News & Politics

Luxury Homes: March 2007

Former PBS chief Pat Mitchell sells in DC’s Wesley Heights for $1.9 million. New Republic writers pay nearly $2 million in Chevy Chase. Clinton legal adviser buys $1.1-million DC condo.

Lobbyist Tony Podesta sold a two-bedroom stone-and-stucco contemporary in Falls Church’s Lake Barcroft neighborhood for its list price of $1.9 million. The renovated house has water views. Podesta, brother of former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta, heads the Podesta Group in DC. Photograph by David Pipkin.

In Virginia: Former telecommunications executive William L. Collins III bought a five-bedroom, six-bathroom, chalet-style townhouse on Fairway Oaks Square in Leesburg for $1.5 million. Overlooking the Potomac River and a golf course, the 5,000-square-foot house has a media room and three-level sunroom. From 1996 to 2003, Collins was president of Metrocall, an Alexandria-based paging company that merged with Arch Wireless in 2004. He led the bid to bring Major League Baseball to Northern Virginia.

Lieutenant General Charles Croom and his wife, Gayle, bought this stone Colonial in Falls Church for $2 million. The five-bedroom, five-bathroom house was built in 2006. Croom heads the Defense Information Systems Agency, which provides technology support for the Department of Defense. Photograph by David Pipkin.

In DC: Journalist Daniel Klaidman and his wife, Monica Selter, sold a five-bedroom, four-bathroom Colonial on Arizona Terrace in DC’s Kent neighborhood for $975,000. Klaidman, Newsweek’s former Washington bureau chief, recently was named the magazine’s managing editor.

Former senator Bill Brock and his wife, Sandy, bought a two-bedroom, three-bathroom condo on Water Street in Georgetown for its list price of $1.5 million. The glass-and-brick building resembles a turn-of-the-century industrial loft and sports a rooftop pool with views of the Potomac and Virginia’s skyline. Brock served as a Tennessee senator in the 1970s and was secretary of Labor from 1985 to 1987. After leaving government, he founded Bridges Learning Systems, an education-services company.

Former PBS president Pat Mitchell and her husband, businessman Scott Seydel, sold a six-bedroom, five-bathroom home on 49th Street in Wesley Heights for $1.9 million. The house backs to Battery Kemble Park and has a heated pool, three wet bars, and a hidden movie screen in the master bedroom. Mitchell left PBS last year and now heads the Museum of Television & Radio in New York and Los Angeles. Seydel is president of the Seydel Companies, an Atlanta-based chemical company.

Walter Dellinger, legal adviser to the Bill Clinton White House, and his wife, Anne, bought a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo in this building near Dupont Circle for the list price of $1.1 million. Dellinger heads the appellate practice at the DC law firm O’Melveny & Meyers. During the Clinton administration, he was US solicitor general and worked in the Justice Department. Anne Dellinger, also a lawyer, has worked at Hogan & Hartson in DC and was a special assistant to then-FBI chief William Webster in the 1980s.

In Maryland: Journalists Christopher Orr and Michelle Cottle bought a seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom contemporary on Rossdhu Court in Chevy Chase for $1.9 million. The house, which listed for $2.4 million, overlooks Rock Creek Park and has a pool, cabana, and billiard room. Orr and Cottle are senior editors at the New Republic.