Private island home up for auction

The property at 1 Bald Eagle Island is on the auction block.

Premiere Estates International, a luxury real estate auction house, is offering the 2.3-acre island home to the highest bidder. Worldwide bids on the estate are being accepted until noon, July 12.

“This newly constructed estate is beautiful and very unique,” remarked Connor Wohl, vice president of marketing for Premiere. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy property like this anywhere in the Minneapolis, St. Paul markets.”

Owner Nathan Landucci of Landucci Homes has had the five-bedroom property listed for two years. His asking price, $3.5 million, is also the starting bid for the auction. The estate was originally listed for $6 million.

Landucci completely renovated the home in 2020 from its original 35-year-old design, sparing no expense for high-end luxuries such as a chef’s kitchen, professional home theater, garage bar, racquetball court, Hardie exterior, Marvin windows and multiple decks. Living space is 5,400 square feet.

The home is accessible 365 days a year via boat and vehicle (when ice conditions merit) and comes with a hovercraft. A shore garage and new docks are included in the sale.

Pre-auction bids are due prior to July 2. Bidders can find the sealed bid auction purchase contract at PremiereEstates.com.

Clarification

The dog owner requesting a special license for four dogs in White Bear Township (“Neighbors ask board to stretch 3-dog license to 4,” June 14, 2023) wants it made clear the animal control officer did not come to her house because

Bids are noncontingent. A registration deposit of $30,000 is due with the sealed bid.

More information is available by calling Premiere Estates representative Marc Mische, 877-377-8283, ext. 106.

To see the company’s three-minute video of the property, go to www.youtube.com/ watch?v=qBcO3IlrYg0

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her dogs were barking. A resident complained to the township about dogs barking in general around the neighborhood and did not specify a particular house. Also, the story was written by Debra Neutkens, not Loretta Harding.

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“Fuel is the single biggest expense of owning the aircraft,” Datko said. “There are maintenance issues, and these planes are 70-some years old to begin with, and they’re meticulously maintained. There’s all sorts of FAA and government requirements. The plane has to have annual inspections like all aircraft, and they’re quite an investment. They were a little cheaper back then, but not much. But in the last few years, they’ve really gone up in value. The average plane is (valued) somewhere between $250,000 and $300,000.”

T-6 Thunder currently has six pilots — a retired Delta Airlines captain, an orthopedic doctor and surgeon, an eye doctor and surgeon, Datko, a retired businessman and retired astronaut Curt Brown.

“He was a commander of the Space Shuttle Discovery, and he did six missions,” Datko said. “He’s typically my wingman; I usually lead the flights and he’s he’s number two off of my left.”

According to Datko, after World War II, the

Lend-Lease Act set up a system that would allow the U.S. to lend or lease war supplies to any nation deemed vital to the defense of the U.S. “Most of T-6s were scrapped,” he said. “A lot of them were given or sold to foreign countries. They were used by 22 foreign countries as their Air Force.”

Datko said one or two T-6 planes crash every year, but there is always someone that is resurrecting one.

“There’s about 400 left in the world,” he said. “I think over 300 are registered here in the United States, but there’s only about 120 flying and you can see about 50 of them if you go to Oshkosh.”

Every summer there is an airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, at Wittman Regional Airport. This year’s event is from Monday, July 24, to Sunday, July 30.

Datko is going to turn 79 this year. “I am reaching a point where I am literally going to be forced out of flying because of the fact that when you reach 80 years old, there’s not an insurance company that will insure you, period.”

The future of the T-6 Thunder is up in the air. They did 65 events last year and sometimes have to turn down events due to a pilot shortage — pilots are hard to find these days.

“The T-6 Thunder will just keep going until there’s no more pilots,” Datko said. “Some lose their medical license and we’ve had three pass away. Every year we’re getting older, and then we run up against a bumper where you can’t be insured.”

Flying airshows for spectators is dear to Datko’s heart. He’s not ready to retire from flying just yet.

“It’s gone beyond just the flying now,” Datko said. “Now the point is what it means to the people on the ground. I’ve got a box of letters and cards from people thanking us for what we do. The emails that I’ve gotten, especially when we do this at the cemeteries, really touch people. I even get goosebumps myself when I fly over Fort Snelling … my mother and father are buried there.”