtown, on sale for $9.88 million.
A prominent builder of McMansions in a city that once could barely consume enough of them, Mr. Milani has fallen on financial hard times as the demand for real estate has waned.
Twice he has narrowly avoided foreclosure on his home. Although he recently sold five houses, he is losing money on five other unsold ones and must repay multiple loans.
The notion of someone selling a replica of the presidential mansion ? possibly to a buyer in Dubai ? is both humorous and painful to Atlantans, who are enduring one of the country?s highest foreclosure rates, which they attribute, in part, to policies that come from the real White House. The forced sale of one of the city?s most expensive homes, owned by someone who made his fortune in homebuilding, makes clear the widespread nature of the real estate collapse.
?The housing crisis has affected people at all income levels,? said Mary Norwood, a member of the Atlanta City Council. ?This has been devastating to the whole economy.?
Over the last 20 years, small ranch-style houses in North Druid Hills have given way to multimillion-dollar mansions, many built by Mr. Milani but none as unorthodox as his White House.
Neighbors have long been split in their reactions to the Milani house. ?Honestly, we are very happy to be living next door to the White House,? said Keith Klugman, a global health expert at Emory University. ?There are certain quirkinesses, but he is a very good neighbor.?
But another neighbor, Gary Moss, a retired film professor, has had reservations. ?Certainly anybody has a right to build whatever is legal,? Mr. Moss said. ?But my concern is that people are building houses that are so much larger than their families need. They seem like monuments to affluence rather than monuments to what people need.?
Inside its wrought-iron gates, the Atlanta White House is a singular pastiche of Middle Eastern d?cor (wall rugs, a hookah), American political kitsch (Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation painted onto a bedroom wall), religious iconography (a tapestry of ?The Last Supper,? a giant crucifix) and self-promotion (an ?M? tiled into the pool, a bust of Mr. Milani).
It falls to Shawn Ghiai, the real estate agent for the Atlanta White House, to answer the question of who would want to move into such a personalized home? ?Wealthy international buyers, most likely,? Mr. Ghiai said. ?Or maybe I?ll contact one of the contenders for the real White House, maybe John McCain or Ross Perot.?
Mr. Milani works in his own Oval Office. Guests sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom. And all 43 presidents ? plus President-elect Barack Obama ? stare down from a poster on his kitchen wall.
All from a man who follows politics only loosely.
?Really, I am not very political,? Mr. Milani said. ?The architect just asked, ?How about I build you the White House?? and I said yes. That is the whole story.?
He voted for President Bush twice, he said, but after the economy deteriorated, he became a ?big fan? of Mr. Obama. Most of his support, however, is reserved for God. He converted to Christianity from Islam in 1995, and his house reflects his adoration of his adopted faith. In the front hedges, he spelled ?God ♥ You? in topiary. A life-size carving of a biblical scene overlooks the congregation room in his basement, where leaders of his church baptize Muslims into Christianity.
But the Atlanta White House?s signature piece of artwork is a ceiling mural of Jesus ministering to people of various races. A Hispanic man wears a sombrero, an American Indian dons a headdress, and at the feet of Jesus is Mr. Milani himself, his head bowed in submission.
?It?s a very unusual house, so it may be difficult to sell,? Mr. Ghiai said. ?It?s hard to sell homes, period, because of this economy. But there are still people with money, and if they find a good deal like this one, they will jump on it.?
Several potential buyers have toured the property, and another person in Dubai is hoping to visit soon, Mr. Ghiai said.
Despite the challenges, Mr. Milani and his wife, Yvonne, believe that God will assist them in selling the house. ?Jesus has always helped me,? he said, ?even in the last minute.?
When asked where he will live next, Mr. Milani said he did not know. But he proposed, half-seriously, ?I may build the Congress building across the street.?
