Boxer SUGAR RAY LEONARD is buying a...

Boxer SUGAR RAY LEONARD is buying a $1.1-million condo in Santa Monica, sources say.

Leonard, a former Olympic and world champ who retired three times before challenging Terry Norris for his super-welterweight title this weekend in New York, will make the condo his West Coast base of operations. Leonard’s primary residence is in Bethesda, Md.

The condo is one of 22 units in two buildings--one newly built, the other a refurbished hotel, built in the 1920s.

“The developers did a very sensitive job of melding old with new construction,” said a real estate source who was not involved in the project nor in Leonard’s purchase.

Leonard’s unit, which is in the new building, has three bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths in 2,900 square feet plus a deck of about 2,000 square feet. The master suite and kitchen are also larger than most, the source said.

Condos in the just-completed project are priced from $695,000 to $2.65 million, and range in size from 2,100 to 3,250 square feet. The project also has a swimming pool, spa and concierge.

Tim Drinan of Fred Sands’ Santa Monica office has been representing Leonard in the purchase. Drinan was unavailable to comment on the deal, which was expected to close escrow after press time last week.

Theater magnate JAMES M. NEDERLANDER reportedly plans to move back to New York and has put his Bel-Air home on the market at $5.75 million.

Nederlander owns and operates eight amphitheaters, including the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles and the Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa. He also heads the Nederlander Organization, a New York-based firm that books touring concerts nationwide.

The Bel-Air house, set behind hand-carved wooden gates on nearly an acre, has four bedrooms and maid’s quarters in about 7,500 square feet. The English country-style home also has a swimming pool, a koi pond measuring 90 feet and lushly landscaped grounds.

Built in 1927, the home was totally remodeled and expanded by realtor Stan Herman, who owned it for a year before selling it to Nederlander in 1988.

Celebrities who have owned the home include Frank Sinatra, Telly Savalas and the married couple June Allyson and the late Dick Powell, sources say.

Nederlander decided to sell the home “because he’s . . . spending more and more time in New York,” said Rose Borne, who shares the listing with Marilyn Nelson at Stan Herman & Associates, Beverly Hills.

Borne added, “He has an apartment in New York but just purchased a home in the Hamptons, which he plans to make his primary residence, though he may get something smaller here for when he comes out on business.”

KATE JACKSON--the Charlie’s Angel who most recently co-starred with Rick Schroder in the CBS movie “The Stranger Within”--has sold her Benedict Canyon home of eight years for slightly less than $2 million, say real estate sources who did not participate in the sale.

When she listed the home last June, the asking price was $2,375,000.

The four-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot home rests on a hillside, reached by three flights of stairs or a funicular (a railway on which cars are pulled up and lowered on cables).

The buyer was identified as G-Whiz, an Encino-based home construction company.

Jackson, who also co-starred in the “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” series on CBS, has a farm in Keswick, Va., just outside Charlottesville, but she will maintain a home in California, her representatives have said.

The LA FONTAINE--a Los Angeles apartment building dating back to the late ‘20s that a number of actors have called home--has been listed at $4.4 million.

The French Norman-style building has 25 apartments in 17,498 square feet.

Among well-known tenants have been Steve Martin, George Hamilton, Susan Sullivan, Justine Bateman, Erik Estrada and John Gavin, sources say.

The building was used as a set for the ABC series “Dynasty”; the 1985 CBS miniseries “Space,” starring James Garner, and the 1982 NBC movie “Bare Essence,” starring Bruce Boxleitner and Linda Evans.

The property, which stretches along 180 feet of Fountain Avenue and 170 feet of Crescent Heights Boulevard, is listed with Hubert O’Brien of Alvarez, Hyland & Young.

Singer BUDDY GRECO and his wife, Jacqueline, have put their Thousand Oaks home on the market “because the kids are starting to flee the coop,” said Ross Gatzert, who shares the $519,000 listing with his wife, Gay, at Joan Young Co. Realtors, Westlake Village.

“Their house is just too big for them now that they only have one child at home,” Gatzert explained. The couple has three children.

The Grecos built the home with mountain views three years ago. It has five bedrooms and maid’s quarters in 3,700 square feet.