Hillside District Residents Oppose Mansion : Construction: Three houses would be razed to build a 41,000-square-foot home on Tower Road for an anonymous owner.
Some of Beverly Hills’ usually publicity-shy stars came out and joined their neighbors this week to protest the building of a luxurious 59,000-square-foot estate.
Actor Jack Lemmon, former Hollywood gossip maven Rona Barrett, real estate investor-developer Stuart Ketchum, a spokesman for MCA President Sidney J. Sheinberg and about 40 other residents of the city’s exclusive Hillside district sat patiently during the two-hour public hearing Wednesday, waiting to express their opposition to the proposed project.
The project calls for demolition of three homes on the four-acre site at 1146 Tower Road. Built in their place would be a 41,000-square-foot, two-story, 10-bedroom residence with a basement, copper roof and stone columns in a neoclassical style. The structure would include a gymnasium, grand ballroom, cinema, library, wine storage area, china vault and elevators.
Plans include a guardhouse with six bedrooms for staff, a five-bedroom guest villa, a tennis court, pool and covered parking for 25 vehicles. Construction on the buildings, which total 59,000 square feet of floor space, is set to start in May.
The residence would be almost seven times as large as the average 6,000-square-foot home in Beverly Hills--and more than 25 times the size of a standard 1,600-square-foot, three-bedroom Los Angeles tract house.
Hillside resident Jack Lemmon, speaking before an emotional and sometimes raucous crowd opposed to the project, said: “We’re not just talking about a huge edifice. We’re talking about Mt. Etna.
“Aaron Spelling’s house is like a pimple on the landscape compared to this house.”
Spelling’s house, built on six acres in Holmby Hills, is 56,500 square feet. It took nearly five years to complete.
Lemmon said the trend toward building large houses “is turning this city into a rich man’s ghetto.”
Other residents raised concerns about the length and effects of the construction: noise, dust and workers parking along narrow Tower Road. Some worried about increased traffic to the house after it is completed.
Lesly Shelton, whose family has lived on Tower Road since 1945, told the board that the quality of life that drew residents to Beverly Hills is being destroyed. “We’re killing the goose that laid the golden egg,” she said.
Much of the audience’s consternation focused on the question of who owns the property. The application identified the owner as Quantieme Establishment.
Lawyer Murray Fischer, the owner’s representative, said Quantieme Establishment is a foreign corporation owned by an individual who lives in London and has maintained a residence in Beverly Hills for 13 years.
Beverly Hills real estate broker John Bruce Nelson said Thursday that he negotiated the purchase of the three properties for London resident Robert Manoukian for $9 million in 1988.
Manoukian has represented the Sultan of Brunei in various real estate acquisitions and negotiated the sale of the Beverly Hills Hotel to the sultan, Nelson said. The sultan is reported to be the wealthiest person in the world. Brunei is a small, oil-rich, predominantly Muslim country on the island of Borneo.
Manoukian is a resident of London and has two other homes in Beverly Hills, Nelson said.
After the meeting before the Environmental Review Board, Fischer declined to further identify the owner, citing security concerns. He stated emphatically that the individual was not the Sultan of Brunei.
However, a well-placed real estate source specializing in large estates told The Times on Thursday that the estate and the home to be built on it are intended for the sultan.
Fischer and the owner’s lawyer, Terrence Everett, and architect, Robert Earl, sought to allay neighbors’ concerns about the home.
Fischer said that there is a current perception that big is automatically bad but that during the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s large estate properties were the norm.
The property was consolidated into one lot when Quantieme Establishment purchased the three adjacent lots in 1988 for slightly more than $9 million. Although individual owners could have bought the lots and built one substantial home on each lot, Fischer said, the current owner intends to build a park-like setting.
Contrary to public speculation, Everett said there will be no pounding of piles for the foundation, and 300 cubic yards of dirt will be trucked in--about 30 to 60 truckloads, depending on the size of the truck.
Responding to concerns about workers parking on the narrow street, Everett said construction workers will park on the premises or be shuttled from another location.
Fischer said estimates call for the residence to be built in two years.
The board, which determines whether projects require an environmental impact report, will reopen the hearing for further public testimony at 2 p.m. Aug. 24. The project will be reviewed by the city Planning Commission.
Noting the marked differences between the owner and the property’s neighbors, commission Chairman Richard Putnam instructed the groups to appoint representatives to try to resolve some of those differences before the Aug. 24 meeting.
