Billionaire on Malibu: I’ll take it!
In a $180-million buying spree that began two years ago, Larry Ellison, chief executive and co-founder of software giant Oracle Corp., has purchased a dozen Malibu properties, all but two of which are residential.
To top it off, the 60-year-old billionaire may have just begun to shop. Last week, rumor had it he was also eyeing a Malibu shopping center. But that may have been a case of mistaken billionaires, as sports mogul E. Stanley Kroenke purchased the Malibu Colony Plaza.
Ellison, who has hinted at the possibility of bringing an NFL team to Los Angeles, bought the shuttered PierView Cafe on Pacific Coast Highway in 2003 and the adjacent Windsail Restaurant property last year. Talk around town is that he may combine them into one high-end restaurant. Ellison was unavailable for comment on his plans.
He made his most recent residential purchase this year, buying the home of Grammy-winning music producer David Foster and his wife, former “Hee Haw” TV actress Linda Thompson. Ellison bought that 22-acre property for slightly more than $20 million.
The Mediterranean-style home, in the gated Serra Retreat neighborhood, has three recording studios, a guest house, a pool, a spa and a seasonal stream. The estate, built in 1983, has nine bedrooms and 11 bathrooms in about 9,900 square feet.
There is no indication that Ellison is going to use the home as a personal residence. The property and its former owners are featured in “The Princes of Malibu,” a reality series due to debut tonight at 8:30 on Fox.
In 2003, Ellison made news by buying five Malibu properties for a total of $65 million. Of the Malibu beach homes he now owns, only one has been rented out, and it isn’t certain how he will use the others.
“It’s a mystery,” said Katie Bentzen of Pritchett Rapf Realtors. “What is clear is that he likes to acquire real estate, and he’s concentrating heavily on Malibu.”
Bentzen had the listing on Ellison’s first Malibu purchase, a house on Carbon Beach. “He came back 30 minutes after first seeing it and bought it at $14 million or $15 million.” He had barely signed the deal before he was already back out looking at a neighbor’s house, she said. He subsequently bought more than half a dozen properties along Carbon Beach.
Cecelia Waeschle of Sotheby’s International Realty voiced concerns about Ellison buying more than a few homes in such a concentrated area and questioned how the purchases might inflate prices. Ellison paid $15 million for what few people would call a large house -- 1,600 square feet. But the property has 65 feet of beach frontage.
“Are the prices realistic?” asked Jay Rubenstein, manager of the Coldwell Banker, Malibu West office. Ellison’s purchases probably have raised the prices at Carbon and other beaches, he said.
The 2005 median sales price of a single-family home in Malibu through May was $1,750,000, according to DataQuick Information Systems, up from $1,696,750 a year earlier. In Rubenstein’s office, sales have averaged $3.1 million, in contrast with $2.1 million last year.
“I think it’s fabulous,” Rubenstein said of Ellison’s purchases. “The guy has a lot of money, and he’s spending it here.”
Ellison makes Forbes magazine’s short list of the richest people. (He’s either ninth or 10th -- does it really matter?)
Despite the Malibu property grab, Ellison continues to call Northern California home, with residences in the Pacific Heights area of San Francisco and in Woodside, a suburb 30 miles south.
He recently completed a $200-million, 16th century Japanese-style villa on more than 60 acres in Woodside. While it was under construction, he listed his former home, a seven-bedroom, 8,000-square-foot house in Atherton, also Japanese in style, at $25 million.
Ellison has interests beyond real estate and his Redwood City software behemoth.
His desire to own a professional football team is well known. He last year explored the possibility of buying the San Francisco 49ers but quickly learned that John York and his wife, Denise DeBartolo-York, were unwilling to sell.
He is a yachtsman who funded an America’s Cup racing team and is married to novelist Melanie Craft, whose latest work is the romantic comedy “Man Trouble.”
Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency, Beverly Hills, represented Ellison in his Malibu purchases. He had no comment on his client’s plans.
Trumpeter changes his tune
Trumpeter Doc Severinsen, bandleader of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” and his wife, TV writer-turned-artist Emily Marshall, plan to move to Mexico and have listed their 10-acre ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley for close to $5 million.
They’ve owned the ranch for two years. During that time, the couple renovated the adobe compound, including an adobe stable and many of the outbuildings. The ranch also has a pool, vineyard and pastures.
Marshall painted the walls, beams and tree trunks around the compound in vibrant colors, prompting Severinsen to observe that the home now looks like one of his flamboyant sports coats. The ranch is named Rancho de los Colores.
The couple brought most of the furniture, doors and fixtures to the ranch from Mexico.
Severinsen, who turned 78 on July 7, got his nickname, originally “Little Doc,” from his father, a dentist. He was on “The Tonight Show” from 1962 until 1992. Severinsen still tours nationally, playing jazz and big band tunes with his former “Tonight Show” bandmates. He is the principal pops conductor of several symphony orchestras. He also designed and markets the Destino trumpet.
Marshall turned in her pen for a paintbrush after having written for “The Larry Sanders Show,” “Newhart” and “Designing Women.”
Marilyn Elam of Coldwell Banker, Los Olivos, has the listing.
Designer tries on something new
Bob Mackie, whose stunning gowns and headdresses became Cher’s signature television look, has listed his Hollywood Hills home and adjacent lot at $2.3 million.
The fashion designer has lived in the home since it was built in 1997. What he’ll miss most is the home’s “extraordinary views,” he said.
The gated Mediterranean sits on a knoll with views from downtown L.A. to the San Fernando Valley. The house has three bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms in about 4,000 square feet. There are two master suites, a family room and an office.
The adjacent lot is slightly more than 7,000 square feet. Mackie, 65, had planned to improve the lot but never found the time. In the house, he added Italian tile floors, remodeled two fireplaces and installed bookshelves in many of the rooms.
Now he is relocating to a nearby home he bought for about the same price. “I’ve been wanting a midcentury modern home with a pool, and I thought this was the right time to make the move,” he said.
Debby Cannon of Prudential California, John Aaroe division, has the listing and represented the Emmy-winning designer in his purchase.
Gilligan’s not going with him
Scott Jeffress, co-executive producer of “The Bachelor,” “The Bachelorette” and “The Real Gilligan’s Island,” has sold his La Canada Flintridge home of 11 years and moved a few miles northwest of Austin, Texas, for the summer.
He recently bought a 4,000-square-foot home on a cove of Lake Travis, off the Colorado River, for slightly more than $1 million. The house has its own dock.
His former La Canada Flintridge home has four bedrooms and three bathrooms in about 2,500 square feet. It also has a pool and a spa. The English Tudor-style home sold for about $1.2 million.
Sheilah Hansen at Ellis Realty had the listing.
Longtime home to a famous clowner
Comedian Red Skelton, who died at 84 in 1997, lived in his Rancho Mirage home for about 23 years, beginning when it was built in 1956. It is on the market now at just under $2 million.
It was one of Wallace Neff’s first contemporary designs and has four bedrooms and 4 1/2 bathrooms in about 4,600 square feet. The house is between the 15th and 16th greens of the Tamarisk Country Club. Skelton, an artist in his spare time, often chatted with golfers while painting in his backyard.
Harpo Marx, of the Marx Brothers, owned a similar Neff-designed home down the street from Skelton’s.
The sellers were drawn to the Skelton home in 1998 because it was designed by Neff, whose claims to fame included homes for such Hollywood icons as Clark Gable and Charlie Chaplin.
Gary and Anne Alexander at Dyson & Dyson Real Estate Associates have the listing.
