Latin Pop Star Scales Down Digs

Latin recording sensation Luis Miguel has sold his Beverly Hills home to fashion designer and fragrance mogul Bijan for $6 million in cash.

Miguel, 31, is looking to buy a smaller home because he no longer needs 12,000 square feet of living space, sources said. The singer-sex symbol has another home in Acapulco, Mexico.

Bijan, 58, wanted more room than he had in the Bel-Air home he was leasing. He had been looking for a home to buy for six years, since his divorce from his second wife, Tracy, a spokesman said.

In 1999, Bijan sold a Beverly Hills home he never lived in to singer-songwriter Lionel Richie, a friend and client, for close to $6.5 million. It was “too old of a style” for Bijan and needed lots of work, his spokesman explained.

The six-bedroom house he bought from Miguel is more contemporary and Mediterranean in style.

Built in 1993, the three-story house, on nearly an acre of parklike grounds behind gates, has 12 bathrooms, seven fireplaces, a Honduran mahogany library with coffered ceilings; state-of-the-art lighting, sound and security systems; and a 22-car subterranean garage. The house, said to be “exquisitely furnished,” also has a guest house, pool and spa.

Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Mexico, Miguel, also a friend and client of Bijan’s, has been known south of the border as el Idolo because he was an idol by the time he was 14, with four albums and a Grammy for a duet with Sheena Easton.

Miguel subsequently won three more Grammys and in 1990, he won Latin Grammy Awards for best pop album, album of the year and best male pop vocal performance. “Segundo Romance,” his 1994 album of classic love songs, was one of Billboard’s highest debuting Spanish-language albums. He has sold more than 45 million albums worldwide.

Miguel bucked the crossover trend by refusing to record his songs in English. He became the standard-bearer of contemporary Latin music with his traditional bolero albums. Recently, he has been described as being in “a musical slump” due to the boleros, but he also sings pop songs and ballads, and is still one of Latin America’s most popular singers.

He has also branched out into Spanish-language film roles.

Bijan opened his showroom on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills in 1976. In 1987, he introduced a series of fragrances for women and men, including two for basketball star Michael Jordan. Bijan also has created wardrobes for many of the world’s most powerful and visible men, including kings, presidents, global business leaders and celebrities. Besides Miguel and Richie, other clients are reported to include Steven Spielberg, Ricky Martin, Prince Juan Carlos, Prince Charles and Steve Wynn.

Steve Lewis of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, represented Miguel in his sale, and Joyce Rey and Bernice and Janine Gershon of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, represented Bijan, sources said.

Rock star Tom Petty has purchased a home in Malibu for close to its asking price of $2.5 million.

The house, on a sandy beach, has three bedrooms, two of which face the ocean. Built in 1974, the house also has three bathrooms, three fireplaces, Malibu tiles, an open floor plan and a courtyard with a fountain.

Petty’s band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, has been together for nearly 30 years and sold more than 30 million albums. The foundation of the band’s music has been classic rock, blues and soul of the ‘50s and ‘60s.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers--known for such songs as “American Girl,” “Free Fallin’” and “Don’t Back Down,” as well as songs from the group’s 1999 album “Echo”--will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday. Petty, a guitarist and vocalist, also won a 1989 Grammy for a performance with the Traveling Wilburys.

Petty, 51, was married last July at another home he owns in Malibu. Another rock ‘n’ roller, Little Richard, performed the ceremony.

John London, a former radio-show host for KCMG-FM “Mega” (92.3) who was hired in January to host a morning show on KNBR-FM in San Francisco, and his wife, Juliette, have put their home on a two-acre promontory in Benedict Canyon on the market at $2.9 million.

The house has four bedrooms in about 4,600 square feet, behind gates. Built in 1982, the three-story home also has city views, soaring ceilings, a living room with a large wet bar and a fireplace; a master suite with a fireplace; guest quarters with a separate entrance; and a lagoon pool with a spa.

The radio host was one of the top-rated morning DJs in the Bay Area when he worked for KMEL in San Francisco from 1985 to 1991. He left San Francisco to join KKBT in L.A. His “House Party” show filled Mega’s mornings with music and conversation for 15 months.

Elaine Young and Barbara Eisner, both of DBL in Beverly Hills, have the listing.

Fred Durst, frontman of the rock band Limp Bizkit, has sold his Bel-Air home for $3.7 million.

Durst, 30, bought the home last fall and never moved into it. He re-listed it in December for about what he paid for it--just under $4 million.

The house had “vibes that were not quite correct for him,” said sources not involved in the transaction.

Built in 1969, the four-bedroom, 6,600-square-foot house, on slightly more than an acre, was once owned by Robbie Krieger of the Doors, and there is a stone carving on a wall of the Doors performing.

Durst already purchased another home, with two master suites and a sound studio in the Hollywood Hills, and he recently listed it at just under $1.4 million.

Joe Babajian and Tim Watson of Prudential-John Aaroe, Beverly Hills, represented both sides of the Bel-Air deal, and they represented Durst in buying the Hollywood Hills home, which they now have listed.

Beth Sullivan, who created and produced the popular CBS series “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” (1993-98), and her husband, actor Jim Knobeloch, have listed their home on 11 equestrian-zoned acres in the Topanga Canyon area at $4.9 million.

The couple have moved to Australia. They grew to love it, sources said, when they went there to film the PAX TV series “Ponderosa.” She is an executive producer of the series, in which he plays Jack.

They built their Topanga-area home in 1998.

The home has five bedrooms, a great room, a library, a game room, a media room and an audio room in slightly more than 10,000 square feet.

The property, behind gates, also has extensive grounds with more than 400 rose bushes, a large grassy yard and a pool with a spa.

Knobeloch, who is also an artist, played Jake Slicker on “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” and also appeared in “The Trials of Rosie O’Neil.”

Debra Usher and Cheryl Platz of Sotheby’s International Realty, Brentwood, have the listing.

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