Mansion Buyer Gets a Deal--40% Off

The most expensive home ever sold in Orange County--a Newport Beach waterfront estate with breathtaking views and rich neighbors--has been bought for about 60% of its record sales price, brokers said.

William G. Simon, former head of the FBI office in Los Angeles, and his wife, Alice, paid about $8 million for the mansion, which sits on the tip of exclusive Harbor Island and features 46 sets of French doors, an elevator, 11 1/2-foot ceilings, seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, six fireplaces and an eight-car garage.

Reclusive Hong Kong businessman George Yao bought the mansion in 1991 for $13.8 million--a county record. But a bank foreclosed on the property in June as Yao encountered financial difficulties, and the title was transferred to an investor group.

Like many luxury homes in Southern California, the Newport Beach estate lost value during the real estate slump. But reduced prices and low mortgage rates have recently helped strengthen sales of mansions in Southern California and throughout the nation. Luxury homes that have been on the market for years are finally finding buyers.

“Clearly there’s a real renaissance in expensive homes selling,” said Bill Cote, a broker who sells luxury homes. “The Orange County market has bottomed out for luxury homes and is going back up.”

With his purchase, Simon joins such influential neighbors as Orange County real estate developer George Argyros, who lives down the street. Just across Newport Bay, on Linda Isle, lives Donald Bren, chairman of the Irvine Co., Orange County’s largest landowner. Also within view of the mansion is Bayshore, John Wayne’s old estate.

The nearly 18,000-square-foot mansion--built with poured, reinforced concrete and covered with Texas limestone blocks in 1989--is on nearly half an acre on an island with just 30 other estates.

Once part of the estate of Los Angeles banker and arts patron Howard Ahmanson, the former Yao home at 18 Harbor Island was built by local developer Leroy Carver III, whose father founded a county Rolls-Royce dealership.