BOSTON April 2007. The House That Ate Weston. What does a blue-collar North End kid turned hedge fund legend do with his prodigious fortune? If you're Jim Pallotta, you build a 27,000-square-foot mansion to toop them all, a Shangri-la capable of turning heads even in the state's richest town. And you do it with such unerring efficiency, no one even notices-almost. By Francis Storrs. Sometime later this year, Jim Pallotta will be ready to celebrate his new home. He'll invite a few good friends over for a tastefully extravagant housewarming party, and that night his first guests will pull off Weston's idyllic Ash Street, stop in front of a pair of massive wooden gates, and push the button on a state-of-the-art call box. After a moment, the gates will swing open to a long, winding drive bordered by stone walls made to look as though they've been there forever and rows of young maples so big two hands could barely encircle their trunks. As the house comes into view, Pallotta's guests won't help but notice its vertiginous size. a project four years in the making, it is a mansion to beat all other mansions in Massachusetts' wealthiest enclave, a 27,000-square-foot, 22-room behemoth clad in fieldstone and slate, with a facade roughly the size of Fenway's Green Monster. Add to that a basketball court, pool, and carriage house/garage with room for 10 cars on grounds 4 acres bigger than the Boston Public Garden, and i might be a lot for even longtime Pallotta pals like Denis Leary, Patrick Lyons, and Cam Neely to digest. The whole thing will have cost Pallotta about $22 million of his estimated $1 billion fortune. Not that he'll want to talk about that. Perhaps Pallotta's guests, as they step from their cars onto a cut-granite parking court, will find the enigmatic man of the house leaning against a front door flanked by pillars, the pillars flanked by flowering dogwoods. Tall and fit, with black ahir streaked gray at his temples, Pallotta will look a little like Mr. Fantastic, the comic-book superhero. Mr. Fantastic will be smiling. That's how i imagine it will happen, anyway. I can't say for sure what Jim Pallotta is planning for a celebration, because Jim Pallotta isn't speaking about his house (except to say, incredibly politely, that it's his private business). If his new estate is the grandest gesture yet for a guy known to lavish money on charities and lucky friends, it would also seem hard as this may be to believe, that he's not building it to show off. When you earn an estimated $200 million a year, it's difficult to remain inconspicuous, but the notoriouly press-shy Pallotta has never wanted the attention. While workers hustle to complete his new compound, the driveway remains blocked by a chainlink fence secured by a heavy, fist-size padlock. For many, moving from Somerville apartment to, say, an East Cambridge condo is an accomplishment. Others work for years to get to Brattle Street, only to start dreaming of a place off Brattle, where everyone knows the real money is. Pallotta and his wife, Kim, have lived in Wellesley for 16 years, currently in a $2.4 million, 8,800-square-foot, five-bedroom colonial that is the second most expensive home on their street, and the only one that boasts a basketball court, If you're going to trade up from such a place, shances are you're looking at Weston. The town's 3,700 families have the state's highest per capita income and include several members of Pallotta's circle: His Celtics co-owners, Wyc Grousbeck and steve Pagliuca, live there, in homes worth $3.9 million and $5 million, respectively. Fellow hedge fund magnate Jeff Vinik has a $12.8 million spread nearby. At a charity event in 2003, Jim and Kim Pallotta chatted with Diana Chaplin, a Coldwell Banker real estate agent with an interesting lead. Chaplin specializes in something called "whisper marketing," in which agents get early scoops on yet-to-be-listed properties and put out discreet feelers to high-net-worth buyers- the kind who don't spend time cruising open houses. These agents often close deals without ever putting homes on MLS, Boston.com, or other listing services. According to Chaplin, about a fourth of the properties in Weston sell off-mardet; in the past four years, she herself has sold nearly 100 acres this way. Chaplin knew Weston's Regis College was unloading land meeting owned between Wellesley and Ash streets. The financially strapped school, located on the former estate of lead-1800s Boston "copper king" Daniel Demmon, was hemorrhaging money and ready to strike a gargain. Chaplin approached Regis on hehalf of a real estate trust managed by Jaaffrey Allen, a Wellesley attorney. Allen, a turn, was working for the Pallottas. (Real estate buyers use trusts for a variety of reasons, sometimes because they're too busy to do their own negotiating, other times to maintain their privacy.) The terms were simple: Regis would sell its 28 acres for $9.3 million, and the trust would informally agree to build only a single-family house on a lot big enough to accommodate an entire subdivision. The deal sailed through that June. Pallotta snatched up an adjacent property last September in similarly under-the-radar fashion. When Panopticon Gallery owner Tony Decaneas wanted to sell his 4,218-square-foot, five-bedroom home, he went straight to his new neighbors. They quickly settled on a $1.2 million price. The purchase, however spontaneous, certainly fit within Pallotta's budget. An old rule of thumb sas you shouldn't spend more than three times your annual income on a house. Pallotta's mansion will eat up just 10 percent of his; barring a market crash, he should be able to pay off his entire property in less than six weeks. Pallotta, jimmy to his friends, was born in 1958. His parents, James and Angelina, raised him and his two sisters, Carla and Christine, in a cramped north and apartment. Both parents work hard, with James juggling three jobs, and instilled a tough work ethic in their kids. The girls would go on to open the restaurant Nebo just streets away from the family’s old home. As a boy, Pallotta walk cross under the elevated T tracks and sneak into the Boston Garden. There, he’d stand behind the cheap seats and watched the Celtics stars John Havlicek and Bill Russell hustle across the parquet. After high school, UMass Amherst, where he joined Beta Kappa Phi with guys who were also destined for big things; Jim Palermo is now vice chairman of Mellon financial; Dave Andonian, still love was closest friends, is a former president of CMGI. On Sundays, the frat brothers will gather for their weekly meeting, during which Pallotta would hunker down over the newspaper. “I always knew jimmy was going places,” says Bruce Leaver, a beta phi who now owns the best western in Quincy. “He’d read two or three newspapers, and by the time the meeting was over he would have finished the New York Times crossword puzzle.” Pallotta was also known for his fierce competitive streak. A hard-core intramural basketball player, he is quick hands and sharp court vision to lead his senior year squad to victory at the UMass championship and the New England Regionals.(When Pallotta bought his stake in the Celtics and 2002- for which he reportedly paid 15 million – he officially completed his transition from the nose bleeds to courtside seating. These days, he needs a weekly pickup game at a Harvard gym that includes former pros like Malcolm Huckaby and Bill Curley: Wyc Grousbeck asked to join in, but didn’t make the cut.) ….. …. Light accounting. According to lighting designer Glenn Johnson’s plan, the most common exterior lighting fixtures come from a company called dreamscape. At about $250 a pop, the 34 that Pallotta has ordered will cost $8500. The two brightest lights- Teka beauties made of copper and etched glass – go for $1500 each. Then theres 77 other lights around the property. Pallotta can expect to spend another $400 to $500 on 2760 watts worth of light bulbs for the exterior. Of course he needs several hundred more inside….