When not in Malibu, a city view
Make room on the marquee for Cher, the latest celebrity to buy a condo in the 32-story Sierra Towers.
The Oscar-winning actress (“Moonstruck,” 1987) has purchased a $4.5-million unit in the West Hollywood building. Producer David Geffen called the unit home about 10 years ago. It has been sold a few times since he lived there.
Cher bought the one-bedroom, 2,400-square-foot condo from producer-actor-musician Vincent Gallo, who has bought and sold several units in the building. She plans to gut her unit and completely renovate it.
The condo is the only two-story unit in the 1964 building, which has been enjoying a resurgence in celebrity ownership with such recent buyers as Lindsay Lohan and Matthew Perry. Sierra Towers has unobstructed views from every floor, an 8-foot-wide terrace with every unit, doormen and valet parking.
The actress-singer, who closed out her Farewell Tour last spring, bought her condo so she would have an in-town place to stay. Her main residence is on the ocean bluffs in Malibu. She also wanted to have a pied-aterre near the home of her friend Loree Rodkin, jeweler to the stars, said Russell Filice of Sotheby’s International Realty in Beverly Hills, who handled the private sale.
Cher, who will turn 60 in May, enjoys renovating homes. She has redone several and built others, including her Malibu residence.
Beverly Hills gem for Platinum CEO
Speaking of David Geffen ... he soon may have a new neighbor. “The Hope Diamond of land” is how an 8-acre parcel in Beverly Hills was being promoted until just about a week ago, when it was sold for $33.6 million to Tom Gores, chairman and chief executive of Platinum Equity. Gores also founded the global acquisition firm.
The parcel is just behind Geffen’s estate, originally owned by movie mogul Jack Warner, and billionaire grocery magnate Ron Burkle’s “Greenacres,” the former longtime home of silent-screen star Harold Lloyd.
Peter Bing, father of producer Steve Bing and an heir to an East Coast real estate fortune, is the seller.
Plans for the property were not disclosed, although it was marketed to owner-users and developers.
‘Newlyweds’ home suits ‘Middle’ son
Justin Berfield, who plays Reese, the wisecracking second child on the Fox sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle,” is due to close escrow next week on the Calabasas house featured in the MTV reality series “Newlyweds,” starring Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson before she filed for divorce.
The house, owned by Lachey, was on the market at $3.75 million.
“I fell in love with it the first time I saw it two years ago,” the 19-year-old Berfield said. “It has everything I could want -- a theater, a game room, a pool.”
Berfield knows what he wants in a house. With this purchase he will have owned three, including a five-bedroom, Spanish-style home in the Studio City hills that was built in the ‘30s but is newly renovated. Berfield just listed it at nearly $2 million. Actor-director George Clooney and model-actress Jaime Pressly are former owners.
He will have purchased two houses in Calabasas. He bought his first one there 3 1/2 years ago.
“I was born in Oak Park and raised in Agoura Hills, so I know the area very well,” he said.
He sold his first house in 2004. “I flip my houses and other real estate holdings,” he said.
Patte Gilbert at Ewing & Associates, Sotheby’s International Realty, Calabasas, has the listing on Berfield’s Studio City home and represents the actor in buying Lachey’s house, listed by Kay Cole of the same real estate office.
Goes well with almost any outfit
Fashion designer Cesar De La Parra has sold his South Pasadena home for just under $1.9 million.
The house went on the market in December 2004 at nearly $3.2 million. It closed last month.
The unusual house, sometimes described as “whimsical,” blends Mediterranean and French Revival architectural styles. It was built in 1925 by a physician, Dr. Elwood Webb.
The towering, three-story building has five bedrooms, a ballroom, a two-story atrium and eight fireplaces in 5,200 square feet. It also has elaborate brickwork and a mansard roof.
De La Parra spent considerable time working on the house and its landscaping before he started living half of the year outside the United States. He has a loft in downtown L.A. and plans to buy a place in Manhattan.
The buyers are George Sokolow and Matty Hurtado, a husband-and-wife realty team who work for Coldwell Banker in Old Town Pasadena.
They are both active in the South Pasadena Historic Home Society.
Mark Bessey and Randal Smith of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, had the listing.
To see previous columns on celebrity realty transactions visit latimes.com/hotproperty.
