This Street Packs ‘Saleability’

Patrick Frawley, the fellow who made a fortune selling Papermate pens and Schick safety razors before taking the cure himself and opening up his Schick Alcoholic Treatment centers, just cashed in--again--on his interests in real estate.

He just sold a new Holmby Hills house he and his wife owned--but never lived in--for close to the $11 million asking price, several industry sources said.

The Frawleys have been living in a contiguous house since selling another property, across the street, to producer Aaron Spelling for $10.25 million about four years ago.

That’s some street! By now, most people know it’s South Mapleton Drive from the 56,500-square-foot chateau Spelling has been building since demolishing the 15,000-square-foot house he bought from the Frawleys. The 15,000-square-footer was once owned by Bing Crosby. (The Playboy Mansion has an entrance, about four doors away, on that street too!)

The home the Frawleys just sold, on 1.5 acres, was an expansion and redesign. They had intended to live in the two-story, English-style brick residence themselves, I’m told, but by the time the place was finished, the Frawleys realized that its 10,000 square feet were just too much for the two of them. (Isn’t it refreshing to know that some Westsiders realize when enough is enough?!) Once the Frawleys put the house on the market, it sold in a matter of a few weeks. Houses at such a price normally take one to two years. “Saleability of the street” and the house design, by Michael Morrison, are credited with the speedy purchase. The buyers were described as “local people from Bel-Air.”

And who were the lucky realtors involved in this deal? There was only one, and though he wouldn’t confirm it, I learned that it is Bruce Nelson of Asher Dann & Associates.

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While Barry Minkow, the 21-year-old charged with using his Reseda-based ZZZZ Best carpet cleaning company in an intricate scam awaits trial in a maximum-security cell, his former home will be the subject of a court hearing Thursday.

“It will go into escrow then if there are no objections,” said Russell Corby of Fred Sands Realtors, who is handling the foreclosed Woodland Hills property. “As soon as the court-appointed trustees accept an offer, a letter is sent to the creditors, who can take 20 or 21 days to object.”

If there are no objections, the sale will be completed and the proceeds used to pay off the first trust deed and then the creditors, he added.

By press time last week, there were still no objections, and it looked as if the new owners will be a Century City attorney and her husband, who is in the insurance business. They made an offer that Corby termed “somewhat close” to the $1,069,000 asking price.

The 3-year-old house, purchased when it was new by Minkow, has been on the market for a couple of months. It’s in a gated community known as Westchester County, where homes sell from $1 million to $3 million.

“Barry’s is one of the lowest because of its size,” Corby explained. “Most are 5,000 to 12,000 square feet. Barry’s is about 3,800.” It has three bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, a maid’s room, convertible den, spa and a swimming pool with a big Z in the bottom.

It also has a celebrity neighbor, said Corby: actress Heather Locklear.

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Actor Leonard Nimoy has a beautifully restyled Bel-Air house, thanks to the creative efforts of Gail Adelson (the ex-Mrs. Merv Adelson, I’m told. Merv Adelson, chairman of Lorimar Telepictures, is now married to TV’s Barbara Walters.)

Nimoy’s house, built in the ‘30s, once belonged to an owner of the Bel-Air Hotel, said the designer. She gutted it and left just a couple of the outer walls before turning it into a 5,000-square-foot Mediterranean villa with three bedrooms, a maid’s room and den. It also has a pool and a spa.

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“A private exhibition of the most prestigious French houses” is how “Les Journees du Prestige,” Wednesday through Friday, is billed at the Beverly Hills Hotel, but when they say “house,” they mean “luxury firms” like jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels and fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent.

There is a real estate angle, though. One of the firms will exhibit home furnishings. And who knows what new stores might open as a result of the exhibition? After it was held in Geneva, several exhibitors opened stores there.

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Our hard hats are off to Women in Commercial Real Estate, which will host a fashion show Tuesday at Jimmy’s Restaurant in Beverly Hills, with all proceeds going to AIDS Project Los Angeles.