Hotel Magnate, Movie Maker Trade Homes
Two familiar names are in this week’s real estate news: Chris Hemmeter, developer of such huge new Hawaiian resorts as the 580-acre Kauai Lagoons, and Ted Field, whose Interscope Communications produced “Three Men and a Baby” and “Outrageous Fortune.”
When in Beverly Hills, Field lives in the late silent-screen star Harold Lloyd’s 44-room, 36,000-square-foot house, but when in Aspen, Colo., Field will now occupy a 15,700-square-foot contemporary chalet built by Hemmeter.
Field’s acquisition in Aspen was part of an exchange in which Hemmeter traded the chalet, two nearby condos (to be used by Field’s security guards), two Jeeps and two Jeep Wagoneers. In return, Field gave Hemmeter a smaller (14,000-square-foot) Aspen house with an indoor swimming pool, an unfinished New York townhouse and cash.
Asking prices were $4.65 million for the smaller Aspen house, $6.9 million for the New York townhouse and $22 million for Hemmeter’s chalet. The transaction was valued at more than $30 million!
“I have done several exchanges for Ted, but this one tops them all,” Paris Moskopoulos, the Beverly Hills real estate broker who represented Field, said. “It involves the most expensive house in Colorado. It’s also one of the most expensive houses in the U.S.”
The eight-bedroom, 9 1/2-bath chalet, tucked into the west side of Little Nell ski run, was a duplex when purchased by Hemmeter about four years ago for $2.4 million, the Aspen Daily News reported last September, when the property was put on the market.
An ongoing project that underwent two major renovations, the home was only used for seven weeks by Hemmeter, his wife and seven children during the past three years, the article noted. That’s apparently why they decided to sell.
They used it long enough to furnish the place with many varied objets d’art, which were included in the trade. (Hemmeter loves art, as visitors to his hotel projects can see). The six-story house also has two elevators, 4,300 square feet of heated decks, two kitchens, a hot tub and 25 TVs--one embedded in the wall of the sauna.
“Ted now owns some of the most important properties in the West,” Moskopoulos said, likening Field, an heir to the Marshall Field department-store fortune, to “a young Howard Hughes” because of their wealthy backgrounds and interests in movie making and real estate.
Besides the Aspen and Lloyd properties (where a fund-raising dinner was to be held last Friday for Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis), Field, who is 40ish, owns a ranch in Santa Barbara. He lives with his young wife and infant daughter.
Hemmeter, 48, is no slouch when it comes to owning homes, either. He reportedly has six others besides the New York townhouse, which is just raw space that he plans to finish. He’s also building a $20-million-plus mansion for himself and his family on Diamond Head.
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Speaking of Dallas, a ranch there used in the “Dallas” TV series, is for sale. Ewing Oil Inc. (there really is a company by that name) has listed the 455-acre horse ranch in the May/June issue of Investment Properties International, based in New Haven, Conn. Price: $3.2 million.
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Sundance Resort started about four years ago as a time-share development of Clint Murchison, former owner of the Dallas Cowboys, but when hard times hit Texas, a group of banks took over the Palm Springs property and ran it as a hotel, which drew many celebrities. Among them: Victoria Principal.
Earlier this year, the Westside-based HSM Group bought the retreat and now is planning to auction the 1,750- to 1,855-square-foot villas, with individual pools and spas as well as community facilities (including tennis courts), as condos at minimum bids from $95,000-$110,000. Kennedy-Wilson of Santa Monica will conduct the auction next Sunday at Sundance, 2901 Avenida Caballeros.
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This might be called Melvin Belli’s home away from home, except that the famous attorney hasn’t been using it much, so he put it on the market: It is the 105-foot-long “Fifer,” a yacht that was built in 1939 and reportedly ran aground a few years later while cruising in British Columbia waters with actress Gracie Fields aboard.
“I’ve had it for about three years,” Belli said by phone from his San Francisco office, “and I just don’t have enough chance to get out in it because I work Saturdays and Sundays, and when I’m not in the office, I’m out of town, but if I wanted a boat, I would keep it.” He’s asking $450,000.
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Reno’s long-closed Mapes Hotel Casino didn’t go to auction last weekend after all.
First Interstate Bank of Nevada accepted an undisclosed offer earlier that week from George Karadanis and Robert Maloff, who own Reno’s 600-room Sundowner Hotel-Casino and are building the 119-room Virginian Hotel-Casino half a block from the Mapes.
William Lange, whose Newport Beach-based firm marketed the Mapes, said that more than 1,600 people voiced an interest in buying the 41-year-old gaming palace before the auction was canceled. No plans announced yet about the Mapes’ future.
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More on the Granville, the 58-year-old apartment/hotel that sold recently. After Ruth Coine phoned to say her dad, Sam Coine, was the owner/builder, Jim Yedor called to say that his great-grandfather, David Yedor, constructed it. Turns out that both are right. The property was owned by Sam and Julia Coine and David and Ella Yedor, with Coine deeding it to Yedor in 1934.
“Great-grandpa Dave built a lot of apartments in the ‘20s,” Jim Yedor said. He sells computer systems in Orange County, but his father still heads Yedor Development in Century City.
