Tom Sellecks in Love With L.A.?
Tom Selleck and his wife, Jillie, must surely love L.A.!
Since September, the famous couple has purchased two homes in the area. Neither will be a primary residence. The Sellecks plan to split their time between the two houses.
First, the couple bought that 60-acre spread with Spanish colonial-style ranch house, which went for a bit more than $5 million, in Hidden Valley.
Now, they’ve just closed escrow on a 2.5-acre property, with a Paul Williams-designed home built in the mid-’30s, in Mandeville Canyon. Listed at $2.9 million, it sold for slightly more than $2.5 million.
The Sellecks probably bought the second home, which has corrals, as does their Hidden Valley spread, as a convenience--to be closer to town.
The popular actor and his dancer-wife are expecting their first child in mid-February. They don’t plan to move into the Mandeville Canyon home until the second quarter of ’89.
In the meantime, they plan to do some interior and exterior redecorating and landscaping there while living in the Hidden Valley house, which was once owned by well-known car dealer Fletcher Jones, who bought it from entertainer Dean Martin.
As for Tom Selleck’s Wilshire condo, it probably will be up for sale in the first quarter of ‘89, marketed through his dad, Bob Sr., a former executive with Coldwell Banker Commercial Brokerage.
Margaret Dahl of Coldwell Banker Residential, in Brentwood, was involved in the listing and sale of the Mandeville property, which is near the home of late actor Lorne Greene. (That’s for sale in the $4-million range.)
Dahl and Mary Randall of Coldwell Banker, also represented both sides of the deal both times when the home owned by President and Nancy Reagan in Pacific Palisades was sold in 1981 and when it was sold again recently for about $2 million.
Lillian Disney, Walt’s widow, has been in the news lately for her $50-million gift to fund a new concert hall for the Los Angeles Philharmonic (the architect will be announced in a few days), but on her own home front . . .
she just sold her Malibu house for $5.25 million. And the word is . . . she never even slept in it.
Why is a mystery. Nobody at the small Malibu firm that handled the sale would say anything , and other industry sources didn’t know why this very private lady never seemed to move in, though she bought the place in 1982.
The Malibu home, on just under 3 acres, wasn’t a rental, though as an investment, it probably worked out well for her. She bought it out of probate for $2 million but did some remodeling.
The main house was built in 1968. The late A.T. Heinsbergen, who designed the Art-Deco interiors of most of the great movie palaces across the country, designed it for himself and his family, and he was his own contractor. He built a two-bedroom house with two quarters for maids, a swimming pool and a three-car garage.
His son Tony, who heads the L.A. firm started by his father, fondly recalls how his dad allowed a 10-car garage to be built under the house for the younger Heinsbergen’s vintage-auto collection. The garage was even air conditioned and heated.
On the site, there is also a beach cottage, used as a guest house, “which goes back to before anyone’s memory,” Heinsbergen said. The property has a 180-degree view of the ocean and extends to the sand.
The buyer was described as “a wealthy lady from Palos Verdes who walked into the listing broker’s real estate office.”
Eddie Murphy was expected to close escrow last Friday on the Benedict Canyon house he is buying from Cher (for about $6.3 million, including some furnishings). That has to be one of the quickest escrows! The papers weren’t even all signed until after our press time for Dec. 4.
As mentioned here last week, Barbara Robinson represented the actor, and John Aaroe represented the Oscar-winning actress. However, Aaroe had a 50/50 partner: Kevin Malone.
Christopher Cross, who wrote the Grammy-winning song “Sailing” and Oscar-winning “Arthur’s Theme,” is moving to Santa Barbara and has put his Santa Monica town house on the market for $609,000. Not surprisingly, the singer/songwriter/guitarist installed a state-of-the-art recording studio in his home, which is listed with Andrea Tzadik and Clifford Rowe at Merrill Lynch Realty’s Brentwood office.
What apartment rehab has marked $100 million in condo sales? See next week’s column.
