Beyond basic at $11 mil
Nesting is a basic instinct, isn’t it?
It would seem so for actress Sharon Stone, who recently purchased a home in the Beverly Hills area for just under $11 million.
Stone has resurrected her role as crime novelist Catherine Davis Tramell with the release of “Basic Instinct 2,” the sequel to the 1992 hit that established her as a movie star.
Her new digs sit on almost 5 acres. The gated estate, originally built in 1991, was completely refurbished in 2004. It has five bedrooms and six bathrooms in about 9,000 square feet. There is a detached, two-bedroom guesthouse with a state-of-the-art media room plus a gym.
The property, on a private road close to the Beverly Hills Hotel, also has pathways that wander over bridges and around waterfalls, a tennis court, a pool, a meditation garden, fruit trees and views of the mountains.
Stone, 48, is the face of Christian Dior’s anti-aging skin-care line. She reportedly was paid about $14 million to reprise her “Basic Instinct” role. Stone divorced San Francisco Chronicle editor Phil Bronstein in 2004.
Susan Smith and Avrille Krom of Westside Estate Agency, Beverly Hills, had the listing, according to the Multiple Listing Service.
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He’s 6 foot 11, and condo’s too small
Indiana Pacer center/forward Jermaine O’Neal has listed his Wilshire Corridor condo at close to $1.7 million.
The high-rise unit has two bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms in 2,100 square feet. It has custom vaulted ceilings to accommodate the 6-foot-11 player. And it has three large balconies. Common amenities include a pool, a gym and valet parking.
The south-facing corner unit, with city views, has been well suited for O’Neal, who has worked out in Los Angeles during his off-seasons and likes the sunny weather and entertainment in the city. He said he was drawn to the Wilshire Corridor tower because of its central location and security. He was on NBA All-Star teams from 2002 to 2004, during which time he bought the condo.
He is selling, he said, because he has outgrown the space. The 27-year-old owns a house in Carmel and recently sold his condo in Florida.
Noelle Gayral and Sara Riahi, both of Coldwell Banker’s Beverly Hills East office, have the listing.
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Rumours correct: Buckingham’s out
Lindsey Buckingham, formerly with Fleetwood Mac, and his wife, Kristen, have moved out of the Bel-Air home that they built in 2002. They sold it for close to its $21.5-million asking price last year, then leased it back for nine months while a nearby house they had purchased was undergoing major renovations.
The guitarist-singer-songwriter and his wife are now living in the new house while working on the remodel.
The house that they sold sits on slightly more than an acre and has five bedrooms, 7 1/2 bathrooms and six fireplaces. The Buckinghams made it look like a 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival in the style of Wallace Neff. Other features in the home are a gym, a pool and a cabana with a kitchen.
The musician, in his mid-50s, built a recording studio in the house, which he used while living there. He has had a solo career apart from Fleetwood Mac, which won a Grammy for the album “Rumours” in 1977 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
Mark Wollman and Jeff Hyland of Hilton & Hyland, an affiliate of Christie’s Great Estates, Beverly Hills, had the listing. Dimitri Velis of the same firm was the selling agent.
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High-end homes, a.k.a. hot cakes
Think that high-end home sales are slowing?
Think again.
The number of houses sold on the Westside and in Malibu for more than $3 million each is up almost 100% over last year’s figure for the period from January through March, according to Cecelia Kennelly-Waeschle of Sotheby’s International Realty.
“This is the biggest first quarter since we started tracking the sales in 1988,” she said. Kennelly-Waeschle attributes the increase in numbers to higher inventory and “a sharp uptick in values.”
This year, 217 homes in the area were sold at more than $3 million each during the first quarter, she said. Last year, her first-quarter total was 114; in 2004, it was 144; in 2003, 55.
The highest-price home sale in Beverly Hills year to date was the gated estate recently sold by Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston for $22.5 million, she said. The sale of an 8-acre parcel at $35 million was the highest for the quarter in the Beverly Hills Post Office area.
Kennelly-Waeschle also reported three double-digit home sales during the first quarter of this year in Malibu, Brentwood and Bel-Air.
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