Friday, August 2, 2013

David Katzenberg Sells Sunset Strip Digs To Josh Flagg

SELLER: David Katzenberg
BUYER: Josh Flagg
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,600,000
SIZE: 1,687 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Back in January (2013) Hollywood scion David Katzenberg—his daddy is DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, in case you didn't know—quietly acquired a multi-million dollar micro-estate above the Sunset Strip and this week the fast-budding writer/director/producer sold his Sunset Strip starter house for—we heard from an impeccable source—$1.6 million to—drum roll, please—Million Dollar Listing bad boy Josh Flagg.

Property records show 30-year old and newly single Mister Katzenberg—he and hotel heiress/handbag designer Nicky Hilton recently parted ways after four years—acquired the 1935 Spanish bungalow in June 2006, for $1,550,000. We're not sure when he first floated it but Your Mama found digital evidence the property was previously available for what appears to have been an off-market listing with a $1,959,000 asking price. The fully updated, upgraded and carefully maintained property popped up on the open market in mid-April (2013) for $1,595,000 and was removed from the market about a month later. The $1.6 million sale price now reflected in various property record data bases suggests—but does not prove, children—there were multiple offers for the modestly scaled but centrally located residence.

Technically the Katzenberg-Flagg house is in West Hollywood but, kittens and caboodles, it's really so close to the eastern border of Beverly Hills that some real estate agents might dare to describe it as—ahem—Beverly Hills adjacent. Although it's generally true that nobody walks in L.A.—not even across the damn street if it can be avoided—Mister Flagg could, if he was so inclined, put on a pair of those embroidered Tuxedo-style slipper-shoes of which he's so fond and easily amble over to the members only Soho House that's just down the block and across Sunset Boulevard. Your Mama generally feels wary about member's only clubs but it so happens, thanks to a prominent real estate agent with whom we're acquainted, Your Mama has been to the Soho House and, children, the glass-railed and tree-shaded roof top dining terrace is about as good a swanky spot as any in L.A. to see and be seen iffin seeing and being seen floats yer boat. Anyhoo...

Mister Flagg's new digs, which Your Mama just assume he's gonna share with his interior decorating man-mate Colton Thorn, are all but hidden behind high privet hedges and security gates and listing details Your Mama scared up on the internet show the 1,687 square foot house has but two bedrooms and two (renovated) bathrooms.

Listing photographs show dark stained wood floors in the sunken living/dining room that shimmer in the southeast sunshine that streams though the paned windows that are hung with the most humble of bamboo shades. Architectural detailing has been pared back, eliminated, or otherwise neutralized but the room retains a welcomed smidgen of its original architectural language with the arched red brick fireplace. Mister Katzenberg—or his decorator or his stager—set off a staid quartet of masculine brown leather club-type chairs with an eclectic collection of contemporary artwork that includes several colorful skateboard decks painted by A-list artist Takashi Murakami.

The glossy, ebony wood floors continue in to the open-concept kitchen/family room that opens through a bank of French doors to the fairly petit backyard and detached two car garage. The children will note the long work island that separates the kitchen proper from the family room lounge area is dressed with a ubiquitous orchid plant and an impressive cluster of clear glass jars filled with candy. Candy. Yum. We're sure the kitchen is lovely and well-equipped but we can't get past all that candy.

Both the kitchen/family room and the master bedroom open up to the backyard where a small patch of grass divides the house from from an elevated, open air pavilion fitted and kitted with a spa and fire pit plus the extra added conveniences of a changing room and a bathroom.

Your Mama's brief and unscientific research shows Mister Katzenberg upgraded his living situation in January (2013) when bought a newer, larger, and Hollywood pedigreed pad in the Sunset Strip area with a big of a Tinseltown pedigree (above). Property records show the thoroughly renovated and partly restored 1930s Monterey Colonial residence—located just a third of a mile up the hill from his old house—has 4 bedrooms and three bathrooms and was sold by screenwriter and producer Simon Kinberg for $3,450,000. Mister Kinberg, in case his name isn't familiar, wrote and produced the Oscar nominated Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr., penned and produced at least two installments of the X-Men franchise, and is currently at work on Star Wars Rebels, the seventh installment of the ongoing Star Wars series. Previous to Mister Kinberg the house was owned by the Ice-T's long-time manager Jorge Hinojosa and the late Caresse Henry who at one time or another managed the careers of superstars like Madonna, Ricky Martin, Jessica Simpson, Paula Abdul and Joss Stone.

As far as we can tell from a perusal of property records, scruffy-faced Mister Flagg still owns the 1,300 square foot, mid-floor two bedroom and two bathroom condo crib at the full-service, I.M. Pei-designed Century Towers complex in Century City that he co-purchased with his parents in June 2008 for $1,048,000.

Just for shits and giggles, lets have a kick recap of some of the recent real estate doings of young Mister Katzenberg's wildly right media mogul father whose real estate portfolio has been in flux the last couple of years. In February (2012) Poppa Katzenberg and his long-time missus, Marilyn, sold their nearly 10,000 square foot faux-quoined mansion in the flats of Beverly Hills—listing details generously called it a "Contemporary Mediterranean"—in February for $9,283,500 million. In August the Katzenbergs put their luxurious, 14,100 square foot faux-rustic ski-in/ski-out chalet at the Bald Eagle Club in Deer Park, UT, on the market for $20,500,000. As of today it remains on the open market at the same price.

The elder Katzenbergs still own the Gwathmey Siegel-designed compound on Malibu's super-swank Carbon Beach where former Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel recently sold his Michael Graves-designed compound a few doors down to property mad gajillionaire Larry Ellison for $36.9 million, which should give y'all some idea of what the Mister and Missus K's beach compound is worth..

In October 20009 Mister Katzenberg paid ballistic missile tycoon Si Ramo $35 million for a supremely sited 6.34 acre spread on a private promontoary above Beverly Hills. He proceeded to knock the existing 8,700 square foot house down and build a bigger, newer, better, whatever house.

listing photos (old): Lee Manning Photography for Hilton & Hyland
listing photos (new): Coldwell Banker

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is the 6 acre site the one right above Greystone?

Unknown said...

Any word on were Mr. Kinberg moved on to after selling that place to Katzenberg Jr.? Given the trajectory his career has been on, it's no doubt an upgrade...

Unknown said...

@11:52 - yes , elder Katzenberg's new spread is technically in Trousdale, right above Greystone

Petra's said...

Josh Flagg is a scumbag art thief. Just throwin' it out there.

Rick - the Kinbergs upgraded to a big new house in the Palisades.

Anonymous said...

This domicile seems a bit pedestrian for a person that wears bedazzled foot wear. It strikes me as a good price for the area. It has family appeal and I hear the LA market is on fire again. I'm smelling a 2 year flip for a bunch of bucks.

Anonymous said...

The thing I don't like about this little street is that all the people who live in the Bird Streets use it as a shortcut to get down to Sunset. So there is always car noise at all hours of the night from the Ferraris and whatnot bombing through up and down the road.

Anonymous said...

Whatever happened re Flagg's art theft allegations?
Anyone????

lil' gay boy said...

This is what I envision when someone uses the word "casita" -- utterly charming, even if it is my least favorite style.

Anonymous said...

Nicky moved on awhile ago to a Rothschild, although I doubt she will pull off a marriage.

Anonymous said...

She should marry a billionare, rather than the son of a billionaire.

Anonymous said...

hmm wasnt this house on the show last season? i mean i dont remember the house in backyard but it does remind me of one they were selling i believe

Anonymous said...

No disrespect to the person that thinks this is even remotely casita-esque. To me, this looks like some ass ugly 60-70's split/bi level tract thing, with some arches and barrel roof tiles thrown on. Any original charm, it may have had, has be stripped away.

Anonymous said...

needs a new gardener; front hedge has dried up

Anonymous said...

These guys are so FOS. They are claiming that they are selling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of real estate a year which would translate to about $5million plus in earnings a year, but they can barely buy homes that cost more than what the average cardiologist can afford? Really? They are making 5 to 10 times more than the average LA plastic surgeon but can only buy homes a quarter to a tenth of the prices the surgeons buy?

Anonymous said...

11:39 you dont need a mansion if you dont have kids, some people like being cash rich, house poor. also selling hundreds of millions means they sold so much in their entire career and if you look at the spending they have going on, the money comes in and it goes out (cars, promotions/parties). and theres also taxes to pay. also i believe they invest a lot into RE themselves. the sharkie looking guy from boston was selling a house with his brother i believe for some 6m last year. so i guess thats it.

Anonymous said...

Ha Ha, he does look like a shark. I am sure he leveraged and financed that house with some investor's money. These dudes are pure BS. As arrogant and as flashy as they are, and in NYC and LA, where are their Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Rolls Royces, Aston Martins? I know tons of primary care and specialists that own these cars and they don't make millions of dollars a year like these guys claim they do.

Guys like Mauricio Umansky and Kurt Rappaport are legit, but these guys are clearly stretching the truth a whole lot.

Anonymous said...

@4:13
Remember, Josh has a very wealthy family. Whether or not he's making enough to support this house, he's still got this house.
I don't really care, I just want all his grandmas furniture.

Anonymous said...

He can film in this house, call it his "home", write off all of it as a business expense, and still have his privacy in his real home.

Pretty good move.

Anonymous said...

Perfect point @ 6:46 about the write off piece. They can even write off the clothes on their back. Haircuts too? LOL. Looked up gramma. Net worth speculated at $50-mil.

Not to stray way off topic, but your point Josh's write off perks remind me of the racist mess Paula Deen just got herself into. Just built a big new place with kitchen dedicated to taping her "better with butter show". Now there will be no taping. Karma's a bitch.

Anonymous said...

@ 7:28. Paula is nothing more than a racist. Coming from the south is NO excuse. I'm her age and Caucasian; born and raised in Detroit. I have never, ever used the N-word. It is crude, unacceptable and insulting. She wanted wait staff to serve a wedding themed "Old Plantation". I could go on. Miss Piggy deserves everything she has suffered in the wake of her ignorance. She owns it.

Anonymous said...

Paula made around $17 million last year, and you nasty commenters?

Plus, she did campaign for Obama and have Oprah and Gayle to her place for the weekend.

It's not like Paula is running around with a sheet on. Get lives!

Anonymous said...

I don't personally think Paula is the awful racist that they portray her to be and as a person of color I don't think she should have been fired, I think she is a nice person overall. I don't think she is anymore racist than anyone that grew up in her generation, no matter what color they are. However I am not sure what how much money she made has anything to do with the argument or what she may have done in the past?

She may be too old to recover from this, but maybe not and if so, she will be back. I don't know anyone that really hates her, maybe a little surprised at what came out, but if she comes on TV and smoothes it out, I think she can recover. To be honest, if she had denied it, I would have believed her. So maybe she should have.

Desert Donna said...

Whats not to love about this place?? Josh is smart not to get a pool..the tub is enough water. And I love that it has "city" views from the backyard. Surprised it didn't sell off market actually.

Anonymous said...

The Malibu compound looks as if it is sided with redwood strips set side by side. I had a house (a wee bit smaller than that in Virginia) with similar siding and it was a constant mess. The wood would split, boring insects would get into it, mice would get beween the wood and inside drywall. When I sold I was in heaven to be rid of it.

Anonymous said...

Flagg is openly gay, having come out in March 2011. By his own admission, he has undergone multiple plastic surgery procedures including "three nose jobs, an ear lift, and a chin implant".......another Elaine Young in the making.

Maderna said...
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