The historic Van Dusen mansion in Minneapolis, which for the past few years has served as a party palace and headquarters of a group of money managers connected to an alleged $191 million Ponzi scheme, has a more sedate future ahead of it.
Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis approved the sale of the 118-year-old property on Monday for $1.55 million, clearing the way for a closing scheduled for Friday. The buyer is Van Dusen LLC, a company formed Feb. 25 by Dwight P. Cummins, a Bayport attorney specializing in estate planning, real estate, banking and finance law.
Cummins said the building would be restored and reopened to the public as a bed and breakfast and event center.
George Van Dusen, a pioneer of the city's grain storage industry, built the 12,000-square-foot home and carriage house in 1892 using thick, Sioux quartzite from Luverne, Minn., according to city records. The building, at 1900 LaSalle Av. S., is a mix of Romanesque and French renaissance architecture and resembles a castle. It made the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
In modern times, the house has been used for a variety of uses, including Hamline University Law School and a forerunner of the Aveda Institute. Bob Poehling saved the building from the wrecking ball in December 1994 and spent lavishly to restore it. He sold it to Chris Viken and her husband, Earl Clausen, in 2001, who ran it as a bed and breakfast and event center. But they struggled with the business, at least partly because of tight parking in the neighborhood. They sold the property and its contents in 2007 to Trevor and Gina Cook of Apple Valley for $2.6 million in cash.
Jimmy Fogel, real estate agent handling the sale to Van Dusen LLC, said he has negotiated some parking accommodations from the neighbors. But he said city officials are digging in their heels on the $62,000 annual tax bill, saying they won't necessarily accept the "distressed" sale price for market value.
Trevor Cook is the money manager at the center of what regulators have called a nationwide Ponzi scheme that operated from the mansion. Cook and his associates had bawdy parties on the property, which smelled like stale beer and was littered with trash when Davis ordered receiver R.J. Zayed to seize the building Nov. 23.
Cook is now languishing in the Sherburne County jail on civil contempt charges for refusing to help secure the assets of the more than 1,000 investors -- mostly retirees -- who entrusted him and his associates with their money.
