"Hawk's Nest" (Minnetrista, Minnesota)

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3465 County Road 44, Minnetrista, MN 55364

This property, known as "Hawk's Nest" was originally built for businessman William H (Bill) Hawks and his wife Karen in 1990: the 2.2-acre estate features a massive 22,376-square-foot English manor house, two caretaker apartments, indoor and outdoor pools, two kitchens, six bedrooms, 11 baths and 190 feet of Lake Minnetonka shoreline. Hawks eventually lost the home to foreclosure.

Bill Hawks was the owner of Crown Hydro, which tried for 12 years to build a 3.2 megawatt plant near the historic St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis--an idea which was fought heavily by a variety of sources. Hawks was also a fundraiser for Michelle Bachmann, ultra-conservative Republican Congresswoman from the opposite side of the Twin Cities. The Hawk's Nest went into foreclosure in 2010 and was bought by Wells Fargo Bank which held a $3 million mortgage on the property, at a sheriff's sale on November 8, 2010 for $3,027,544.97. It sold for below its estimated value, $4,045,000 on July 28, 2011, to Blake Rice, founder of the Bureau of Collections Recovery (BCR), a collection agency that grew to include call centers in Eden Prairie and Willmar. He sold the business in 2010 to Aditya Birla Minacs, an Indian business solutions provider, for an undisclosed price.

SOURCES:
Property info/past sales:
www.zillow.com/homedetails/3465-County-Road-44-Mound-MN...
www.edinarealty.com/homes-for-sale/MN/Minnetrista/55364...

Property line:
gis.co.hennepin.mn.us/HCPropertyMap/Locator.aspx?PID=26...
www.edinarealty.com/

Property owner:
www16.co.hennepin.mn.us/pins/pidresult.jsp?pid=26117242...
www16.co.hennepin.mn.us/pins/pidresult.jsp?pid=26117242...

Owner info:
finance-commerce.com/2011/08/top-residential-transactio...
www.mndaily.com/2011/07/06/park-board-stalls-hydroelect...
blog.lib.umn.edu/smit2174/cd6/2006/06/dday.html
mplsparkwatch.org/node/751
webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:eIkGwh9nL...
www.crownhydro.net/
www.mahoganybay.net/assets/content/pdf/Gerry%20Lo%20to%...
mncampaignreport.com/diary/2681/crown-hydro-breaking-ne...
books.google.com/books?id=aINtee5s1ucC&pg=PT71&lpg=PT71...