Sold: Gerald Hines River Oaks Mansion, Market briefs

In Houston, The River Oaks estate home of the late Mr. Gerald D. Hines, the legendary developer who developed the Galleria and many skyscrapers around the world, has been sold for more than $20 million.

The 17,000-SF Hines mansion rests on 4.5 acres along Buffalo Bayou in the prestigious River Oaks neighborhood, a blue-chip enclave that is home to Houston’s socially elite and families of wealth.

As stated by deed records, the Hines home was purchased DeMontrond 1031 LLC, an entity affiliated with the DeMontrond family, which has owned a number of auto dealerships for many years.

The DeMontronds were represented in the home purchase by Nancy Almodovar, President and CEO of Nan and Company Properties, a Houston-based realty firm affiliated with Christie’s International Real Estate.

The Hines estate was represented by Mark Menendez of Douglas Elliman.

The home, 2920 Lazy Lane, has five bedrooms and 9.5 bathrooms. Completed in 1992, has an was designed with influences from Italian villas which the Hines family enjoyed on Tuscany holidays.

Hines named the River Oaks home: “Adagio”, musical terminology that means “played slowly.”

For this residence, Mr. Hines enlisted a famous design firm, the New York based Robert A.M. Stern Architects, or RAMSA. The RAMSA firm is designing the Ritz-Carlton Residences which are under development in The Woodlands. The firm’s founder was dean of the Yale Architecture School.

Mr. Hines was a self-made man, arriving in Houston in the 1940s, armed with an engineering degree from Purdue University and his ever-present slide rule, Mr. Hines stayed at the downtown YMCA in his early days as a Houstonian.

Mr. Hines founded his company in 1957 and some of his earliest developments, mid-rise and low-rise office buildings were constructed along Richmond Avenue, only a mile or two from the River Oaks home.

Hines has developed many buildings in Houston, including these landmarks: One Shell Plaza; The Galleria; Pennzoil Place; Bank of America Center; Williams Tower (still called Transco Tower by some Houstonians) and the 75-story JPMorgan Chase & Co. Tower, the tallest building in Texas. Hines’ Pennzoil Place, designed by Philip Johnson, opened in 1975 and was hailed as a transformative structure that would change the way new skyscrapers were built around the world.

In downtown, the Hines organization recently completed the 47-story Texas Tower building located on Texas Avenue on the site of the former Houston Chronicle.