Rushin’ Into It

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For John Finton, building a palatial home in Los Angeles is just another day at work. But his latest megamansion bears an unfamiliar address: Moscow.

Finton Construction Co. of Arcadia is working on a 60,000-square-foot home with wine cellar, swimming pool and bowling alley for a wealthy client who wants the good life she’s seen on trips to London, Paris and Los Angeles.

“But the contractors in Moscow have never even seen a building like that,” Finton said.

As a result, they couldn’t build it. So the client found Finton through a recommendation from one of his previous jobs.

Finton has shipped entire rooms, or even sections of the house, to Russia and has been assembling them on site. The home’s slate roof was built in Vermont, then sent to Moscow.

Although the World Bank predicts the Russian economy will shrink 4.5 percent this year, Finton isn’t worried and has started looking for more clients there.

“There are 80 billionaires in Moscow alone,” he said. “It has never been an issue of getting paid. With our particular clients, they are playing a bit more conservative, but people still want a nice house.”

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