Price for Malibu Movie Director’s House Chopped by $4M

Beachfront enclave has seen prices spike up overall recently
While residential home prices in Malibu have been on a hot streak lately, at least one property—where the late George Roy Hill, director of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” once lived—is cooling off.

The price tag on an 11-acre property in the exclusive beachside community dropped to $13.95 million, a $4 million discount from earlier this year, the Los Angeles Times reported. The 2,139-square-foot home, a ranch-style property built in the 1950s, is less than a mile from the ocean.

The Agency has the listing. Denise Snanoudj and Craig Knizek are the lead agents.

Hill, who died in 2002 at age 81, won a best director Oscar for “The Sting,” and was nominated for an Oscar for directing “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”

The accolades don’t seem to be drawing big-money buyers to the Malibu property, even though the wealthy coastal neighborhood has scored some big-ticket sales recently.

A Malibu home built into a cliffside, named Il Pelicano, recently listed for $57.5 million. Its owners, L.A. attorney Dale F. Kinsells and Radical Skincare founder Liz Edlich, bought the property for $2 million in 2000 and carved the mansion into its rockface.

Earlier this year, the beachfront estate of Hard Rock Café founder Peter Morton traded for $110 million, and Kurt Rappaport sold his home for $85 million to Canadian billionaire Daryl Katz.

Compared to other luxury home markets of L.A., Malibu showed the greatest gains in the last quarter. Median sales prices in the enclave rose nearly 33 percent to $3.4 million from the second quarter of 2017,and homes spent about 105 days on the market—a 32 percent drop from the previous year.

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Spending Spree: Hedge Fund Mogul, Ex-wife, Spent $150M in a Month on Laguna Beach Homes

Bill and Sue Gross tried to outbid each other on homes in gated enclave of Irvine Cove
Sometimes divorce can spur the competitive juices.

Although billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Gross divorced wife Sue Gross last year, the couple is still divided over pricey property—but not any the two ever owned together.

In a case of dueling home purchases, the couple spent nearly $150 million in separate transactions on four homes in Laguna Beach in the span of about a month, The Real Deal has learned. Between the two of them, the Grosses now own seven residential properties there.

As part of her divorce settlement, Sue Gross was awarded a $70 million package of three homes the couple owned during their 30-year marriage, according to court papers obtained by TRD. The judgement was filed at the close of the couple’s divorce proceedings last October.

The homes are located on three adjoining properties within the gated Irvine Cove enclave in Laguna Beach.

When they were married, Sue Gross was responsible for the investment decisions related to the couple’s Laguna Beach homes, as well as managing the homes’ building and renovation projects, according to a source close to the couple.

And when it came to buying homes she also showed a strong competitive streak.

Despite a restraining order filed against him in June, Bill Gross, who runs the Janus hedge fund, entered the gated community in Orange County that month to purchase a property. After learning of his plans, his ex-wife also bid on the property. Although higher, her bid was rejected in favor of his bid, according to Kathryn White, an agent at Compass, Newport Beach, who acted as Sue Gross’ realtor on the negotiation, according to court papers.

Ultimately, Bill Gross paid $36 million for the property, which is four houses away from her main residence, near another home she owns on the same street, and across from the house she had just purchased for her sister and brother-in-law.

When his ex-wife learned her former husband was considering the purchase of another Irvine Cove home, she outbid him and paid $37.8 million for the property. He went on to buy a $32 million house on Pacific Coast Highway, just about a mile away from his previous purchase.

An attorney for Bill Gross did not respond to requests for comment.

Laguna Beach is no stranger to financial execs, celebrities or eccentrics. In 2017, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett put his modest Laguna Beach house on the market for $11 million.

Some details of the Gross’ transactions were first reported on Yolanda’s Little Black Book, the real estate blog.

HGTV Has Big Plans for the “Brady Bunch” House in Studio City

Home improvement channel wants to restore, re-air iconic TV backdrop

The “Brady Bunch” house may just stay in syndication forever—if Discovery execs have their way.

Discovery, which owns cable network HGTV, was the winner in a bidding war to buy the iconic “Brady Bunch” home in Studio City. Discovery CEO David Zaslav shared the news this morning on an earnings call with Wall Street analysts, according to the L.A. Times.

Discovery beat out “Brady Bunch” hopeful Lance Bass. The ‘N Sync singer waved “bye, bye, bye” to his bid, just a day after he tweeted that it had been accepted. Ernie Carswell, an agent at Douglas Elliman, said the home’s sellers—the children of the late couple who bought it in 1973 for $61,000—listed it for $1.89 million.

While the amount of the winning bid hasn’t been revealed, Bass tweeted that he was “heartbroken” that a corporate buyer wanted the house “at any cost.” On Tuesday Bass tweeted that he was pleased that HGTV had won the bidding war, saying, “kudos HGTV, I know you will do the right thing with the house. That was always my biggest worry. I can smile again.”

HGTV will restore the 2,500-square-foot, two-story home, which backs up to the L.A. River, to the height of its 1970s appeal and will be used in future televised shows, Zaslav said.

The three-bedroom, three-bath home was used in exterior shots on “The Brady Bunch” television show, which aired from 1969 to 1974 before going into syndication.

Dismantling of Controversial LAPD Building Set to Start

In Parker Center’s place, $700 million civic office tower to rise 27 stories
The long-awaited tear-down of the the Parker Center, the former Los Angeles Police Department headquarters, is scheduled to start this month, making way for a new Downtown office tower on the site.

After months of delays, rising budgets and pushback from preservationists, Silverado Contractors Inc. will finally dismantle the eight-story building at 150 N. Los Angeles St., which is steeped in history and controversy dating back some 70 years, according to Rafu Shimpo, the Los Angeles Japanese news outlet.

Silverado, based in Oakland, will need to mitigate a number of hazardous materials in the circa-1950s building, including asbestos, but expects to finish the demolition project in late 2019, at a cost of $16.7 million.

In Parker Center’s place, a $700 million civic office tower will rise 27 stories above street-level retail and include 1,200 underground parking stalls.

Mahmood Karimzadeh, principal architect with the city’s bureau of engineering, did not give an estimated date for the project’s completion during an informational meeting in July, according to Rafu Shimpo.

Parker Center was named after William Parker, who was sworn in as L.A.’s chief of police in 1950, and who remained in the position until his death in 1966, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. He was a controversial figure who brought positive transformation to the department, but who also became a symbol of the department’s racist past.

The destruction of the Parker Building was largely welcomed by civil rights activists and members of the Japanese-American community, which had businesses displaced when the building was constructed in the early 1950s. Through eminent domain, the city used land that was home to several Little Tokyo businesses as the site of the former police headquarters.

Other groups, including the Los Angeles Conservancy, opposed the Parker Building demolition and fought to make it a landmark. It was designed by Welton Becket, known for his post-World War II architecture style, which can still be seen in several 1950-era L.A. landmarks, including the Capitol Records building.

The Coalition to Preserve L.A. is currently gathering signatures for a ballot measure that would transform the site into homeless housing named for L.A.’s late Mayor Tom Bradley.