Hall-of-Famer Is Giving Up His Home Court Advantage
NBA Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has put his Beverly Hills-area home on the market at just under $3.5 million.
The former Lakers center first listed the home last summer at $3.8 million. He has owned the home, on nearly an acre, since it was built in 1992. The five-bedroom home has a library loft, sports court, gym and city views.
The home also has 20-foot-high ceilings, extra-tall doorways and a guest suite that doubles as a writer’s studio.
Abdul-Jabbar, 53, retired from the Lakers in 1989. He has written four books, including this year’s “A Season on the Reservation” (William Morrow, $24), based on his 1998 experiences as an assistant basketball coach at an Arizona high school for White Mountain Apaches. Among his other books are the bestsellers “Black Profiles in Courage” (1996), “Kareem” (1990) and “Giant Steps” (1983).
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Pamela Bellwood, who gained fame as Claudia Blaisdel Carrington on the ABC-TV series “Dynasty” (1980-89), and her husband, British photographer Nik Wheeler, have listed their Hollywood Hills home of 20 years for sale at about $2.2 million and for lease at $12,500 a month.
During the ‘70s, Wheeler, a renowned war photographer, took what was the only photo for years of the terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal. Wheeler and Bellwood, who is now producing films, moved recently to Montecito.
“My children love it, because we’re near a tennis club and right by the beach,” she said. “Many people are moving here from L.A. It’s not a hard commute.”
Built in 1927, their Spanish-style Hollywood Hills home has two guest houses, a detached maid’s quarters and a pool.
Barry Sloane of Sotheby’s International Realty, Beverly Hills, has the listing.
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Songwriter Katharine Kurasch has sold a house in a gated community and purchased a home on the beach. Both are in Malibu.
Kurasch, 39, has written songs for Rita Coolidge, Kim Carnes, Philip Bailey and Valerie Carter. She has a song out on the new Gene Dunlap CD, “Tales of the Phatman.”
She is participating in a documentary for the Learning Channel on the October 1999 crash of Egypt Air, in which her mother, retired actress Jacqueline Kurasch, was killed. Her father, violinist William Kurasch, died recently at 86.
She bought a house that had an asking price of $1.45 million, and she sold her two-bedroom Malibu Cove Colony home, which had an asking price of about $1.8 million.
Ellen Francisco and Carol Larkin of Coldwell Banker Previews, Malibu West, represented the songwriter in both deals; Francisco also represented the buyer of Kurasch’s home and the seller of the house she purchased.
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Hot Property runs Thursdays in SoCal Living and Sundays in Real Estate. Ryon may be reached at ruth.ryon@latimes.com.
