The parcel includes a lake, a barn and a former guest house that Scrushy used as the offices of his Marin Inc. private holding company, said John Haley, a lawyer for HealthSouth Corp. shareholders. The selling price was about $2 million.

The down real estate market has hampered efforts to sell two of Richard Scrushy’s remaining properties, although Briarwood Presbyterian Church has purchased a 19-acre parcel from the jailed corporate titan’s Vestavia Hills estate.

The land and buildings are down the hill toward Interstate 459 from the great house on Longleaf Street. The parcel includes a lake, a barn and a former guest house that Scrushy used as the offices of his Marin Inc. private holding company, said John Haley, a lawyer for HealthSouth Corp. shareholders. The selling price was about $2 million.

(Editor’s Note: Briarwood’s plan is for an expansion, including this adjacent property, building a new Children’s Auditorium for use by the school and the church, and upgrade Adult Education space.)

The property was seized in 2009 to help satisfy a $2.8 billion court judgment HealthSouth shareholders secured against Scrushy. That was after he was found liable at a Jefferson County Circuit Court civil trial for the accounting fraud that almost sank the Birmingham-based company.

Still on offer are the house on Longleaf Street, a 10-bedroom stunner on sale through ReMax Southern Homes for $2.4 million, and the Lake Martin summer and vacation house being sold through Russell Lands for $3.9 million. Neither has attracted serious interest after more than 18 months on the market, Haley said.

“We might consider auctioning them off,” he said. “We have had no serious inquiries.”
All the while, Haley said, costs for maintenance, utilities and insurance mount into the thousands per month. At some point, Haley said, a calculation will have to be made as what makes more sense: selling at a lower price or continuing to absorb the costs in expectation of a higher one.

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