A Pacific outlook for a New York icon

Donald Trump, whose unscripted NBC show “The Apprentice” will air on Wednesdays, is getting ready to break ground on the first five of 75 estates to be built at his golf course development in Rancho Palos Verdes.

The New York-based real estate mogul, who will choose one of 16 contestants on “The Apprentice” for a $250,000 one-year job with his Trump Organization, expects to make one of the South Bay estates his California home away from home. He may use one of the first five as a temporary residence until one is built for him at a later date.

“I hired architect Robert Earl to do the first five luxury houses overlooking the Pacific Ocean,” Trump said by phone. “He has started designing them, and the final plans are expected to be finished by the end of January.” Construction is scheduled to get underway in February or March.

The golf course part of the development is “almost completed,” Trump said. “We spent a lot of time rebuilding the 18th hole. We expect the course to be completed by June 1.” The 45,000-square-foot clubhouse is undergoing a renovation and expansion to be finished in May.

Trump acquired the 300-acre property, including the home sites, for $27 million in late 2002, after the 18th hole fell into the Pacific. The golf course, known then as Ocean Trails, was under construction. A broken sewer pipe led to the slide.

Trump claimed his Pete Dye-designed Trump National Golf Course will be “better than Pebble Beach.”

The 85-acre residential portion, called the Estates at Trump National Golf Course, excites him more now, he said, than the possibility of building a Trump Tower in L.A.

Earl is designing different floor plans for the first five homes. The Mediterranean, Italianate and Spanish Colonial Revival houses will be reminiscent of early California architecture.

The five- and six-bedroom, 7,000- to 10,000-square-foot homes will face the ocean and have courtyard entries, swimming pools, libraries, media/movie centers, exercise and billiard rooms and wine cellars with tasting rooms.

Asking prices are expected to start at $5 million.

Earl, an L.A. architect, has designed homes for such personalities as Warren Beatty, Sylvester Stallone, Nancy Sinatra, Farrah Fawcett and Barron Hilton, Paris Hilton’s grandfather. The model estate will be furnished by Wilson & Associates of Beverly Hills.

There will be 36 homes, including the first five, in Phase 1, which is being marketed by Coldwell Banker in Greater L.A. Listing agents are Gayle Probst and Allen Scafati, Rolling Hills Estates; Gary Fleischman, Palos Verdes Estates; and Bob Foster and Joyce Rey, Beverly Hills.

To Brentwood by way of ‘Las Vegas’

Josh Duhamel, who co-stars with James Caan in the NBC series “Las Vegas,” has become a first-time home buyer with his purchase of a Brentwood residence for about $1.5 million, its full asking price.

Duhamel, 31, also stars in the upcoming movie “Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!” It is due out Jan. 23.

He bought a three-bedroom, 2,700-square-foot home with Santa Monica coastline views. The contemporary-style house, built in the ‘50s, has hardwood floors and a spa. It was the first time the home had been for sale in 30 years.

Duhamel, who was a regular for three years on the daytime drama “All My Children,” plans to marry his girlfriend, actress Kristy Pierce, in May.

Mitchell and Nicholas Bravo of Re/Max Realtors Westside Properties had the listing, sources said.

‘Restless’ pair bets on more Malibu

Eileen Davidson, who plays Ashley on the CBS daytime series “The Young and the Restless,” and actor Vincent Van Patten, who hosts the “World Poker Tour” on the Travel Channel, have sold a Malibu home for about $1.4 million and bought a larger house nearby, which had been listed at nearly $2.2 million.

They bought a newly built Cape Cod-style home with five bedrooms and four bathrooms in 3,400 square feet. The home has a two-story guesthouse with ocean and mountain views.

They sold a 3,000-square-foot Victorian-style house with three bedrooms, three bathrooms and ocean views.

Davidson and Van Patten, who is a former tennis pro and son of actor Dick Van Patten, moved to larger quarters to accommodate their expanding family.

Lydia Porter Simon of Coldwell Banker, Malibu, represented the couple in both transactions.

Interactive in the Hollywood Hills

Roger M. Corman, son of the legendary producer of such B-movies as “Sting of the Black Scorpion” and “Attack of the Crab Monsters,” has purchased a Hollywood Hills home for nearly $2.5 million.

Corman, whose father is producer Roger W. Corman, bought a contemporary-style house that has three bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms in about 3,800 square feet. The house, which was built in 1960, also has an updated kitchen and sits behind a wall of greenery.

The younger Corman, 27, is president of an interactive company that produces DVDs and CD-ROMs, and he is getting ready to produce his first movie, a comedy called “University Stereo,” to be filmed in Hollywood next summer through his dad’s company, Concorde New Horizons.

He’s breakin’ out of Beverly Hills

Choreographer-director Adolfo “Shabba-Doo” Quinones, who helped popularize breakin’, or dancing to the break beats of hip-hop songs, when he starred in such 1984 dance films as “Breakin’ ” and “Breakin’ 2,” has sold his Beverly Hills home for $1.2 million. He is moving to Paris.

The house was built in 1966 and has three bedrooms in about 2,300 square feet. The newly remodeled home also has 2 1/2 bathrooms, a gourmet kitchen and a master suite with a spa tub and a steam shower.

Michele Hess of DBL, Sunset Strip, listed and sold the property.

‘The Baby’s Room’ isn’t big enough

TV writer-producer Billy Brown and his wife, artist Dara Paprock, have put their Los Feliz home on the market for just under $1.2 million.

The contemporary ranch-style home is on a knoll and has views of the Hollywood sign and Griffith Observatory. The house has three bedrooms, a den and a detached guest cottage. The growing family is moving to larger quarters.

Brown won an Emmy Award last year as executive producer of the TV movie “Door to Door,” starring William H. Macy as a man with cerebral palsy who was determined to be a salesman. Brown also won a Writers Guild award in 1997 for best children’s script for the TV series “Goosebumps,” and he recently completed the script for the feature-film thriller “The Baby’s Room.”

Tess Nelson and Gary Bergevin of Prudential John Aaroe, Los Feliz, have the listing.

To see previous columns on celebrity real estate transactions visit www.latimes.com/hotproperty.