Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Your Mama Hears...

For now this ain't nuthin' but a juicy morsel of high end real estate scuttlebutt but Your Mama hears from the impeccably informed Charlie Chitchatter* that the colossal, hilltop contemporary compound in the hoity toity hills of Bel Air that Robb Report named as their Ultimate Home in 2011 is very quietly being shopped around with a blistering $150,000,000 price tag by—somewhat curiously—a Montecito, CA-based real estate broker well known in real estate circles to work with a very well-heeled clientele.

The village-like residence—an interconnected collection of structures designed by Richard Landry and composed mostly of glass, steel, smooth stucco and rough-cut sandstone—sits high and tight tight tight on just over 1.5 acres and surrounds a fully-enclosed, piazza-like central motor court. Combined, the civic center-sized behemoth measures in at around 40,000 square feet and contains a staggering number of bedrooms—28—and God only knows how many bathrooms. It's gotta be several dozen, right?

A few of the interior features include: numerous rooms for formal and informal entertaining; a zebra wood lined library; a home theater and separate recording studio; and a mini-mansion sized master suite with dual dressing areas and at least one bathroom sheathed almost entirely in white onyx; a complete spa facility with gym and private massage rooms.

Outdoor amenities include: a roof terrace with views from downtown to the Pacific Ocean; a deep and heated loggia for comfortable outdoor living even on cool winter evenings; a resort style negative edge swimming pool with tanning shelf; terraced fruit orchards. Below the pool there's a titanic terrace with outdoor kitchen and sand stone fireplace perched atop a roomy recreation room outfitted with media lounge area, billiards table and a built-in leather-clad bar.

For more delicious pictures and more detailed information about the house, we suggest you stop in with the Robb Report.

The current owner—we've been told it's one Saudi prince or another, but we're not sure—purchased the property back in November 1993 though a corporate entity for $1,875,000 from legendary pop music composer and producer Burt Bacharach who—irrelevantly to the topic—worked with two of Your Mama's favorite ladies: Dusty Springfield and Bobbie Gentry.

We don't know what the property taxes were back in 1993, but the peeps at Blockshopper reveal that in 2010 the current owner was ranked as the 21st highest residential real estate property tax payer in Los Angeles with a bill that came to a mouth drying $359,432 and eighty damn cents. A few quick and unscientific tabulations on Your Mama's bejeweled abacus reveals that—based on a standard 40-hour work week at the current $8.00 per hour minimum wage rate in California—it would take 21.6 years for a minimum wage worker in California to earn the equivalent amount of money. Whatever your politics, children, that's a staggering statistic.

photo: Erhard Pfeiffer for Robb Report

*We've since also heard it from a second and also impeccably-placed source, let's call him Ben A. Fisshel, a real estate mover and shaker who operates deep inside the cut throat Platinum Triangle real estate game.

32 comments:

stolidog said...

how depressing, a zebra-lined library. Shudder.

Anonymous said...

40 zones of climate controls? Good Lord.

Babe Parish said...

"Ben A. Fisshel" good god mama, i love that name even more than "Vlad the Revealer" lol

Anonymous said...

Well now...Huge price, Montecito agent, worse taste than a Saudi..Oprah?? And Mama I so love Dusty too. Thinking of that Pet Shop Boys video right now!

Anonymous said...

the lot is sooooooo small. Belvedere next door was too big for its lot and so is th is heap. its all about land size in the platinum triangle. they wont get over 60 million

Old Hag in a house said...

Billy Ray was a preacher's son
And when his daddy would visit he'd come along
When they'd gather round and started talkin'
That's when Billy would take me walkin'
Through the backyard we'd go walkin'
Then he looked into my eyes
Lord knows to my surprise

The only one who could ever reach me
Was the son of a preacher man

How well I remember
The look that was in his eyes
Stealing kisses from me on the sly
Taking time to make time
Telling me that he's all mine
Learning from each other's knowin'
Looking to see how much we've grown!

------

Too bad you can't even get a decent BACKYARD for $150 million!!! And you're squeezed in between your neighbors like sardines in a CAN!!! I thought this was Bel Air, not maleeboo??!!!! UGHHHHHHHHH

Anonymous said...

Tons more pictures on David Phoenix Website. (Interior Gay Designer oh la)

Anonymous said...

http://www.davidphoenix.com/portfolio/hilltop-compound/

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the pics. I wasn't expecting to like the interior, but I do. The exterior, though... reminds me of a Saudi palace or a modern interpretation of Disney's Magic Castle.

FalseProfit said...

Another gem, Mama! I'm sure the other RE blogs will pick this up in a couple weeks and then people will ask why you aren't running the story. Anyhoo, this is certainly an impressive house in almost every sense, but the price is delusional. The lot is way too small for that kind of cheese.

Anonymous said...

BTW Mama is divine with her scoop!

Doug-g said...

A few quick and unscientific tabulations on Your Mama's bejeweled abacus reveals that—based on a standard 40-hour work week at the current $8.00 per hour minimum wage rate in California—it would take 21.6 years for a minimum wage worker in California to earn the equivalent amount of money. Whatever your politics, children, that's a staggering statistic.

Another interesting thought is that the Powerball is about $143Mil right now. In Colorado, should you take the cash, you'd end up with about $56Mil after all the taxes were paid. That's a lot of money to most of us, but the asking price for this house is nearly three times that amount. There are people who have several homes in this price range.

Is this right or wrong? I have no idea, but it is interesting to think about.

Anonymous said...

Obviously the Saudi prince or whoever built this place has limitless amounts of cash, so why build here? That's what I don't understand. The house takes up 90% of the entire lot; there's basically no yard speak of. The infinity pool directly overlooks Le Belvedere next door, the house is literally a few feet from the street, and the driveway almost looks like it's shared with that other house next door.

For $150 million, I don't want to know my neighbors exist, much less hear them fart.

West Bourne said...

I wonder if the new owners will try to get the zoning changed from residential to hospitality. ;-)

Anonymous said...

I'm not paying that kind of money for something that looks like a community college.

Anonymous said...

I was always under the impression that people with 3 figure funds for homes don't like contemporary.... It does look like a college!

GiltEdgeGirl said...

Ooooooh Mama! Dusty in Memphis!
What good taste you have.
Good scoop, too.

Anonymous said...

Good reason to hope for an Arab Spring in Arabia to overturn the torturing, despotism that rules the place with secret police and extracts untold billions for sybarite luxury. If the Saudi king and family went the way of Gaddafi, Arabia would be a much better place.

Anonymous said...

I could buy half the Caribbean for that amount of money. These people are on crack.

Anonymous said...

I shudder to think how much money he must have dumped into this beast. I would think $60-$70M at the very least.

However, I do like it more than the other $150M places on the market right now, the Arnall place and the Jeff Greene pile.

Anonymous said...

Or should I say, "off the market"..

ZnSD said...

Why Yes! I'd love to live in a SoCal Apartment Complex! Take me back to Los Feliz and Hancock Park, immediamente.

Anonymous said...

I'd rather have something modern and contemporary like this anyday over another tired tacky Tuscan or fat faux French pile.

Anonymous said...

Until I looked at the Robb Report article, I thought Mama's cover photo was a view FROM the house - perhaps of a downhill commercial structure - then I realized it was OF the house. Gasp. Looks like a boutique hotel.

l'il gay boy said...

Back from the hurricane, earthquake, firestorm & blizzard...

Hiya, sibs!

I think I've finally figured it out -- historians have always speculated that FLLW's houses always appeared streamlined with low-slung ceilings because of his short stature; after loathing Landry designs for forever, I finally Googled a picture of him -- a big, tall, geeky drink of water that fits Sybil Fawlty's description of her long suffering husband: "...an aging, brilliantine stick insect..."

No wonder the proportions of all his designs have always struck me as somehow off-scale & odd.

This $150M (wishful thinking) oddity has all the charm of a roadside La Quinta.

FalseProfit said...

November 8, 2012 8:25 PM
You said it.

It's interesting to note that during the time it took to clear the land, build the house and put it on the market, my favorite address of all, 600 St. Cloud, has not even completed its erosion project. There is a lot to be said for taking one's time and not settling on a puny lot.

Rosco Mare said...

Guuiuuuuuurl

"Dusty in Memphis " has been in my car CD changer ever since I discovered it back in '05.

XO

Rosco Mare

Anonymous said...

Not zebra-lined, dear, zebra-WOOD-lined. It's actually really beautiful and classy.

Anonymous said...

I think the house is stunning! Love the clean lines and that stairway is absolutely gorgeous! It's definitely huge but with 2 or 3 stories, the footprint would cover less than 1/3 of the lot. For my money I'd rather have city and ocean views instead of acres of formal gardens and gardeners around 24/7.

Anonymous said...

Another expensive home on a too-small lot. Another article mentioning the "bejeweled abacus." Both are getting so old.

real estate course said...
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rajni said...
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