He Left His Heart in N.Y.

Veteran crooner TONY BENNETT, who has found a new audience with the modern rock crowd, has sold his longtime Beverly Hills home, where his ex-wife, Sandra, had been living for the past few years.

Sold as part of their property settlement, the house had been owned by the couple since 1974. The couple, who separated in the 1980s, has two grown daughters. Bennett also has a son who is his personal manager.

“He (Tony) comes out a lot to play engagements here, but he lives in mid-town Manhattan, and when he’s not in New York, he’s usually on the road,” a spokesman said.

The 67-year-old singer, who does 200 concert dates a year, has been an entertainer for more than 45 years, but became an MTV and modern-rock radio-station favorite late last year with his 95th album of pop standards, a tribute to Fred Astaire called “Steppin’ Out.” The album earned Bennett, whom MTV considers “a living legend,” a nomination at the Grammy Awards, to be held next month.

Bennett, who won a Grammy last year for his album “Perfectly Frank,” honoring Frank Sinatra, was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in December for his 1962 recording, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”

The house that he left in Beverly Hills was built in 1911 but was later remodeled. It has five bedrooms and maid’s quarters plus a guest house in slightly more than 5,800 square feet. Bennett, who is also an artist, had an art studio in his Beverly Hills home during the 1970s.

Originally priced at $2.75 million, the home sold for just under the last asking price of $1.65 million, sources say. The buyers were described as a local family.

MaryAnn Musico of Prudential/Rodeo Realty, Beverly Hills, had co-listed the home with Gary Velis and Rory Barish, both of Stan Herman/Stephen Shapiro Associates, Beverly Hills.

RICHARD MOLL--who played Bull, the bald bailiff, in the long-running “Night Court” TV series and now appears as Boo, an auto mechanic, in the NBC sitcom “Getting By”--and his wife, Susan, have put their Playa del Rey home up for lease in anticipation of completing a remodel of their Pacific Palisades home, which was built in the 1940s.

The newlyweds, who have been married for nine months, bought the 3,000-square-foot Palisades home last November for close to its asking price of $1.75 million, and they have been adding a second story, consisting of a master suite. They also plan to build a pool.

Their Playa del Rey home, which was built in the 1980s and has three bedrooms in 3,000 square feet, is for lease at $3,000 a month through Brendan McCarthy of Jon Douglas Co.’s Brentwood office. The actor has lived in the Playa del Rey home for five years.

Composer/keyboardist YANNI--the Greek-born, New-Age music favorite also known for his good looks and for his long-term relationship with Linda Evans--has decided to sell his Laurel Canyon home and move to Seattle to be with the actress, sources say.

Yanni has listed his three-bedroom, 1,500-square-foot hideaway, with a state-of-the-art sound studio, at $385,000 with Tom and Leah Steuer at Prudential/Rodeo Realty, Beverly Hills. Yanni has owned the 32-year-old home since 1988.

Film producer CARLOS DE ABREU and his wife, JANICE PENNINGTON, a longtime hostess on the TV game show “The Price Is Right,” have completed refurbishing the Holmby Hills home they bought in 1991 for $1.3 million. They spent an additional $250,000 restoring it, sources say.

Pennington was knocked off stage by a TV camera during a 1988 taping of “The Price is Right” and broke her right shoulder. She was awarded $1.3 million by a jury hearing her negligence suit against CBS in 1992.

She and De Abreu co-wrote the recently published book “Husband, Lover, Spy,” and De Abreu is founder of the 3-year-old Christopher Columbus Society for Creative Arts, which helps bring new screenwriters to the attention of Hollywood.

The San Marino home of the late ROBERT P. STRUB, son of a founder of Santa Anita Racetrack, has been sold for $2.23 million, sources say. Strub was chairman of the board of the Santa Anita Operating Co. at the time of his death last May at age 74.

The nine-bedroom, 6,500-square-foot home, on nearly two acres, was built in 1914. An adjacent five-bedroom home on one acre, still owned by Strub’s heirs, is listed at $895,000. John Tartaglione and Maggie Navarro with Jon Douglas Co., Pasadena, represented the sellers.

Japanese billionaire GENSIRO KAWAMOTO paid $42.5 million in cash five years ago for a 7,200-acre Honolulu estate that he is trying to give back to the seller, with no refunds.

Kawamoto, who hadn’t spent a day there in the past year, wanted to end his $1-million-a-year ground lease, but to do that, he was told he would have to cough up $26 million. That was too much for Kawamoto, who recently turned over his keys to the lessor, said Honolulu Advertiser reporter Greg Wiles.