Wednesday, April 22, 2009

A Big Deal in Beverly Park

SELLER: Jeff Bazyler
BUYER: Some really rich Ukis
LOCATION: 40 Beverly Park, Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: We don't know yet, but last listed at $31,500,000
SIZE: 27,000 square feet (approx.), 10 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Remarkable new mansion never lived in stands 3 stories tall w/ a gorgeous waterfall running down its side. 27,000 sf on approx 2 acres of lush land. Designed by renowned architect Richard Landry. Features an unbelievable library with a glass floor overlooking 2500 bottle wine cellar, grand ballroom & astounding home theater. Full marble spa in basement, wet/dry massage rms, indoor pool & hot tub, fully landscaped yard (w/ permits for tennis court), outdoor pool w/ fountains and covered loggias.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Although big 8-figure deals are increasingly rare even in the rarefied and high-priced Platinum Triangle areas of Los Angeles, they have not stopped happening altogether. We recently received word from Our Fairy Godmother in Beverly Hills that a 27,000 square foot speck-built faux-Chateau at 40 Beverly Park that was last listed at $31,500,000 recently sold. That's right children, sold. S.O.L.D..

It is our understanding from Glinda the Good Witch that the seller and developer is a biznessman named Jeff Bazyler who heaved the over-sized mansard roofed monster manse onto the market in the fall of 2008 wit a mind-numbing asking price of $49,000,000. It wasn't long before the outrageously lavish property underwent several jumbo price chops (for obvious reasons we will not discuss) until it reached its last asking price of a much lower but still staggering $31,500,000.

At some point, the 10 bedroom and 14 bathroom behemoth was put up for lease with a monthly rent of $145,000. Boo-coo bucks by any standards, but nowhere near the rumored and reported two-hundred grand per month the Little Purple One Prince paid to lease another hotel sized house in Beverly Park last year. According to Glinda, a seemingly endless fountain of high-end and celebrity real estate scuttlebutt, there were no takers at that price.

Your Mama briefly described Mister Bazyler's palatial pile this way in a previous discussion in early March 2009 when we hadn't an inkling anyone was actually interested in writing a fat check for the place:

"The three stories of unrestrained opulence include monumental entertainment spaces including an honest to God ballroom, a poshly paneled circular library with a glass floor that looks down into a 2,500 bottle brick-lined wine cellar, a huge home theater, a marble spa in the basement that includes wet and dry massage rooms, a gigantic gym with mirrored walls, a hot tub and an indoor pool for all those chilly southern California winters. The grounds include a swimming pool, deep loggias for lazy afternoons lounging in the shade and the necessary permits for a tennis court. The necessary permits? Thirty one million bucks and you get permits for a tennis court? Pleeze. For that amount of money we don't only want a tennis court, Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter want a deeded to the property and scantily clad tennis pro available at day and night at a moment's notice."

Anyhoo, just when everyone, meaning Your Mama, thought none of those steroidal houses up in Beverly Park was ever going to sell, it happened. The moment we got wind of the sale, we got on the horn to see if we could sort out the identity of the deep-pocketed buyer. After several stabs in the dark and a couple of dead end roads, we heard from the all-knowing Nelly Knowsitall who whispered in Your Mama's big ear that the new owner–whose name she did not offer–are the same really rich Ukrainians–or Ukis as my not so rich Ukrainian pals call themselves–who recently flipped a mansion on Marilyn Drive in Beverly Hills on the market with an asking price of $24,000,000 after purchasing the place in November of 2007 for what records reveal was $17,500,000.

UPDATE LATER SAME DAY: Almost as quickly as we posted our discussion above we heard from Lucy Spillerguts who swears on her lacquered nails and fake boobs that the buyer is a ladee named Oksana Borzina, who may or may not be a front for some other shadowy figure who prefers not to be identified. Miz Borzina appears to be some sort of real estate investor/flipper who also owns two adjacent properties just above the Sunset Strip that records show were purchased for a total of $8,225,000 in 2006 and 2007 and flipped back on to the market in June of 2008 as a single property with a gutsy asking price of $14,600,000. The listing languished on the market for nearly a year and was price chopped to $10,900,000 before the two parcels were uncoupled and recently re-listed as two separate properties. The larger contemporary crib on Sunset Hills Road has an asking price of $8,500,000 while the much more modest property on Cory Avenue has an asking price of $1,995,000.

47 comments:

sven said...

Oksana Borzina is the name of the person...

Anonymous said...

Well, Ukranians are well known for having no taste. I wouldn't want to live in that ugleee thing for free.

StPaulSnowman said...

Even if you can afford many "servants", a glass floor is just not practical. I saw, and was wowed by, this floor when the house was profiled on television but it would drive me nuts seeing the inevitable scratches and smudges a glass surface would suffer. This house was Landry's attempt to have opulence trump charm and character came out the big loser. I really appreciate your information, Mama, as I really wondered, while watching the video tour, who would ever buy this place. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Those Ukis, just bougt that Marylin Drive House for like $17.5m last year

Viva! said...

It's odd...but I don't hate this house. In fact, I kinda like it. There is a sense of whimsy to the place...lord help me, I usually detest these overblown vodka palaces!

Anonymous said...

Ugh! Who in their right mind would buy this place when there are so many nicer properties in this price range on the market. Beverly Park is truly awful.

Anonymous said...

i'm embarassed to admit, but i kind of love it. it's totally gauche and disgustingly excessive, but i think it's gorgeous! just so over the top - beautiful to look at but never would want to live in (i dont think at least :) )

Anonymous said...

It sold for below 30 million. 24-28 million dollar range.

Anonymous said...

You cannot help but like this house, and although it is a garish testament to the modern gilded age, it is exciting to think of the three musketeers riding across the lawn, while Cardinal Richelieu quietly sips brandy in the library plotting his next betrayal.

Boris Badenov said...

is nice house, dah?

angeleyes said...

I enjoy a relatively large home because you can't beat having generously sized entertaining areas and lots of what I call 'walk around room' so pets don't get underfoot and you're not getting in the way of or bumping into family members, but these emormous homes leave me cold. I'll give Mr. Landry credit for at least trying to make a ridiculous amount of square footage appear architecturally 'cozy', but he still comes up short because there's only so much you can do with an airplane hanger.

Despite the huge karate chop in price it took to sell this place, I hope the new owners plan on spending a long time there because it will take an eternity to find another buyer willing to match what they paid for it, imo. Now the question remains, when will Misses Saperstein and Spelling (among others) realize they aren't e-v-e-r going to get near what they're asking.

Hugs Mama, and thank you!

Anonymous said...

If this place sell for less than $28 Million than everyone else in Beverly Park is going to have to go straight to the price chopper. Also, I saw the house of Marilyn Drive come back up for sale for $24 Million. Are they out of their minds? They've owned it for a year and they are asking $6.5 Million more than they paid?! Keep dreaming, they will probably end up having to sell that place for LESS than they paid for it. That asking price is really ballsy and greedy.

Anonymous said...

I've always fancied this house secretly because I know that many of the other children don't like Landry's designs. While the exterior isn't my personal cup of tea, I think the interior is tasteful. This is one of Landry's better works, in my opinion.

Anonymous said...

While this house isn't my taste, it really is a bargain at this price. Huge house, in one of the most desirable (arguably) neighorhood of MegaMansions. The developer was a moron when he priced it at $49m.... had he just started in the high $30's, he woudl have sold it quicker and for much more... as this house really should have sold in the $35-38m ball park.

Anonymous said...

It really should have sold in the 35-38 range? Are you a real estate agent? If it took slashing the price to $31.5 before anyone wanted to buy it how do you figure it should have sold for millions more?

That's also assuming the buyer paid anywhere near the asking price and my hunch is she did did not. Bazyler was in trouble. He had to cut his losses. He really didn't have time to hold out. I heard he had to take what he could get and put his tail between his legs and run like hell from his creditors. But that's just a rumor.

Anonymous said...

Whatever it sells for, it justifies a massive price chop for every other Beverly Park home presently on the market.

This house dollar-per sq foot blew them all away. It was brand new, with in-door and out-door pools and everything one could want.

At Asking Price dollar per sq ft

40 Beverly Park - $1,166

72 Beverly Park - $1,250

79 Beverly Park - $3,314

78 Beverly Park - $1,907

66 Beverly Park - $1,339

65 Beverly Park - $1,698

14 Beverly Park - $1,466

3 Beverly Park - $1,409

Anonymous said...

Anyone who knows anything about real estate knows you have to market and price the property well from the begining. Overpricing it at first loses most real interest. Often times making properties sell for far less than they woudl have. Esp in a downward market. Had he listed it a year ago for in the high $30 millions, and it would have sold for much more.

Anonymous said...

Jeff over-priced the house with too much ego at the begining. The house really sold for a great price at whatever it sold for. I agree that he could have sold it for much more had he not priced it out of its market in the begining. He killed himself with carrying costs and having to do massive price chops. The market was much better when he listed this place than it is in now, meaning it would have sold for more. It just was never a $40+ million house and that's where he started.

Anonymous said...

This place means the owner of 77 Beverly Park is probably rolling that he can't continue to have Maurico (who also listed this place) market his house at $50m. Prince living there temporarily or not... that place isn't a $50m house.

Anonymous said...

the sunset hills house is ridiculous. its in one of the worst view areas, is an odd house and has no yard just a ugly concrete expanse they call patio with an odd small pool slapped in it.

www.1162sunsethills.com

I really don't get how one goes from a contemporary pad to this though.

Anonymous said...

I love the exterior of this house. The whole interior is a bit too busy for my taste.

Anonymous said...

the new home of the kremlin

oh oh oh ohaya

Anonymous said...

that cost per sq ft makes me laugh

wtf is russ weiner thinking at $3,300 / sq ft.

Anonymous said...

Anyone know what the monthly association fees are in Beverly Park? I've heard around $2k???

Anonymous said...

Dug up some interesting dirt on this one, though none about 40 BP itself. Oksana Borzina lives in an apartment in the valley and other sites list her as being in the "real estate" industry, so she is obviously not the real owner. Mama is right about her having appeared on the property records for the Marilyn Drive house, but here's where it gets interesting. The BH property in question was the subject of some legal contention, since it is an almost exact knockoff of Fred Sands' house on Moraga in Bel Air (see http://www.forbes.com/2003/10/03/cx_bs_1003home_print.html). I didn't see any listing for the house, but I'll take Mama at her word. I can't see anyone forking over 24MM for an obscenely overpriced house, especially seeing as it is a copycat, but then again this is LA and I've seen people sporting some much worse knockoffs than that one...

Anonymous said...

The majority of all these hideous houses all look like rip offs of each other so I doubt anyone would care.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Anon 5:19. All of these over-sized Tuscan crap-holes look alike.

For instance, I think Vanna Whites Beverly Park house looks strickingly similar too.

Sand's House

http://maps.live.com/#JnE9eXAuMTI0NCttb3JhZ2ErZHIlMmMrbG9zK2FuZ2VsZXMrY2ElN2Vzc3QuMCU3ZXBnLjEmYmI9MzQuNDEyNTc0NjAxNTk1JTdlLTExNy42MDMxNDk0MTQwNjIlN2UzMy42OTIzNTIzNDcyMzczJTdlLTExOC44ODU4MDMyMjI2NTY=

Marilyn Drive house

http://maps.live.com/#JnE9eXAuMTA3NittYXJpbHluK2RyJTJjK2JldmVybHkraGlsbHMrY2ElN2Vzc3QuMCU3ZXBnLjEmYmI9NTkuNDAwMzY1MTQwNzkyNSU3ZS00Ni41ODIwMzEyNSU3ZTE4LjE0NTg1MTc3MTY5NDUlN2UtMTI4Ljg0NzY1NjI1

Vanna White's House

http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/37208/view/?service=1

Anonymous said...

Apart from the hideous kitchen island and the cheap looking windows by the indoor pool, I would be very happy here.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful house, great neighborhood.
Good price... relatively.
I like it.

Anonymous said...

As much as I've tried to hate this house, whenever persusing the MLS, I've found myself drawn to taking its virtual tour over and over again...for a garish, hotel sized house, it does seem like it would be surprisingly liveable (assuming you could afford the dozen or more staff needed to maintain it properly...)...whoever mentioned it having a sense of whimsy was dead-on...there's just something about this house that brings a decadent little smile to the lips...a little bit of the fantasy of living in a Vanderbilt mansion or French Chateau that dwells deep within us all, no matter how tasteful we want to be (or pretend we are...)...there's just something to this place that I think sets it apart from so many of the other garish LA beheamoths...

Anonymous said...

I haqve a question on a purchase of this size: Since it is a spec house, do the furnishings come with it?

Anonymous said...

No, funishings are rented staging furniture.

Anonymous said...

I'm not from the area and I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the best MLS sites are. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Anonymous said...

themls.com (click on guest search)

or redfin.com

Starck Mad said...

I'm totally loosing my faith in LA real estate. Aside from the Zell's Lautner house, why is everything so tacky? Why?

Kissyface said...

Wonderful! Wonderful! I love it. This house dares to call the bluff of Gatsby's owl-eyed man [http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/f/fitzgerald/f_scott/gatsby/chapter3.html]:

"Absolutely real—have pages and everything. I thought they’d be a nice durable cardboard. Matter of fact, they’re absolutely real. Pages and—Here! Lemme show you. ... It’s a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too—didn’t cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?”

But in Beverly Park the "library" has NO books at all! And no place to PUT books! And, indeed, the "library" seems suitable for no actual human function or need at all … other than gazing through the glass floor at all that wine (and that activity is good for about as much entertainment time as a cheap toy on Christmas morning)! At last a house that's not afraid to cast off the last trappings of "reality" and just be fully and frankly fake and bloated, something right at home in one of the better zip codes of Disney Land … but with real people living in it, not some cartoon mouse. I hope to god all that oversized trim is fiber glass, since wood or even plaster would be so out of keeping. Yes, this house is a dream come true! It just makes me SING:

"If I were a rich man,
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum. ...
I'd build a big tall house with rooms by the dozen...
There would be one long staircase just going up,
And one even longer coming down,
And one more leading nowhere, just for show."

Thank god Richard Landry and Jeff Bazyler had the vision to MAKE IT HAPPEN and Oksana Borzina SAW THE VALUE! What a City! What a Country! IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE!

Anonymous said...

America is about to crumble

Anonymous said...

I have always liked this house and I really don't know why... I guess I just love a Living Room you can land a Plane in....

Anonymous said...

These Uki's must be on crack.... and are exactly what crazy crazy property owners think. They are selling a house of similar quality that is HALF the size of the house they are purchasing and expect to get ALMOST as much as the new bigger house? WTF?!?!? They'll be lucky to get $15m for the Marilyn Drive house.

Anonymous said...

ive heard through the gossip vine that another one of landrys beverly park piles is this close to a sale. i heard from a source close to the listing agent that norm zada got an offer around $15m a week or two ago. they have been tied up in an endless state of counter-offers and negotiations ever since.

Descada said...

I sort of..don't hate it either. (Though the exterior picture makes it look like the set of a reality show like the Bachelor or something.) Why would I want to look into a wine cellar?

But you know what I really dislike, for myself? Super-huge bathrooms, the size of studio apts. Maybe it's just what I'm used to, but I'd prefer to take my bubble-bath in a more intimate-sized room. I don't want to run across yards of marble floors nood if I forget the shampoo!

Anonymous said...

So pretentious, so nouveau riche, and soooo vulgar. Just to think about what other places that kind of money could get you is painful.

Anonymous said...

Any word on the Land for sale at 71 Beverly Park?? I've been told it has an interested party...listed for just under 10 million.

Anonymous said...

Saw the exterior shot in a gossip blog article about the house being recently purchased by Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. True?

LaMarqueTexas said...

I really don't like this style. But it has a new owner since a couple of weeks according to public records. Hohenzollern Equity corporation owned by Dennis Von Hohenzollern. I believe he's a german prince?

Petra's Toenail Clipper said...

Oksana borzina's facebook: http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=71469117347&id=24661722347#!/profile.php?id=1000098138&sk=info

She seems fairly young still. I'm guessing that she is indeed a front for some other mystery individual.

BTW, the Marilyn Drive house finally sold last year. The Uki's lost like $2 million on the property.

Palmer said...

You cannot help but like this house, and although it is a garish testament to the modern gilded age, it is exciting to think of the three musketeers riding across the lawn, while Cardinal Richelieu quietly sips brandy in the library plotting his next betrayal.