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Unfinished Marshbanks mansion/barndominium now listed for sale at record price • Nebraska Examiner

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LINCOLN — A mansion built by a local businessman embroiled in a multimillion-dollar bank fraud case has a new name and a record price.

The partially completed luxury home and barndominium being built by Aaron Marshbanks in east Lincoln is now called “The Plainsman” and, once nearly complete, will be listed for sale for $6.469 million.

This is the highest reported sale price for a residence today – over $1 million – by real estate agents in eastern Nebraska, including Lincoln and Omaha. If sold for that price, it would set a record for the highest price for a residence in the capital of almost $3 million.

This is what the Marshbanks mansion, now called “The Plainsman,” looked like in November when the new owners began construction on the unfinished luxury mansion. (Screenshot from Lancaster County Appraiser Office website)

One of the agents handling the sale pointed out that the house was named “The Plainsman” to reflect the fact that it is no longer owned by Marshbanks. It is now being completed, with some modifications, to make it more marketable.

“We can have it blessed, we can have it staged. Every house is a ‘home’ until someone makes it a ‘home,’” said Karalyn Hoefer of NextHome Integrity.

“It’s no longer the Marshbanks residence,” she said. “It’s now The Plainsman, and we’re moving forward.”

The $6.469 million price tag is based on completing construction of the 4,769-square-foot main house, inside and out, which is expected to take a year. The exterior of a nearly 9,000-square-foot “barndominium”/guest house on the five-acre lot will be finished, but the interior will remain unfinished — as will a planned outdoor pool — so the next buyer can decide how to personalize it, Hoefer said.

Among the opulent features of the main house are 28-foot ceilings in the main living room, stone from Belgium, reclaimed bricks from a church, reclaimed beams from Texas, iron doors made in Nebraska, gas lanterns produced in New Orleans and a cave-like “underground” cellar billed as a cigar/whiskey lounge and wine cellar.

“This is a one-of-a-kind property, and I hope that a family, business or entity will appreciate the absolute beauty of the setting,” she said. “This is one of the most incredible homes in the Midwest. »

Marshbanks, 45, died of a drug overdose in November 2022, leaving behind a wife and four children. Despite the discovery of a suspected suicide note, authorities ruled his cause of death “undetermined.”

What was determined in the weeks following his death was that he had defrauded dozens of Nebraska and Iowa banks of well over $30 million, using false financial statements to obtain multiple unsecured operating loans of more than $2 million each.

The revelations left bankers wondering how the ambitious young businessman, with ties to Lincoln’s fundamentalist Christian community and a charity dedicated to combating human trafficking, was able to extract so much money from them. money.

At least some of the ill-gotten money was used to build a luxury home just east of Lincoln, near Walton, to replace the Marshbanks family’s relatively modest residence in central Lincoln.

Marshbanks, a former Lincoln Christian High School basketball star who trained regularly, designed the property to include an indoor basketball court and practice area in the barndominium (a combination barn and residence ). Rumors circulated that the “cave” area, beneath the basement, was intended to be used for mining cryptocurrencies, as it was equipped with a substantial circulation system, and because it was suspected that Marshbanks suffered heavy losses in bitcoin investments before his death.

Hoefer told the Examiner that the cryptocurrency mining rumor was one of the “untruths” she wanted to clarify about the property.

She said she doubted that was the intention of the grotto, adding that one of the main goals now is to complete construction of the space, which features hand-laid Belgian marble.

The unfinished house and barn/guesthouse sat vacant for months after Marshbanks’ death.

THE Lincoln City Bankwhich had loaned him $2.5 million to build the structures, eventually regained ownership of the acreage. It was sold in September 2023 for $2 million to Atch Investments, a limited liability company based in Ocheyedan, a farming town in northwest Iowa with a population of 430.

Hoefer said the company consisted of two investors, one from Iowa and one from Lincoln, who were “willing to take a risk.” They immediately conducted a “top-to-bottom” inspection and assessment of the property to determine what construction work was still needed.

Several aspects of the home’s mechanics had to be corrected, she explained, and the floor plan was changed in some areas – for example, to provide larger storage and bathroom space for the master bedroom – in order to make it more marketable. The garage doors, which had already been paid for, had to be replaced.

About $750,000 has been spent so far on changes to heating, air conditioning, electrical and plumbing systems, according to Hoefer, adding that other changes were made to the floor plan to “make it more user-friendly and even more of a showcase than it was.”

“It was a very unique and personalized home,” she said.

According to Hoefer, if someone wanted to buy the house as-is, it would be sold at a lower price, which would be subject to negotiation. The asking price assumes completion of the main house, she said, and is based on three appraisals.

The garage doors, Hoefer said, should be installed in the next few weeks, and the drywall will be installed this fall.

The next owner, she said, will get to decide what to do with the barndominium: an indoor pickleball court? A site for yoga retreats? Or a sculpture workshop? The property also has space for a swimming pool and an area large enough for a pond in the garden.

“It’s your own private oasis,” Hoefer said.