New York Singer Buys Beverly Hills Gated Estate
Singer Luther Vandross is making the move from New York with his purchase of a home in Beverly Hills.
The rhythm-and-blues vocalist bought the two-story, gated estate with elevator, projection room, swimming pool, and lavish master bedroom with spa and sauna for just under $6 million.
The transaction, which was just announced, closed in December, before Vandross was involved in a traffic accident in Studio City that killed his passenger.
February might be a better month for Vandross, who was nominated for a Grammy (Grammy awards, recognizing artists in the recording industry, will be given on Feb. 24), but December was terrific for Stephen Shapiro of Stan Herman Associates. Vandross’ home was among the $17 million in sales Shapiro closed that month.
Among the others was the sale of a Beverly Hills house owned as a rental property by actress Linda Evans and the Brentwood Park home of TV producer Pierre Cossette, who (interestingly, in light of the Vandross sale) is executive producer of this year’s Grammy awards.
Shapiro also sold a Beverly Hills home in December to actress Susan Dey, who stars on the weekly TV show “L. A. Law,” and a property on La Cienega Boulevard to Budget Rent-A-Car for (get this for an oxymoron) Budget’s Luxury Line, which rents out (what else?) Rolls Royces and Ferraris.
Budget-Rent-A-Car plans to move there from its present facility on La Cienega a few blocks away.
Stan Herman’s Beverly Hills firm represents a $6-million house that has a star-studded past:
It was once owned by Dick Powell and June Allyson and, later, by Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow, and--more recently--by Telly Savalas.
The home, on an acre in what Herman describes as “the best part of lower Bel-Air,” was built in the ‘30s but was extensively renovated during the past year while maintaining its original Country-English style. It has two swimming pools, a koi pond, steam baths and a wishing well.
A little late for Christmas, but it might make a nice surprise for Valentine’s Day:
Celebrity Properties of Beverly Hills is offering to gift-wrap, on request, any $1-million or more house it sells.
The firm’s president, Sherry Sexton, says she also will see to it that the new owners are treated like superstars, whether or not they are superstars, with a candlelit dinner, services of a butler and maid, and background music of strolling violinists--all on the day the new owners move in.
Why the fuss? It’s the firm’s way of celebrating its recent move and expansion from West Hollywood.
Juergen Bartels, the mover-and-shaker who has overseen expansion of the Minneapolis-based Radisson Hotel Corp.’s operations from 39 properties when he joined the organization in 1983 to 139-and-growing today, was in Los Angeles last week for the opening Thursday of his firm’s sixth hotel in California.
Home of the L. A. Raiders when they are in summer training, it’s the Radisson in Oxnard.
Radisson hotels, a subsidiary of one of America’s largest privately owned corporations--Carlson Cos., first came to California in 1985, and a seventh one is already under construction in Carson. Other California projects, in the northern part of the state, are about to be announced.
The number of Radissons overseas also has been multiplying since Bartels initiated a franchising program a couple of years ago. The company has hotels in Europe and the Middle East, and on Feb. 15, will open an operation in Peking.
