Real Estate newsletter: Bel-Air mansion is the year’s biggest sale
Welcome back to the real estate newsletter, where mammoth sales and unique deals get the biggest buzz as we make our way to a summer market that is sure to stay hot.
The two most interesting real estate stories of the week have something in common – homes famous for their deceased former owners – but the homes themselves couldn’t be more different.
The larger couple is the longtime hotel magnate Barron Hilton, a 15,000-square-foot Bel Air trophy estate that sold for $ 61.5 million – the most expensive home sale in Southern California this year. Over in the Hollywood Hills, a 100-year-old abandoned craftsman who was once hired by rock icon Kurt Cobain turned up for sale for $ 998,000. It might take some work based on the photos.
Across the country in Tampa, Florida, Tom Brady found that even he is not immune to problems with landlords. Its landlord happened to be Yankees legend Derek Jeter, who sold the 22,000-square-foot mansion Brady rented for a cool $ 22.5 million. Let’s hope the movers are careful with the star quarterback’s seven Super Bowl rings.
Another week, another potential downtown LA project, the owners of the plant that prints this exact newspaper are hoping to convert the site into Hollywood-style lot with 17 soundstages. The budget: $ 650 million.
Speaking of emerging projects, winners will compete in the Low Rise: Housing Ideas for Los Angeles competition, which challenged architects to envision new, higher-density options rooted in Southern California’s architectural traditions.
Visit our Facebook page for property stories and updates all week while you catch up on the latest developments.
Big house, big sale
The property extends over 2.5 acres and includes a sunken tennis court, famous Zodiac pool, and a Georgian-style mansion spanning over 15,000 square feet.
(Hilton & Hyland)
Barron Hilton’s home – a Bel Air trophy estate where the business mogul lived from the 1960s until his death in 2019 – sold for just $ 61.5 million.
This is Southern California’s most expensive home sale this year according to records, but it’s not until May. The deal includes a Beverly Park mansion that auctioned for $ 51 million and a Palisades estate that was sold for $ 48.67 million in April by Vice Media co-founder Shane Smith.
The 2.5-acre Georgian-style mansion hit the market late last year and priced at $ 75 million. Paul R. Williams – a famous architect with a high profile client list including Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, and Desi Arnaz – built the 15,000 square meter venue in 1936. As one of Williams’ seminal works, the property was designed for Jay Paley, a businessman and film producer from the famous Paley family who founded CBS.
The property’s most emblematic feature is at the rear – a modern-inspired pool with alluring blue, gold, and yellow tiles depicting the 12 signs of the zodiac.
Reach nirvana in Hollywood Hills
The Craftsman, built a century ago, comes with a key for the famous high tower elevator.
(Tatiana Tensen)
A famous Fixer upper just appeared for sale in the Hollywood Hills. For a brief period in 1992, the 100-year-old artisan was hired by Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love and is now on the market for $ 998,000.
Perched on a hill in Hollywood Heights, the abandoned hangout has fallen into disrepair, but its past is a little more illustrious than its present. According to the 2011 documentary Hit So Hard, Cobain wrote most of Nirvana’s third and final studio album, “In Utero,” in the 2,500-square-foot house.
Over the years, Cobain fans and YouTubers have visited the ramshackle property to pay homage to the late rock icon.
The Cobain connection isn’t the property’s only selling point. It also comes with a key to a notable Hollywood landmark: the High Tower, a five-story, 100-foot stone tower that houses an ancient elevator built in the style of an Italian bell tower.
Brady gets the boot
The 22,000-square-foot Florida mansion includes 9,000-square-foot decks and balconies with views of Tampa Bay.
(Uneek Image)
Tom Brady needs to find new accommodation. His landlord, Yankees legend Derek Jeter, just sold the 22,000-square-foot Florida mansion he rented for $ 22.5 million.
It’s a blockbuster sale, not only because of its connections with the two famous athletes, but also because of the impressive size of the property. Listing states that it is the largest house in South Tampa and the largest waterfront property ever built in the posh area of the Davis Islands, with a bay frontage of 345 feet by 1.25 acres.
Jeter, co-owner of the Miami Marlins and managing director of the team since 2017, bought the house for $ 29 million last year. According to the Tampa Bay Times, Brady was forthcoming to potential buyers and didn’t turn down requests to prepare the place for tours.
Brady began renting the mega mansion shortly after signing a two-year deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It looks like the seven-time Super Bowl champion will land on his feet after moving out. Last year, he and his wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, bought a spot on Indian Creek Island in Miami to demolish the 5,200-square-foot home and build a dream home in its place.
Downtown LA ready for close up
A depiction of the planned redevelopment of The Los Angeles Time print shop in downtown Los Angeles, which would turn the 26-acre property into a movie and television studio with 17 sound stages and support facilities.
(Atlas Capital Group)
The owners of the sprawling facility that printed the Los Angeles Times plan to convert the site near the Arts District in downtown LA into Hollywood-style property with 17 sound days to meet the strong regional demand for film. and television production facilities to satisfy Roger Vincent writes.
The Times landlord, Atlas Capital Group, submitted a proposal to the city on Wednesday to set up soundstages in parking lots around the Olympic Boulevard facility while the Times continues to print papers there.
If the city approves the $ 650 million project, a second phase of development would eventually transform the 1980s cavernous building where printing presses roll into soundstages on a daily basis following the departure of The Times. However, the Times said the lease for the printer could be extended for years.
The results are in …
Green Alley Housing is a proposal from Louisa Van Leer Architecture, an LA-based studio that envisions transforming the empty streets of LA into more active passageways for residential use and other activities.
(Louisa Van Leer architecture)
Los Angeles may be known as a city of sprawl, but it’s also a place where density works remarkably well – and has been for more than a century, writes columnist Carolina A. Miranda.
Take part in a well-timed design challenge organized by the office of LA Chief Design Officer Christopher Hawthorne and the Office of Budget and Innovation of Mayor Eric Garcetti. Launched late last year, Low Rise: Living Ideas for Los Angeles invited architects to envision new, higher-density options that are rooted in the region’s architectural traditions
The challenge is a conversation starter and a design exercise. It’s also a necessary antithesis to commercial real estate developers, whose notions of density are typically based on a single principle – how many dollars they can squeeze out of each square foot – regardless of green space or other community needs.
However, the winning designs for the Low Rise design challenge offer a density that LA can strive for.
What we read
The newest shared apartment in San Diego has a good problem. None of the 1,800 houses have been built so far, but the list of interests is already north of 14,000 people, and developers are trying to figure out who can buy in a region with housing shortages. The San Diego Union-Tribune has the details.
Sellers aren’t stupid, and in a glowing market where bidding wars are driving prices way above original demand, 29% of potential home sellers expect the US list price to be above what they think the home is worth, with data from Today Realtor.com.