Philly Lawyer Buys Interest in Muhammad Ali Childhood Home
FILE – In this Aug. 27, 2012, file photo for sale signs sit in the front yard of Muhammad Ali’s boyhood home in Louisville, Ky. A real estate investor wanting to restore Ali’s boyhood home has a new business partner in his corner. Philadelphia lawyer George Bochetto said Monday, May 4, 2015, that he has acquired a half interest in the small frame house where the three-time heavyweight boxing champion grew up as a precocious boy named Cassius Clay. (AP Photo/Bruce Schreiner, File)
Philadelphia superlawyer George Bochetto has acquired a half-interest in the Louisville, Kentucky boyhood home of Muhammad Ali, and hopes to permit public access to the residence by the end of the year.
The lawyer, George Bochetto, has bought a 50 percent share in the entity that owns the vacant home in western Louisville, making him an equal partner in the venture with real estate investor Jared Weiss of Las Vegas.
Bochetto said he is prepared to spend at least several hundred thousand dollars to restore the Ali home. He said he has had extensive conversations about the restoration with Ali’s Louisville-based brother, Rahman Ali, nee Rudy Clay. The goal is to restore it to the way it looked in the 1950s when the Clays lived there.
Bochetto, 62, said he has long been a devotee and great admirer of Ali. “Muhammad Ali is the greatest American athlete this country has ever produced in my generation,” he said.
Restoring the exterior and interior could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Bochetto said.
“We’re going to be self-funded on this whole project,” he said. “There’s not going to be any obstacles to our accomplishing what we want to do, at least no financial obstacles.”
“We’re certainly not getting into this thing to try to run a tourist trap and make money,” Bochetto said. “To me, that would be completely demeaning of the historic significance of this house.”
Bochetto was on the Pennsylvania State Boxing Commission from 1995 to 2002.
