Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Sandra Bullock Adds Bev Hills Mansion to Bulging Property Portfolio


BUYER: Sandra Bullock
LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: $16,190,000
SIZE: 8,110 square feet, 7 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: High-paid Oscar-winning girl-next-door actress Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side, Miss Congeniality, Speed et al) has bounced back smelling like a sweet rose from the stinky debacle of her marriage to and divorce from cheating chopper customizer Jesse James.

Miz Bullock, one of the highest paid female actors in Tinseltown, reportedly earns more than fifteen million bucks in salary per movie (not counting the back end income that easily doubles her salary), claims a net worth of $125,000,0000 and brought in lifetime global box office receipts of nearly three and a half billion bucks. With stratospheric numbers like that it should come as no surprise America's Sweetheart has a property portfolio that bulges at the seams with half a dozen luxury residences.

In January 2001 Miz Bullock paid $1,485,000 for a 3 bedroom and 3 bathroom Los Angeles house behind the Chateau Marmont Hotel and just a few doors down from fellow a-list movie star Cameron Diaz. Six months later she forked over another $1,495,000 for a house on Tybee Island (Georgia) and in June of 2009, just before her marriage to Mister James hit the skids, she shelled out $2,250,000 for a large and historic abode in New Orleans, LA. Your Mama's brief and decidedly unscientific research shows that Miz Bullock also owns a privately-set home in Austin, TX, a ski-chalet in Jackson Hole, WY and a townhouse in downtown New York City.

Although Miz Bullock's name appears nowhere on any of the property records and title documents at which Your Mama peeped–the documents show the property was acquired through a Mississippi-based business entity set up for the express purchase of a domestic residence via a New Orleans based attorney–according to a covert communique we recently received from Our Fairy Godmother in Beverly Hills the accomplished and beloved lady actor is now and also the new owner of a substantial and legendary estate near the western edge of Beverly Hills.

A long gated drive climbs and curves through the 4.1 acre estate to a generously-proportioned motor court with cross-hatched pattern detailing and detached four-car garage. The hulking Tudor-style pile stands a stately two and a half stories tall with stone facing on the ground floor and what looks like–and we hope are–leaded glass windows. The main house measures a sizable but not pathetically gargantuan 8,110 square feet with 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms that include an expansive master suite with sitting room, fireplace and dual bathrooms.

Public and private spaces include a grandly-scaled living room with fireplace, paneled dining room with fireplace, library, office, eat-in kitchen, work out room and staff quarters all of which are protected by a serious security system, one that Your Mama imagines may soon include an armed and angry guard at the gate.

The supremely-sited property, which has a large flat backyard and stunning 270-degree views from downtown to the Pacific Ocean, includes a separate screening room and a pool side pavilion with an additional bedroom and terliting facility.

The famous and fabled hill top estate has a long list of prominent former owners who include That Girl Marlo Thomas who sold it to showbiz billionaire David Geffen sometime in the late 70s or early 80s. Mister Geffen, whose real estate feet eventually landed down the street at the even more legendary Jack Warner estate, sold the posh property in 1986 to radio station tycoon Norm Pattiz $5,933,000.

At that point the estate encompassed two parcels. One, the 4.1 acre parcel that Miz Bullock (allegedly) bought), holds the main house. A second, smaller and contiguous lot located down the steep hill side at the estate's southern flank contained the estate's tennis court plus a two-story 2,080 square foot guest house/tennis pavilion/screening room/recreation facility. Mister Pattiz, in a move kind to his pocketbook but unfortunate for the overall grandiosity of the estate, sold the larger lot that includes the main house in September 2006 to Hard Rock Café co-founder Peter Morton for $18,500,000. He sold the lower portion of the estate–once accessible from the upper portion of the property by a private funicular–in December 2006 to a non-celebrity for $3,500,000.

Mister Morton, who as far as Your Mama knows had big plans for but never actually occupied the property, put the imposing pad back on the market in July of 2008 with an asking price of $22,500,000. The property was marketed as a fixer-upper and/or as a tear down. The in-need-of-some-TLC mansion was eventually and finally sold in March 2010 at a significant three million dollar loss to Mister Morton. The buyer, L.A.-based hedge fund hog and hotel developer Reagan Silber, paid $15,500,000 for the property but like so many folks with money to burn, quickly caught a case of The Real Estate Fickle, and flipped the storied estate back on the market a year later with an asking price of $22,950,000.

Mister Silber, some of the children may already know, isn't exactly a stranger to the west coast real estate gossip columns. The deep-pocketed Mister Silber famously sold an über contemporary Bel Air mansion in June of 2006 for $20,000,000 to financially beleaguered tech tycoon Halsey Minor. Mister Minor, who has had real estate woes all up and down the state of California and beyond, has many times since buying failed to sell the house even though he's attempted at various times to unload it for ten million buckaroos less than he paid for it.

Anyhoo, getting back to the matter at hand...Real estate juggernaut Redfin shows that the Thomas/Geffen/Pattiz/Morton/Silber cum Bullock estate entered escrow in early May 2011, just two months after first appearing on the open market. Property records show the property transferred ownership from Mister Silber to Miz Bullock in mid-May for, according to Redfin, $16,190,000.

While married to Jesse James, Miz Bullock's Los Angeles-area home base was an ocean front house in Sunset Beach–that's south of Long Beach–that Mister James recently sold in December 2010 for $4,500,000 after first listing the property in April for $6,750,000.

listing photos: Westside Estate Agency

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have seen this house before in previous sale postings. Amazing location. I do not like the way they have painted all the Tudor detail white. It looks kind of bland now. It could always be repainted.
I would love to see interior pictures.

angie said...

What a difference a brighter color and fresh paint can make. I didn't even recognize the house at first from your previous article about it Mama.

Four acres loaded with bushy trees - gotta love it. It must need a lot of work inside because I've never seen an interior photo posted anywhere unfortunately.

Anonymous said...

It looks like an awesome yard for little Louis to run around on.

And hey Sandra, you GO GIRL! Just make sure you don't cross the line into 'NicCageDelusionalRealestateMarketItis'

Anonymous said...

I've walked by this property many times hiking up angelo drive...it needs a lot of work, and from the looks of the house, probably is a tear down. It does appear incredibly private - never seen a tour bus go up angelo drive, and as it dead ends at murdoch's estate and paul allens tear down, you don't get any through traffic either.

When all is said and done, it should cost Sandra 30mm+

Plus by the time it's completed, she'll be pushing 50 - not exactly a great age for hollywood actresses!

Anonymous said...

she'll probably tear it down. sandra got "had" in texas with a builder. he was building another one of her dream homes that was deemed unlivable.

poor babe. maybe she got a tax write off.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful property, and definitely NOT a tear-down. I was worried that this might be snatched up by a developer, so Bullock buying it is certainly a relief - that is, if she does not raze the house or divvy up the lot.

Anonymous said...

Bullock tends to be into preservation and restoration with both her personal and business properties, so there's a good chance that she won't raze the home.

luke220 said...

I'm with 3:52. I hope she doesn't do a Nic Cage.

This house could be a money pit. Maybe she'll lighten her real estate load and focus on this one, but otherwise she better have a few blockbuster movies in the pipeline to help pay for this.

The land is beautiful, but with her busy schedule and high profile, I am surprised that one of the gated communities wasn't considered.

Anonymous said...

She has Executive Produced a few shows and will probably continue to do so. That is more lucrative than the acting roles she would get as she ages.

Jeannified said...

What a beautiful home and wonderful yard. Little Louis will be running all over that house and throughout the grounds. Lucky little kid! Looks like a good, peaceful for Sandra and Louie to settle and enjoy life together! Good for them! I hope she keeps Jesse fully out of her life from now on. I feel for his kids, though.

Anonymous said...

Didn't this woman move to Austin? Why did she come back?

Anonymous said...

Sandra has homes in many places and literally lives in them all. She was recently in NY filming and was in New Orleans just a few days ago I know. She will also go to her big Tybee Island, GA beachfront home in the summer.

This new home looks like it was affords her and her son more privacy and certainly more room inside and out than her other home in the LA area. After the Jesse bust that home become overrun with the media and lookers, and it's address is well known now. She has owned it for years, but I bet privacy is an issue for her there now.

Info on new house: http://www.trulia.com/homes/California/Beverly_Hills/sold/4310619-1225-Angelo-Dr-Beverly-Hills-CA-90210

As far as Jesse is concerned, he is HISTORY. I heard the idiot himself say he had not had contact with Sandy in months and months nor had his children. No one had to tell me Sandy wasn't the kind to just forget and forgive his B.S.

Anyway, the house with some paint and fixup could be a wonderful place to raise her son. Sandy, you go girl!

Anonymous said...

Like the front better than the back. Given that Ms. Bullock has a reputation for good sense, from what I have read, why on earth does she need all the houses you mention? I take the recently departed Taylor as a model. If she could be happy with one very nice house, what crazy bug gets into so many others who seem to need five times the number of homes that they could possibly inhabit?

Anonymous said...

Because it's boring to live in one place?

If I had her money, I'd live many places too!

Anonymous said...

The house and the surroundings look sooo Connecticut.

Love it!

Anonymous said...

Just saw some inside views of Sandra's new home on Entertainment Tonight. Very lovely place. I didn't see much that needed redoing. It looked move in ready!

Moving Mansions said...

@B That house is TOAST on the inside, I walked it during a brokers open a few months ago...the kitchen is straight out of 1963 and not in a good way. It's essentially a shell, she'll need to do a complete gut remodel to get this house to a level consistent with the neighborhood. The backyard is huge and the view from the motor court is just stunning. The Geffen-era screening room is Dynasty perfect with grapefruit size acrylic knobs on the bathroom sink.

http://movingmansions.com

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

Didnt this property used to be the GEORGE LEWIS mansion, film location for such titles as NIGHT AND DAY and an old BATMAN serial in the 40s? The mansion was torn down in the 60s and the land subdivided, according to legend. anyone know for sure?