You'd Be Surprised What a Mere $10 MILLION

Can Get These Days.

Well, the Good News is: Southern California Leads the Nation in This Price
Range. The Bad News: the Price Range.
December 08, 1996|ANN W. O'NEILL | Ann W. O'Neill is a Times staff writer in the
San Fernando Valley. She lives in a $200,000 house that used to be worth $250,000

o
o
Email

o
o
o
o

Extras include a disco, two bowling alleys, 19 bathrooms and a clear crystal dining
room floor that offers views of the indoor swimming pool below. Its cantilevered
tennis court and the one next door overlook Coldwater Canyon park; the outcry over
the courts led to new restrictions on tennis courts, building height and lot coverage.
*
* Point Dume, Malibu. Barbra Streisand began amassing a second, blufftop compound
after giving her 24-acre Ramirez Canyon estate to the Santa Monica Mountains
Conservancy. Last year, she became the first to break Malibu's $10-million mark,
paying about $12.5 million for two homes on three acres near Point Dume with a view
of the "Queen's Necklace," the string of coastal lights that twinkle at night along the
Santa Monica Bay.
*
* Montecito, near Santa Barbara. Racing great Andy Granatelli two years ago sold his
30,000-square-foot villa on 12 acres for $14 million and an island home in the
Dominican Republic.
4 SALE, GR8 VU, NEEDS WORK, $10 MILL, NEGOT.
What's on the market today? The empty, the magnificent, the unfinished, the
overpriced and the macabre. There may be plenty of others, but they are unofficial
"pocket listings" that agents show only to qualified buyers.

*
* 1441 Angelo Drive, Beverly Hills. Past hairpin turns at the top of Angelo Drive sits
an 11,000-square-foot Mediterranean by Wallace Neff, the distinguished architect

who designed many of the Platinum Triangle's finest older homes. Once the home of
the man who invented the altimeter, the seven-bedroom, five-bathroom house is
filled with arched doorways and windows, beamed ceilings, huge fireplaces and finely
crafted oak detail. The house and surrounding 20 acres are on the market for $30
million, but be advised, this seller is sitting tight. Several double-digit offers have
been rejected over the years.
*
* 10231 Charing Cross Road, Holmby Hills. Huge Italian Palladian mansion was built in
1989 on the lot of the old Jack Benny estate and is just a few doors down from the
Playboy Mansion. Asking $20 million. The 20,000-square-foot house on three prime
acres is filled with marble details.
*
* 10066 Cielo Drive, Beverly Hills. Villa Bella, an 18,000-square-foot Medi-terranean
being built on a 3.4-acre promontory, features 14 bedrooms, 17 baths, a disco, wine
cellar, seven fireplaces, elevator, waterfall and projection room. But most people still
think of it as the site of the Manson murders. A foreign investor almost bought it this
year for $12.5 million. Now on the market for $12 million, finished; $8.9 million,
unfinished.
*
* 1400 Tower Grove, Beverly Hills. The owner is asking $14.95 million for his 20,000square-foot limestone mansard mansion heavily decorated with European antiques. It
has antique pewter fireplaces, silk moire wallpaper, Florentine leather insets in the
library ceiling, a 2,000-square-foot master bedroom suite with his and her bathrooms
and a one-ton chandelier in the entryway. It was under construction for more than six
years, including 18 months spent hauling away the top of a knoll and a home once
owned by singer Elton John and producer David O. Selznick. The otherwise
spectacular view includes an eyeful of Villa Bella across Benedict Canyon.
*
* 930 Stradella Road, Bel-Air. The most expensive--and expansive--two-bed-room
house around, this dramatic 9,500-square-foot mansion sits atop a four-acre
promontory. It has breathtaking views, rose gardens, a new pool and an outdoor
dining terrace. Madonna once offered $8 million for it, but the owner sold to a British
noble who since has died. It's on the market for $12 million.
*
* 28808 Cliffside Drive, Malibu. The Summer Palace, a newly constructed 11,000square-foot Spanish-style house with curved walls and glass, sits on an acre and
commands a majestic view of Point Dume. For sale for $13.5 million, this home is
loaded with imported marble, glass and bronze. The curved glass for the 30-foot
windows, mounted in brass and trimmed with mahogany, cost $250,000; the

fireplace in the guest bedroom, made of blue Brazilian marble, cost $50,000. The
draperies are motorized. Off the silk-wallpapered master bedroom are his and hers
baths; the cabinets in hers are lined with refinished salmon skin.

*
* 28761 Grayfox Street, Malibu. Estate on nearly two acres near Point Dume includes
a Cape Cod-style main house completed in 1991, a two-story guest house and a
three-story guest house. Designed by hot architect of the moment Peter Choate, the
house, listed for $15 million, includes six bedrooms and 91/2 baths. Owner also has
the following house on the market:
*
* 1411 Mockingbird Place, Sunset Strip. Newly completed Tuscan villa is listed at $10
million but hasn't been shown to brokers yet. On three acres, the villa offers five
bedrooms, 61/2 baths and jetliner views of downtown Los Angeles.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
$10 MILLION SOLD