Thursday, April 29, 2010

A Bel Air Beast In Contract

Strap on your safety belts, hitch up your britches and grab a big fat nerve pill children because there's a big deal going down in Bel Air that is sure to drop jaws and make every owner of a home listed at more than $25,000,000 grin with glee and breathe a deep sigh of relief that there really may be some life in the extreme upper end of the Los Angeles property market.

In February of 2009, amid much hoopla and tittering by real estate watchers and gossips, real estate developer Mohamed Hadid listed his newly completed, colossal 48,000 square foot beast in Los Angeles' uppity Bel Air neighborhood with an equally uppity and porcine asking price of $85,000,000.

The price of the ridiculously opulent 10 bedroom and 14 pooper pile that sits on 2.2 acres was dropped to $72,000,000 in August of 2009. After more than a year on the market the listing is now marked, "Backup Offers Accepted" indicating a deal is in the works for three floor monster mansion that includes 19 fireplaces, a 280 degree view, a 5,000 bottle wine cellar, an honest to goodness ballroom, a professional screening room, a Moroccan themed lounge and Turkish hammam (erroneously spelled "hummam" on the listing), a damn swan pond, and more tangled and tortured boiserie than the damn Palace of Versailles.

Suzanne Saperstein, Candy Spelling and Iris Cantor–a trio of wildly rich single ladees who all have booteek hotel sized houses in Los Angeles on the market–must be spitting jealous and seeing red that they've been trying to unload their high-priced white elephants for years and years and years with no luck and along comes Mister Mohammad Hadid who snatches up a buyer for his insanely expensive behemoth after just 420-some days.

Naturally, upon getting wind of the deal Your Mama put out feelers with a few of our better connected peeps in the Platinum Triangle. Of course, everything is secret, secret, secret regarding the potential deal but what we're hearing back from two separate sources is that the buyer is a big money foreigner and that the deal is going down in the fifty million dollar range. Have mercy. A third source with deep connections in the high end Bev Hills-Bel Air real estate world told Your Mama the "alleged" price being bandied about is closer to sixty million and suspects there may be some kind of business connection/relationship between the seller and buyer.

Other than that the property is marked "Looking for Backup" Your Mama can't confirm any of this information. At this point it's just rumor and gossip. Got that kids? Rumor and gossip. We won't know the real details until the deeds and records are recorded or, more likely, we read about it in one of the more respectable real estate gossip columns.

Mister Hadid, who claims he spent $59,000,000 building the massive manse, made much of his millions developing Ritz-Carlton hotels as well as lavish mansions like the Bel Air behemoth on Carolwood Drive where Michael Jackson expired under suspicious circumstances in June of 2009.

photo: Coldwell Banker Previews / Joyce Rey

16 comments:

Eric@URP said...

No matter the price, that Hadid place makes me want to eat my barf.

Anonymous said...

How does this house compare with Candy Spelling's Manor....?

Anonymous said...

This house has everything in it that Hedda LaTess and her "boyfriend" Studly High Tower would die for and that we wouldn't be caught dead with.

Veranda and Patti O.

And our word verification was "manlyz", which Hedda must have arranged for Studly to see.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful place...at least on the outside! Love the drive!

Anonymous said...

I can't even imagine wanting to live in this place. It looks stuffy and over embellished. Give me a McMansion!

chris said...

And to top it off for the trio of rich ladies, the seller would appear to be an Arab, or maybe just a Muslim of some sort. Slings and arrows....Ain't life a bitch?

Barney said...

SIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, Fellow Children......can you guys even BEGIN TO IMAGINE having CLOSE TO SIXTY MILLION #!$%&*#$!!! DOLLARS to spend on A HOUSE, for the love of ALL that is GOOD and HOLY?!?!? Ya' know, I hope I never meet anyone with as psychotic an imagination as me, who's honestly wasted as much or (GOD FORBID, MORE) time fantasizing about what it would like to be INCOMPREHNSIBLY, FILTHY RICH to where they could spend the an amount equal to the GDP of a small, third-world country on a SINGLE ADDRESS. 'Cause even my most rabid daydreams pale like George Bushs' I.Q., when compared to somehow, actually calling ANY residential-building-the-size-of-AN-AIRPORT a "HOUSE OR, WORSE YET, A HOME"!!! This place might be beautifully designed/built/decorated & furnished, but, I'm sorry...it's sheer size detracts, substantially, from ALL of the above...know what I mean, Jelly Beans?

StPaulSnowman said...

This house, with Mr. Hadid guiding, was on Beautiful Homes and Great Estates which I think you may view on Youtube. It was a very enjoyable tour, He focused on all of the international craftsman who produced the carving of wood and stone and how the building of this house supported craftspeople all over the world. Indeed, the interiors were impressive but overwrought. Commenters her often say you can't buy good taste........this house made me realize that you can't buy patina either

Anonymous said...

Vulgar ostentation...blech.

Anonymous said...

it was also the judges mansion on last years american idol.
e

Stewie said...

It's a beautiful house. Don't be jealous ppl, appreciate fine architecture. This house was very well built and I really like it. And spending some $50-60 million on a house that cost that much to construct isn't that bad a deal either. I prefer this house to both the Manor (which I think is ugly as hell) and the Saperstein Mansion (which I think is beautiful but not particularly private). Iris Cantor's house plot is far too small, I'm guessing that's why it hasn't sold, but the house itself is nice. This house has always been my favourite of those 4 and I'm not surprised there's an offer on it. More than anything, Mr Hadid was able to swollow his pride and accept a lower offer. If I remember correctly from one of Mama's earlier posts, Saperstein got offered 88million for her house by a Chinese businessman, but she said no. Stupid. Well done Mr Hadid

Anonymous said...

Mr. Hadid should have spent the money to buy the lot next door.
Unfortunately now, he lost all privacy and his estate took a big hit. Belverdere lost huge prestige as a result.
Very surprising his estate can command such as asking price, and even more surprising that he found a buyer.

New house built next door sits on top of a massive retention wall overlooking entirely the Belvedere Estate.

Worse, it looks awfully boring and cheap construction to Bel Air Standard.

Very sad gigantic mansion, awfully boring.
Was on Nimes road a couple a weeks ago, I can take pics if any interest, you judge for yourself then.

Regards,

Jean-Philippe

Anonymous said...

The City of L.A. needs the Taxes.
Hope the Spelling and Saperstein properties also sell soon....

These big spenders are good for the economy. Can't take it with you......

Framba Italy said...

This Home is Amazing, i prefer that to Fleur De Lys.

Spelling Manor in another Thing, Spelling Manor is a piece of Hollywood Dream.

IMHO Miss Spelling and Miss Saperstein Should do a reduction of price.

Spelling Manor Could be sold at 100-120 Million

Fleur de Lys from 80-90 Million

Anonymous said...

another house worked over hard but not owned by mr hadid is also looking for backup. his house of "o" on hillcrest drive, ine the beverly hills for 18.9 mil! i knew it was some inside sale, no one would pay that much for that house.

Anonymous said...

the WSJ has a write up on this one today, saying the buyer is from Indonesia-

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703339304575240680695271738.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_realestate