REDFIELD - The Little Rock home once owned by the late philanthropist Jennings Osborne and his family has been deeded to Redfield by a businessman who bought the property at an auction held last year, officials said Monday.
The 11,699-square-foot home at 4 Robinwood Drive has been appraised at more than $1.6 million.
Redfield Mayor Tony Lawhon said that developer and contractor Kourosh Malek of Redfield signed over the property deed to the city Monday afternoon.
Lawhon said the city plans to sell the house and could use the proceeds to purchase the former Redfield Middle School, which was recently listed for sale by the White Hall School District.
The district is trying to unload the school because it has become a financial burden, White Hall Superintendent Larry Smith said. Smith said the district spends about $7,000 on annual utility costs and between $10,000 and $11,000 on general maintenance for the structure and the 8 acres that surround it.
Lawhon said the city “would love to have the building, but we have not been able to afford it. We are hoping to get the [former Osborne] home sold, and maybe we can use the money from that. That is something we will definitely be talking about.”
Multiple messages for Malek, including one Monday, were not returned.
Malek bought the house for $291,500 in June 2012 at an auction held to help pay off the Osborne family’s debts, according to documents from the Pulaski County assessor’s office.
Two other houses located on either side of the large house were also auctioned.
The three houses on Cantrell Road were once the site of Christmas displays involving about 2 million lights, a spectacle that drew lines of spectators and created traffic jams along Cantrell Road.
In 1993, neighbors filed a lawsuit contending that the Osbornes’ lights had created a nuisance.
After losing a legal battle that reached the Arkansas Supreme Court, Jennings Osborne took most of the lights to Disney World in Orlando, Fla., where they became part of an annual display.
The Osbornes regularly provided food for community events, particularly in their home city of Little Rock.
Osborne and his wife, Mitzi, founded the Arkansas Research Medical Testing Center, which tested pharmaceuticals on people, in 1968.
The couple sold the company to affiliates of Stephens Inc. for $24 million in 2004 and started a new company, Osborne Research Center, in 2010.
Their daughter, Allison Brianne “Breezy” Osborne-Wingfield, said at the time of the auction of 4 Robinwood Drive that “a very, very, very large portion” of the family’s debt resulted from costs associated with starting the new company.
Osborne died of complications from heart surgery on July 27, 2011, at age 67.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 12/24/2013