Newsletter: Hot Property: Pushing the limits
A question we frequently hear from readers and fans is: Did you get to see the house? The answer is sometimes. The near-impossibility of driving to various Southern California locations and touring multiple houses, while keeping the daily news feed full, means we have to carefully pick and choose.
Among those homes we have visited, however, are a handful of L.A.’s truly great estates. We lead this week’s newsletter with one that has opened its doors to us more than once and is back in the news.
– Neal J. Leitereg and Lauren Beale
The upper echelon
Beverly House, the grand mansion once shared by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst and actress Marion Davies, has all the ingredients of a top-tier property: history, celebrity and beauty. Now we can add eye-popping price.
Attorney-businessman Leonard M. Ross has listed his Beverly Hills home for $195 million — a $30-million price increase from its last public listing nine years ago. Minus some acreage and the guest house, the price is $175 million.
Reached by a long driveway that passes through three sets of gates, Beverly House has a celebrity pedigree that includes visits from honeymooners Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy, and royals. Scenes from the movies “The Godfather” and “The Bodyguard” were filmed on the property.
Stepping inside the mansion is like being transported back in time. Museum-quality, rich interiors lend a hushed ambiance to such rooms as Hearst’s library, the billiards room and the living/projection room. Three pools, flanked by statuary and green lawns, spill off the back of the stately home.
Ross relisted the storied Beverly House for sale at $195 million. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Those were the days
The Malibu home of late “All in the Family” actor Carroll O’Connor has sold for $9.3 million.
Sitting along the sand, the unusual-looking house features Moorish design influences. Loggias with arched openings, columns and decorative tile add to the exotic vibe. Yes, arches for Archie Bunker — the role the Emmy winner played on the ’70s sitcom.
There’s more than 3,600 square feet of interior space plus an inner courtyard with a swimming pool.
A Malibu home owned for decades by O'Connor and his family has sold for $9.3 million. (Berlyn Photography | Inset: CBS)
Frank Zappa slept here
The Hollywood Hills West house where rock legend Frank Zappa made his home for decades has sold for $5.25 million.
The songwriter-guitarist bought the whimsical 1930s Tudor in the late 1960s for $74,000, and the place remained in his family after his death in 1993.
Featuring herringbone-patterned brickwork and half-timbering, the house includes recording studio and rehearsal space that Zappa had built. The Mothers of Invention frontman and record producer kept a collection of music and film recordings secreted in a climate-controlled, multiroom space known as “the vault.”
The family compound of Zappa sold in Holllywood Hills West for $5.25 million. (Berlyn Photography | Los Angeles Times)
DJ with design sense
This house renovation was a hit. Linkin Park DJ and film director Joe Hahn has parted ways with his home in gated Hidden Hills, selling the renovated estate for $3.5 million.
The single-story, Farmhouse-inspired home dates to the early 1960s but now has a brand-new contemporary feel.
The more than 5,800 square feet of living space is done in whites and grays with custom woodwork and modern fixtures. White trim stands out against the black-painted walls of the formal dining room.
The real show-stopper, however, is outdoors. The beach entry swimming pool with stone waterfalls partially encircles a peninsula of deck space.
Hahn of Linkin Park sold his home in Hidden Hills for $3.5 million. (Realtor.com | Los Angeles Times)
Icing on his cake
Decorated L.A. Kings defenseman Drew Doughty has added another trophy to his collection: a $6-million home in Hermosa Beach.
The hockey veteran and two-time Stanley Cup champ owns other property in the area, but recently bought the home in a deal that was completed off-market. The two-parcel compound includes a Craftsman-style house with 10 bedrooms and five bedrooms in more than 3,900 square feet of living space.
A separate structure, which is topped by a rooftop patio, sits adjacent to the main house.
Doughty bought the home in Hermosa Beach for $6 million. (Getty Images)
Say hello to his little listing
Hollywood producer Martin Bregman, whose credits include “Scarface,” “Carlito’s Way” and “Dog Day Afternoon,” has put his New York apartment up for sale at about $10 million. That’s $1 million more than he asked for the residence, found in a pre-war building in midtown Manhattan, a year ago.
The nine-room unit includes a dining salon, a formal living room, an eat-in kitchen, four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms. A library doubles as a screening room with a drop-down projection screen and a wet bar.
The unit can also be leased for a cool $20,000 a month.
Bregman put his New York apartment on the market for about $10 million after shopping it for roughly $9 million last year. (Anton Brookes)
His latest playcall
Sports radio and television host Rich Eisen and his wife, sportscaster Suzy Shuster, have completed the handoff of their Beverly Hills home. The 1950s house, which was once owned by Hollywood publicist Frank Lieberman, recently changed hands for $3.255 million.
Renovated within the last decade, the roughly 3,100-square-foot pad has a slick contemporary feel. Dark hardwood floors, large skylights and a dramatic wall fireplace in the living room are among the features of note.
Outdoors, the backyard is ripe for entertaining with a built-in barbecue, a fire pit and a swimming pool and spa.
Eisen and his wife sold their home in Beverly Hills for $3.255 million. (Realtor.com | Getty Images)
Looking back
Ten years ago, singer-songwriter-actress Macy Gray put her Encino estate on the market at about $4.6 million. The Grammy winner’s Colonial-style home of nearly 10,000 square feet sat on slightly more than an acre. She later raised the price and ended up selling in 2007 for $5.6 million.
Twenty years ago, actor Dennis Franz of “NYPD Blue” and “Hill Street Blues” bought a Montecito retreat for just under $2 million. The turn-of-the-last-century house had five bedrooms and 5,000 square feet of living space. The two acres also featured a tennis court.
What we’re reading
— Tiny homestead cabin rentals in Yucca Valley are turning into a cottage industry, reports Times staff writer Hugo Martin. The 660-square-foot, two-bedroom home that Anne and Darryl Krieghoff bought for $28,000 some 25 years ago generated $14,000 in rent last year on Airbnb, the online rental site. The house goes for $125 a night.
— A Chinese investment firm has snapped up the beleaguered Malibu Golf Course for $30.5 million. Shinhan Golden Faith International Development paid cash for the 650-acre site in the Santa Monica Mountains.
— To borrow from Beyoncé, all the single ladies, put your hands in the air. Single women are now the second largest group of buyers in the home purchase marketplace, according to the Chicago Tribune. A survey from the National Assn. of Realtors reveals that single women account for 15-20% of all recent home purchases, whereas single men account for just 9%.
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