Mark Cuban's curious real estate play at Preston and Northwest Highway -- the one where he's tearing down 80-year-old estates and floating plans to build a couple office buildings -- has gone over about as well as if he had littered the earth with the carcasses of a thousand rotting elephants and then turned Ebby Halliday's little white house into Section 8 housing.
And you know what? Cuban doesn't care. He's a billionaire. Those whiny neighbors? Barely even millionaires.
To demonstrate how few shits he gives about his neighbors, here's an email exchange he had last month with City Councilwoman Jennifer Staubach Gates. (Michael Romo is a developer working for Cuban on the property). Gates opens with a polite request for a meeting:
See also: Mark Cuban Wants to Turn Several Preston Hollow Estates into Office Buildings
Cubes doesn't really see the point. He will, after all, still have the property long after Gates leaves office:
But maybe, Gates suggests, he can reconsider the fences? Neighbors liked having a barrier between them and Northwest Highway and are willing to pay to maintain one:
Cuban says, in effect, hell no, then twists the knife with a "Go Mavs!" signoff.
According to Gates, Cuban has pulled a demolition permit for the remaining house. She has had city staff check on the work Cuban's been doing on several occasions to ensure that it complies with city ordinances, but she has no way to prevent him from doing as he pleases with his own property.
