L.A. Halts Sale of Home to Figure in ‘Party House’ Case

The Los Angeles City Council halted the sale of a city-owned home to a real estate executive Tuesday after learning he was sued by the city in August for throwing loud, raucous parties at a Studio City mansion.

At the request of Councilman Joel Wachs, the council delayed selling a 51,000-square-foot Benedict Canyon Drive property to Steven M. Powers, chairman of Health Concepts Inc., a Nevada-based real estate firm and owner of an adjacent home.

The council had voted unanimously Tuesday morning to sell the property in the Beverly Glen area for $114,000. But later, members voted to void the decision pending further study after Wachs learned that Powers was sued Aug. 2 by the city attorney’s office for allegedly violating liquor laws and building and safety codes.

Powers said Tuesday that there is no need to scrutinize the sale, adding that he is helping the city by buying the land.

The city paid $116,500 for the Benedict Canyon Drive property to settle a 1968 lawsuit by its previous owners who charged that the land was damaged by a landslide due to the city’s widening of Benedict Canyon Drive.

Prior to the vote, city officials were apparently unaware that Powers was the same man who managed the so-called Studio City “party house” that was the subject of a civil lawsuit and more than 100 complaints to police.

The suit alleged that the Wrightwood Drive mansion in Studio City was the site of so-called underground parties where liquor was sold illegally, party-goers blocked nearby driveways, copulated and urinated on neighbors’ lawns and played loud music until the early morning.

To settle the city’s civil lawsuit, Powers and the tenants and owners of the mansion signed an agreement to tone down the events.

But Deputy City Atty. Deborah Sanchez said that just before Powers and the others signed the agreement in September, ownership of the mansion was apparently transferred to a Delaware corporation in a “very strange maneuver” that put the power of the entire agreement in question.

But the agreement appears to be moot because a Texas mortgage company took control of the Studio City mansion Nov. 17 and placed it in foreclosure, Sanchez said. The company has since begun eviction proceedings on the tenants who hosted the loud parties, she said.