Wednesday, December 8, 2010

George Lucas Scoops Up Oceanfront Contemporary in Carpinteria

BUYER: George Lucas
LOCATION: Carpinteria, CA
PRICE: $19,500,000
SIZE: 6 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms (total)

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: This morning we're going to start off by piggy backing on an item in the gossipy Page Six column of today's NY Post that snitched about Bay Area multi-billionaire film producer George Lucas dumping a wad of money to buy an expensive estate in the Santa Barbara, CA area.

The accomplishments in the bizness of show for 4-time Oscar nominated Mister Lucas are many and notable but he is perhaps best known as the man responsible for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones film franchises as well as Howard the Duck, a cinematic turd of epic proportions that Mister Lucas promptly and wisely disowned after its 1986 release.

The estate Mister Lucas purchased is actually not in Santa Barbara or even the celebrity friendly enclave of Montecito but rather a few miles down the highway on a particularly posh and ear piercingly expensive stretch of sand in Carpinteria, CA. The low slung contemporary was first listed in 2008 with an asking price of $37,500,000. It was also put out for lease with an asking price of $45,000 per month. Over the years the price dropped to $24,950,000 and, according to a wee blurb on an real estate website Your Mama dug up, the beachfront home recently closed escrow at $19,500,000. Not only is the purchase price almost half what the sellers originally wanted, it's also a pocketbook punishing $7,500,000 less than the $27,000,000 property records and other online sources show was paid for the property in August of 2006 at the apex of the most recent real estate bubble.

Listing information Your Mama needled out of the internets shows that the property stretches across 1.7 ocean front acres. With 150-feet of beach frontage it's one of the largest and widest parcels on that section of the shore. The gated two building compound, built in 1981, includes a 4 bedroom main house with long uninterrupted expanses and a separate 2-bedroom guest house. Listing information indicates there are a total of 6 terliting facilities on the property. For those fitness freaks not interested in running on the beach the property has a yoga room and what listing information called "an amazing exercise rm."

A wide terrace enclosed by by a low wall stretches along the back of the main house where a strip of grass and a rock revetment divides the manicured grounds and gardens designed by Keith LeBlanc Landscape Architecture in Boston from the pounding surf. A large wind protected courtyard between the the main and guest houses includes a long lap pool surrounded by decking with a peep of the ocean through the trees.

Mister Lucas lives primarily in San Anselmo, CA on a colossal compound that stretches over at least 10 parcels. The 6 bedroom and 7.5 pooper main house measures a sizable 15,159 square feet and several additional structures dot the property that range from an 860 square foot 1 bedroom cottage to several other residences well in excess of 3,000 square feet. The property also includes a pill-shaped swimming pool, a tennis court and pavilion accessed by a foot bridge that spans the street that divides the wooded estate into two parts, and several oddly shaped buildings, one of which looks like an observatory but we really have no idea if it is or not.

Mister Lucas also owns Skywalker Ranch, a 4,700 acre spread near Nicasio, CA where his filmmaking headquarters are located. The ranch includes a main house where Mister Lucas does not live, an animal filled barn, vineyard, fruit and veggie gardens, an on-site restaurant for employees, a swimming pool and fitness facilities with racquetball courts, a man-made lake, hilltop observatory, 300-seat theater (called The Stag), scads of underground parking and its very own own fire station

listing photos: Coldwell Banker Previews International

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

A lovely property, which has been on the market for quite some time.

My question has always been how a celbrity can live on the beach like this. Can't any nut simply walk down the beach, cross the lawn and start knocking on the sliding glass door?

Anonymous said...

I LOVE this house.

I wonder what the annual flood insurance premium would be on this property. My guess is many 10s of thousands. The house looks like it is less than six feet above sea level.

Anonymous said...

Nice and Melody has a place to unwind.

Brooke said...

That place is gorgeous!

Carla Ridge said...

I'm not even gonna try to be pithy or witty about it: this is gorgeous. Gorgeous, George!

Anonymous said...

Your Mama,

I enjoy your blog fo sho. However, your damn pop up sliding ads on the real estate images are damn irritating! I need 10 drinks and 100 nerve pills just to deal with them. They are the equivalent of: residential decor as night clubs, poor plans, "pig" houses dressed up when they are just pigs, shabby chic decor, gigantic residences pretending to be houses, etc.

Keep up the good work, though.

Conveyancing Adelaide said...

The property looks good, but I never thought Mr. Lucas went for something so close to nature. I always thought he chose something more "modern."

- John Wake

Anonymous said...

Looks like it should be worth 30 mill. Nicely played George. Buy big when prices are soft. Wait 10 years - it will be worth 40 mill...

Steve Mawson said...

as Chewbacca would say.... AOAOAOGGHHHHHHH ! Gimme some of that please. Just love a beach shack for a bargain price.

OH and Mama, just a FYI, with Firefox on my Mac I get no pop-up ads like Ms 8:49pm does. Just smooth, ad-free realestalker bliss. Ta muchly !

sc-19 said...

Conveyancing Adelaide

Take a look at "Skywalker Ranch" and you can see in its design that he really does value nature. He spent big money over the years to hide anything that would clash with the environment.
Most car garages are underground and every building on the property minus the Victorian main house are built in a Classical Ranch Style no matter how hi tech the inside is. Its a really cool place and has been a constant project since his early film days.

And yes he does have a Conservatory on the new San Anselmo property [concept to finish are on Google] and an Observatory that I believe is still at the ranch.

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