Monday, December 30, 2013

UPDATE: David Murdock

As Your Mama first reported on the 11th of December of picked up by the kids at Curbed this week, multi-billionaire businessman David Murdock listed his 12,000-plus square foot brick-built Bel Air mansion with a $30,000,000 price tag.

Today we hear from the ever so plugged in real estate yenta Yolanda Yakketyyak that the nonagenarian billionaire and his significantly younger fifth wife, interior designer Tracy Murdock, have acquired another, nearly 11,000 square foot brick built mansion, this time in the swanky, guard-gated Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, CA.*

The property in question has a rather illustrious history: It was custom built in the early 2000s by ice hockey honcho Wayne Gretzky who sold it in August 2007 for $18.5 million to professional baseballer turned financially embattled entrepreneur Lenny Dysktra. After a long battle with a variety of creditors, Mister Dykstra lost the estate to the gaping maw of foreclosure in late 2010. In early 2011 the property was purchased by billionaire hedge fund fat cat Thomas Barrack Jr.** Mister Barrack flipped the property back on the open market two weeks later. We're not sure what the original asking price was but we do know that in July 2012 it was listed for $18,750,000 and in November of 2012 it was re-listed with a new and improved but in hindsight still way too high $14,995,000.

After almost grueling three years on and off the market, the estate sold in early November for—drum roll please—a steeply discounted $9.5 million to a corporate entity easily linked to our Mister David Murdock. The official owner, according to the property records Your Mama peeped and perused, is the very same Murdock-owned company that developed the Sherwood Country Club in which the property sits.

Listing details Your Mama conjured up out of the digital ether show the gated estate encompasses 6.5 (or so) acres, shares a private promontory with two other similarly sized estates, and has long views of Lake Sherwood and the surrounding mountains. The Richard Landry-designed main mansion was built, according to Your Mama's research, in 2002 and has six bedroom and eight bathrooms with additional living space above a semi-detached two-car garage, perhaps best suited as a home office, fitness facility or staff quarters. There are also two self-contained guest houses that flank the rear of the residence.

Other estate-style features include a circular drive with porte-cochère entrance, a double height entry with curved staircase, grandly scaled and liberally ornamented public entertainment rooms, an all white kitchen with marble counter tops, an adjoining family room, a state-of-the-art screening room with tiered lounge seating for eight or more, and generous family quarters that include a sizable master suite complete with private sitting room and dual bathrooms. A second floor veranda on the rear of the house looks larger than Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter's entire if admittedly fairly modest residence and has sweeping views over the golf course-centric community.

The mansion and its outbuildings are ringed by flat, well-watered lawns, spacious terraces, formal gardens, a fountain or two, a lighted tennis court with fireplace-equipped open air viewing pavilion, a swimming pool with tanning shelf/kiddie pool and inset spa, and an outdoor cooking facility outfitted with a pizza oven and wood and gas barbecues.

*Reports in some of the more respectable property gossip columns have stated that 90-something year old Mister Murdock decided to sell his Bel Air spread so he could spend more time up at his (approx.) 2,000 acre ranch in Ventura County so Your Mama really hasn't a clue whether Mister and fifth Missus Murdock plan to inhabit the Sherwood County Club estate on a full-time, part-time or no-time basis.

**Property records and other online resources show it was purchased at auction for $760,712 but that seems like a ludicrously low number. We imagine, as is often the case with foreclosure purchases,, Mister Barrack assumed whatever outstanding taxes were owed as well as any additional loans that may have been secured by the property, thus making his investment potentially significantly higher than the recorded sale price. We were told Mister Barrack purchased the property as an investment and we're not sure if he and/or his family ever lived on site. Listing details from the time of its most recent sale to Mister Murdock state the house had been recently remodeled, presumably by Mister Barrack and his team of architect, designers and decorators.

listing photos: Coldwell Banker Beverly Hills South

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the renovation! What a deal! I mean really, yes ... it is Thousand Oaks but the detail and moldings. This could not be rebuilt for anywhere near this price.

Anonymous said...

Doric orders on the exterior facades, with an Ionic arcade inside, and without one Corinthian column to be seen? A white kitchen? And a single curved staircase? This home and porte cochere are quietly understated...by the standards of Richard Landry and Great Aunt Gilda/Goldie of the Grand Concourse.

Rabbi Hedda LaCasa

lil' gay boy said...

Hahahaha...Grand Concourse, indeed!

At first blush, it seems to be a relatively understated composition; the plasterwork, although well executed, is a bit too abundant in places, but at least it isn't picked out in gold leaf -- yet.

But something seemed awry; I love a good porte cochere, but the proportions of this one are off a tad -- too long, too low, and its marriage with the house is an unhappy one. The interiors neither soar nor embrace, but rather echo and air-kiss.

Lo and behold! Halfway down Mama's usually pithy remarks I spied that awful word -- Landry. Y'all know he's not a favorite, but I must admit he came close to, but still missed, the mark on this one. Apparently, the golden ratio is just a mere suggestion to him, especially when executing a Beaux Arts-inspired composition. Fail.

Again I am reminded that historians often complained that FLLW's houses struck them as "low slung" mostly because of his short stature (5' 4"); here we have the opposite -- oddly stretched proportions by an architect over 6' tall.

Hint to the chillruns; when hiring an architect, make sure you see eye to eye -- literally.

Anonymous said...

Dykstra PICKED this house over. There is/was a YouTube video of his ex wife and the realtor walking through the house. "the stove is gone. My golden swan faucets are gone, yada yada"
Mr Murdock sure does love him some red brick.

Petra's said...

I just have an urge to rip out that porte cochere. I bet the house would look far better without it.

Sandpiper said...

Oh no, Mister Bill, make it stop. Landery, or as I like to call him, the "L"-word, strikes again.

Like his others, this is a handful of loosely-tied architectural styles straight out of a blender.

The only consistent logic from the man without restraint is this: They are built for or eventually sold to May-December marriage$.

Imho, he's the Sun God to architectural fabrication faux-profitability. If it can be stamped, molded, extruded or poured to look like the real deal, he's laughing all the way to the bank. Can you imagine his catalog library? Or his mail carrier's chiropractic bills?

From the exterior envelope to interior elements, who needs labor-intensive artesians when you can price source at pennies on the dollar. Fancy plaster work? Pashaw. It's decorative PVC. Pick your charming millwork or mouldings feature and save a tree. Brick? No, silly, it's veneer.

I'm sorry, but do pity how the marketing blurbs never explain this.

If catalogs can dream it, he will build. Caulk-adhesive-gun required.

Meow.

Anonymous said...

Caulk gun! Hahahaha
That was good, sandpiper. 2 points

Anonymous said...

Something about that color of red brick with the white trim is jarring (looks cheap). Such a strong looking exterior needs to be softened with lots of landscaping. Take a big spatula and scrape off all that canned frosting inside.
This house is too much lipstick and not enough pig.

Mr DHH said...

Thomas Barrack is with Colony Capital.The buy unique troubled loans (i.e.Neverland,etc.)Long story
short-WaMu(Washington Mutual)lent
17 million on this purchase (creatively 12.5 million first,3.5
million second)2007,one year later
WaMu fails,property starts defaulting-late 2010 JP Morgan Chase
gets the property via foreclosure
and as owner of that nasty 12.5 million mortgage.Barrack comes in buys the bad mortgage and the house (remember Lenny took some things out and really pissed off
the bankruptcy judge and trustee
to the tune of $500,000 including damages)light fix turns into long time fix .Original price was break
even of $13.5 million-that is where the $700K comes in.12.5
million on a floating adjust 6%.The good old days (generally commercial loans)you syndicate any and everything above 5 million dollars so one bank is not on the hook for the whole loss and all enjoy the performance.Hope it helps and Happy New Year everbody

Anonymous said...

I thought David and Tracy were divorced.....Tracy describes David as her "former" husband here, back in 2011: http://www.thepartnerstrust.com/blog/2011/03/25/designer-spotlight-tracy-murdock-design-management/

Anonymous said...

So it should have all the columns, Rabbi?

Anonymous said...

Another blatantly faux illustration of Richard Landry's lack of proportions and integrity. But he will still prosper due to the ever increasing supply of newly minted folks with no real knowledge or sensitivity. Catalog shopping a la Gary Friedman of RH. What a pair! Together they will tip the balance in the upper market to a long downhill slide.