An Atlanta businessman has sold a six-bedroom home near Buckhead for $1.8 million and plans to give the entire proceeds to various charities.
Martin and Tanya Hunter, who have been house-hunting for a year, closed Friday on the six-bedroom, six-bath, three-car-garage home with a wine cellar and large, landscaped backyard on Powers Ferry Road. The couple had almost given up looking when they came across "The Gift House," the name given to the three-year-old stackstone manse by C. Tycho Howle, founder of several high tech companies.,
Howle was close to taking the home, which also has a whole-house audio and entertainment system, off the market where it had lingered for a year. Howle did not live in the home which was listed with Atlanta Fine Homes Sothebys International Realty. He resides in Sandy Springs.
"It's a great home. We fell in love with it immediately. For us, we were looking for a home, but what he's doing with the money is an inspiration for us," said Martin Hunter, vice president of tax and treasurer for Intercontinental Exchange, one of the largest derivative exchanges in the world.
This isn't the first large charitable donation for Howle. In 2008, he and his family gave $2.5 million to Clemson University to establish two endowed chairs for computing research. Howle is founder, chairman and chief executive of nuBridges LLC, a software firm that protects sensitive data and enables companies to conduct safe exchanges of digital information.
Howle bought the 2.6-acre property in 2007 and divided it into two lots. His daughter and son-in-law reside on one. The other was initially going to be used as an investment but the economy tanked. As a result, "The Gift House" was born.
"I decided I wanted to do something special with the house," Howle said Friday in an email. "I contacted the charities. They were appreciative and supportive."
The Hunters, who are Australian, have two small children and lived in Baltimore before coming to Atlanta.
"It's great to see someone who obviously has the means employing those means to help a lot of people," Hunter said. "I think everybody got something from it."
Howle will get a tax deduction but proceeds from the sale will go to The Atlanta Mission, Children's Healthcare, the Westminster Schools, Harvard Business School and Woodruff Arts Center. The philanthropic gesture stands out in a housing market most noted for foreclosures and declining home values.
"This is very unusual, especially in this kind of market," said real estate broker Steve Katz. He and his wife Tascha own the Katz Crew, which represented the Hunters in the deal. "You don't hear people doing this kind of thing. It just doesn't happen, even in a good market."
Howle wished the Hunters a happy life in their new home.
"I'm glad the idea to do something good for some institutions we care about was successful," he said.
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