A few short years ago, Daniel D'Arco looked out the window of his home in south Minneapolis and saw a tyrannosaurus rex.
The carnivore rolled down the 3300 block of Portland Avenue, where D'Arco has lived since buying his home in November 2011. He watched as the towering T. rex statue — built to actual size with its visage fixed into a permanent snarl and its foot smashing the cab of a vintage black sedan — was backed by a crane into his neighbor's front yard.
"I walked over there and talked to the neighbor," D'Arco said. "And I just kind of loosely said, 'Hey, if you have a line on any more dinosaurs, I'm interested.'"
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It took a few years before he heard anything. In May 2021, the neighbor called D'Arco to say that there were no dinosaurs available. But on the bright side, there was a shark that needed a home. D'Arco excitedly ran the idea past his wife, Kerry Schmidt.
"She said, 'Absolutely not — no. No shark in the front yard.'"
D'Arco was persistent.
"I literally got down on my hands and knees and put my hands up to her," he said. "'Please, please, I really want the shark. I'll do anything to get the shark.'"
Schmidt named her price: one favor from D'Arco, still to be determined, that can be redeemed sometime in the future. A few days later, a truck showed up with a crane attached and dropped a 20-foot-long great white shark statue in D'Arco's front yard.
Going viral
After 12 years, the couple have decided to move on and are selling the house, a five-bedroom, three-bathroom "Queen Anne charmer," as it's affectionately described on its Zillow listing. The listing has gone viral on Twitter and Facebook thanks to the giant shark in the front yard and the help of popular real estate site Zillow Gone Wild. On Twitter, the post had amassed almost 400,000 views as of midweek.
Now, D'Arco and his listing agent, Noah Tilsen, are swimming in a deep blue sea of interest.
"We're gonna need a bigger loan," said one reply on Twitter.
"Shark house, in the middle of our street," sang another.
An open water — er, open house — will be hosted on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 2 p.m. Tilsen said that beyond the shark, the 3,535-square-foot house has plenty of other fun and enticing features.
First of all, four out of five bedrooms are positioned on the house's second floor, which Tilsen says makes for a great familial space.
The paint job inside is eclectic, with every room taking on its own personality. There's an aquamarine bathroom with white nautical wainscoting, a mustard yellow bedroom and a Kelly green dining room. The house may have been built in 1900, but it has no need for a modern makeover (or as shark enthusiasts would say: Mako-ver). For example, the third floor, which hosts the home's fifth bedroom, is wired for a home theater should someone want to turn it into an entertainment space.
A neighborhood affair
Believe it or not, the great white is not the only prehistoric-themed ornament on Portland Avenue. D'Arco has the shark and his neighbor the T. rex, yes. But just a few blocks north, there's yet another front-yard dinosaur. And if you make it to E. 31st Street, you'll find another yard scattered with velociraptors.
D'Arco said that the original distributor of the statues is Southside Battletrain, a collective described on its website as a "group of south Minneapolis artists, welders, engineers, builders, neighbors, cooks, and creators who collaborate to create interactive art spectacles."
Their eye-catching and often kaleidoscopic creations are most notably seen in Powderhorn Park's annual MayDay Parade celebration, where their human-powered nine-car train is a focal point.
Like the shark, Southside Battletrain's workshop also resides on Portland Avenue, where the front-yard animal statues are a hit with kids who stop by frequently to cheer the shark on and take selfies. During the holidays, D'Arco puts a wreath on its dorsal fin.
"These are professionally built animals of extremely high quality," he said. "They're absolutely beautiful when you see them in person."
Noah Tilsen (noah@cardinalrealtors.com; 651-491-4255) of Cardinal Realty has the $429,999 listing.
