Monday, July 9, 2007

Hold On To Your Britches...

OWNER: Leonard Ross
LOCATION: N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, CA
SIZE: 6.25 acres, 4 houses comprising 72,000 square feet and 29 bedrooms

According to an article in today's Los Angeles Business Journal, a palatial Beverly Hills estate has come to the market for the obscene and vertigo inducing price of $165,000,000. Yes, children, that is one hundred sixty five million clams. Which makes it by far the most expensive home currently on the market in the United States.

The estate, located on N. Beverly Drive, comprises 6 acres and 72,000 combined square feet of living space in the four residences and features 29 bedrooms, three swimming pools, two tennis courts, a caretaker's apartment, and a security cottage at the bottom of the drive. The "Beverly House Compound," as it's known in local circles, is thought to be the largest compound in Beverly Hills.

Originally built in the late 1920s for Milton Getz of the the Union Bank and Trust, the vast property was once owned by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst and his mistress Marion Davies. According to a press release put out by the listing agents at the venerable Westside Estate Agency, the house also served as the headquarters for the Kennedy Presidential Campaign West Coast. The press release also states that John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier spent part of their honeymoon on the estate.

The current owner, financier Leonard Ross, has owned the resort like home for the last 31 years. You can read more about it over on Curbed, which we think may have posted this information before we did yesterd, but honestly, we didn't see their post until this morning. Credit where credit is due.

Source: Los Angeles Business Journal

24 comments:

Guenther said...

There is a book entitled Estates of Beverly Hills, co-written by Jeff Hyland (partner of Rick Hilton -- Paris' dad -- of Hilton and Hyland fame). The very first estate featured in the book is this particular home. Bye the way, I love your site!! =)

Anonymous said...

Wasn't it Whitney Houston's character, Rachel's mansion in the movie "The Bodyguard", the address is 1011 N. Beverly Drive?

Anonymous said...

Mama I was just about to write to you about this place and then I came here to check first and of course you got to it before me! LOL

Anonymous said...

I'd love to participate on this post, but I'm still choking on the soda I was drinking when I read 72,000 square feet for $165 million. Maybe later.. whew.

Anonymous said...

I thought "The Bodyguard" house was "Owlwood" formerly at 141 S. Carolwood?

I write "formerly" because it is now Sunset Blvd since the owners razzed Jane Mansfield's Pink Palace and the opposite house (I heard it was Esther William's one time home?) and incorporated that block of Carolwood into their driveway.

Anonymous said...

I don't think The Bodyguard house was Owlwood. Totally different gates for one thing.

Anonymous said...

On zillow.com, type in 1011 N. Beverly Drive. The birds eye view will show the house close up. The pool area with the columns around it is in The Bodyguard movie.

Anonymous said...

The movie The Bodyguard used the Graystone Mansion for the gate shots & the Beverly Drive Mansion for the house shots.

Anonymous said...

$165 Million? .... In London APARTMENTS are selling for $200 Million at a new development in Knightsbridge ... Yes, $200 Million!

Anonymous said...

The person who bought the $200m apartment was involved in the development of the building; so I'm guessing the purchase was to create hype more than anything.

This will definitely not sell - For the paltry sum of $125m you could buy the far more practical pad on N. Carolwood and have $40m left over for your coke and whores.

Anonymous said...

OMG anonymous @ 7:29 AM. You are sooo naughty, hehe. I nominate you for Best Comment of the day for your ability to make the Leonard Ross house seem a bargain hunter's must have. No small accomplishment there.

Anonymous said...

People, if someone wants to pay $165 million for 6 arcres in Beverly Hills, let them. The $200 million apartment in London is in that Crazy Candy Bros. Development. They also are the Bros. who purchased the Rob-May site in BH for $500 million. The condos they intend to build on that site would have a land cost of $2000.00 a square foot...before anything is even built! Even the best BH condo only sells for $1000.00 on a good day. Good luck to them.

Anonymous said...

this was also the house seen in THE BODY GAURD and chaplin owned it too.

Anonymous said...

actually it has been a pocket listing quiety on the market for 10 or more years. He also owned a house in Montecito that was used in the body gaurd, I am not sure if he sold it, it has been on and off the market for years. The address was 631 Parra Grande Lane, Montecito
can you find out what became of it?

Anonymous said...

For the house in Montecito, you can see the info and a birds eye view here:

http://www.zillow.com/HomeDetails.htm?zprop=15880734

Anonymous said...

zprop=15880734

Some of the url got cut off. This is the correct end of it.

Anonymous said...

Some of The Bodyguard interior shots were definitely also Graystone. I haven't watched the movie from the perspective of trying to id the locations but was told the front of the house shots were Owlwood and the "bedroom" is actually the living room at Graystone.

Anonymous said...

The price is just astounding, but I guess for 4 mansions and 6 acres, the right buyer will take it.

Any chance of interior shots coming up in the future?

Sounds like this would have been a great option for Tom Cruise - he can put his sister and her kids in one house, his mom in another, and poor Katie could get some darn privacy with her husband and child!

Anonymous said...

"The person who bought the $200m apartment was involved in the development of the building; so I'm guessing the purchase was to create hype more than anything"

Perhaps, but there are 4 towers & obviously 4 Penthouses - all priced around $200M - the only owner that has been disclosed is the Emir of Qatar who I guess you're referring to ... The 1 bedrooms start at $8M ...

Anonymous said...

pardon me, I meant to say Lenny Ross' house in Montecito is the house Tony Montana lived in Scarface, they used it for the exterior shots and also some interior shots, however the staircase where he dies at the end of the movie was a set.

Anonymous said...

Everyone is talking about the wrong film. This house is the mansion of the movie producer/horse lover in The Godfather.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Excellent website. Good work. Very useful. I will bookmark!

Anonymous said...

This home is where Robert Getz was raised the only son to Milton Getz. Two daughters " both decesed " one daughter married the May Company owner Michael May . I have professional photos taken in the home in 1926/27... I have never seen photos taken of the inside of this house. Not in the Bev Hill's estate mag or any other book. I do believe William Randolf Hurst died on this property. I have seen black and white film of his mistress sitting on the porch of this home crying after Hurst body was taken away , she was not allowed to attend the funeral by Hurst family and wife living at the time.