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Hogan Talks About Vegas Condo At Divorce Hearing

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Terry Bollea and his wife agreed to purchase a condo while still together three years ago.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 13, 2008

Updated: 08/13/2008 05:23 pm

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  Linda Bollea

CLEARWATER - The bitter battle between pro wrestler Hulk Hogan and his estranged wife, Linda Bollea, extended to property appraisers in Nevada today, in a hotly contested divorce proceeding over a luxury condominium the couple agreed to buy three years ago.

The condo is a good investment that can be turned around and sold for a tidy profit, said one appraiser hired by Bollea, who wants the court to order her husband to buy the condo.

"It's sluggish in the $100,000 to $1 million range," said Scott Dugan over the telephone in open court today. "But there are more multimillion-dollar high-rise sales than this city has ever seen."

The condo is way overpriced and it could be up to two years to sell in a Las Vegas market that is glutted by condominiums that aren't moving, said the other appraiser, hired by Hogan, who wants to back out of the deal.

"They're not selling hardly at all," said Pamela Kinkade during her testimony.

The two appraisers differed sharply over the luxury condo on which Hogan and Bollea agreed to pay $4.2 million for three years ago. Dugan said the 3,900-square-foot condo was worth $4.5 million. Kinkade set the value at $3.5 million.

The hearing is expected to continue Thursday morning.

Attorneys for the former professional wrestler, who called himself now an "entertainer," are trying to back out of the deal because of plunging land values in Las Vegas. Hogan, from the stand, said he thought the $4.2 million condominium is overpriced and is not worth what he had initially agreed to pay.

Under questioning by J.A. Barranco, who represents Bollea, Hogan said he had established a limited liability corporation to buy the condominium, but has balked at closing. The condominium sellers have set Friday as the deadline to close, or Hogan and Bollea stand to lose a $840,000 deposit, although testimony today said the couple likely would lose $610,000 of that deposit.

Barranco sought to have Circuit Judge George W. Greer compel Hogan to close on the condo, but Greer said he wanted to hear Hogan's motion to withdraw from the real estate agreement, filed by his attorney Ann Kerr, before making a ruling.

Several other motions, mostly routine discovery issues are set for today and tomorrow.

The divorce was filed by Bollea three months after the couple's 16-year-old son, Nick, was involved in a car crash that severely injured his passenger, and the family of the man has indicated they plan to file a civil lawsuit naming Hogan and Bollea as defendants.

In the wake of that wreck, Hogan established nine limited liability corporations to protect his assets, he said this morning.

Hogan denied violating the court's order forcing him to use previously frozen assets to buy the condominium.

"When the judge makes his decision after hearing all the facts," Hogan said, "I will do whatever he tells me."

In April, Greer signed an order saying Hogan had to go through with the real estate transaction, but Hogan said from the stand, he never went to the scheduled closing in May and never wired the money.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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