Your Mama and The Doctor Cooter are on a wee vacay and rather than spend the day toiling on our trusty lap top computer and typing our fat fingers to the nubbins we're going to take it easy and spend the day sunning our buns by the swimming pool. Rather than leave the children completely high and dry, however, we thought we'd offer up a quartet of links to some celebrity real estate-related tidbits and morsels previously hashed and discussed elsewhere.
1.
Although Fort Knox like secrecy surrounds the details of the three recently listed New York City apartments owned by the late and eccentrically reclusive copper mining heiress Huguette Clark, slim scraps of descriptions have started to dribble out in achingly frustrating and tiny dribs and drabs. The lucky chosen few who have toured the sprawling Fifth Avenue aeries tell vague but juicy tales of lavish but tired day-core, severely outdated kitchens, and brightly colored 1960s era tile work in the bathrooms. (via The New York Times)
2.
The wildly opulent faux-French chateau in Los Angeles' hoity-toity Holmby Hills 'hood where the late moon walking superstar Michael Jackson met his maker in the form of a high paid doctor and a Propofol delivery device has returned to the market with an asking price of $23,900,000. The Richard Landry-designed, 17,171 square foot white elephant sits on on 1.26 gated and landscaped acres and has been on and off the market for nearly four years with asking prices as sky high as $38,000,000 and as low as $23,500,000. (via Curbed)
Thanks to an informant we'll call Whispering Willy, we've recently come to learn that last December, the owners Roxanne and Hubert Guez—he's the CEO of the haute-trashy fashion brand Ed Hardy—auctioned the contents of the house that included, according to the auction results posted online, a "rooster chalkboard with note from the Jackson children" (lot 434, sale price: $5,000) and a burl wood Victorian Revival style armoire with beveled mirror inscribed with a black felt pen by Mister Jackson that reads, "Train, perfection March April Full out May." (lot 162, sale price: $18,750).
3.
Your Mama wouldn't know a little Lil Wayne ditty if it slapped up upside the head with a rubber mallet but the lil rapper was reportedly—and somewhat ironically—cited for "high grass and weeds" around the 10,000-ish square foot mansion in the gated Place Pontchartrain subdivision in Kenner, LA, a suburb of New Orleans.
The report goes on to reveal that this ain't the first time Mister Wayne—née Dwayne Carter—has been cited for not keeping up with the landscaping around the 5 bedroom mansion he picked up in 2006 for $1,750,000 and currently has on the market for $1,700,000. (Nola.com via Zillow)
4.
Perky, athletic and conservative chat show co-hostess Elizabeth Hasselbeck (The View) and her former professional football player hubby Tim Hasselbeck have hoisted their 3-4 bedroom and 3 bathroom Manhattan apartment on the market with an asking price of $3,300,000. Unless a rather unlikely bidding war erupts and drives the sale price up, it looks like the Hasselbecks—who have three small children—will take a loss on the approximately 2,300 square foot, 16th floor condo crib they scooped up in April 2008 for $3,250,000.
The interiors of Mister and Missus Hasselbecks' bi-winged residence are not-surprisingly traditional with mahogany-colored hardwood floors (that may or may not be mahogany), cornflower blue painted walls in most of the public areas, a matching set of masculine riveted leather sofas in the living room, blue and white gingham wallpaper in the expensively equipped galley-style kitchen, Chippendale-style chairs in the dining area, and loads of white built-in cabinetry. (via Zillow)
Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys Flip Out in SoHo
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $17,950,000
SIZE: 5 bedrooms, 4 full and 4 half bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: It was only in February 2010 that R&B superstar Alicia Keys and her Grammy-winning record producer/rapper/DJ husband Swizz Beatz (née Kasseem Dean) dropped $12,750,000 to acquire high-heel sporting rock star cum design maven Lenny Kravitz's legendarily difficult to sell real estate white elephant in New York City's Soho 'hood.
The children who follow celebrity real estate will recall that Mister Kravitz—at one time a bone fide real estate baller—spent several years unsuccessfully trying to sell his decadent duplex digs at a frequently-changing variety of asking prices that went as high at $19,500,000 and dipped as low as $12,500,000.
Thanks to Soho Sally (and the kids at Curbed) we've recently come to understand that two short years after buying their Manhattan aerie from Mister Kravitz, a fairly quiet wagon hitching ceremony on the island of Corsica, a new baby boy they named Egypt, and two more Grammys to add to her dozen others, Miz Keys and Mister Beatz have flipped their glassy duplex penthouse in Soho back on the market with a substantially increased asking price of $17,950,000.
Listing information shows the duplex penthouse, which has a third level roof terrace, measures in at a mansion-sized 6,167 square feet and contains 4-5 bedrooms and 4 full and 4 half bathrooms. Monthly maintenance and common charges for the penthouse that sits atop a full-service boo-teek building—once home to Hole rocker and Twitter princess Courtney Love—run a hefty-hefty-hefty $11,564 per month. Listing information also indicates the penthouse property also comes with separate and private wine cellar and storage/dressing rooms, presumably located somewhere in the bowels of the red-brick and cast iron building.
Also on the lower lever are a library/media room with walk-in closet and attached private bathroom, and a considerable eat-in kitchen with colossal marble-topped work island, a small walk-in pantry, an adjoining laundry room, and a wall of windows that slide open to a narrow terrace that runs the full width of the building.
The floating glass staircase—still with mortifying taupe shag carpeting on the treads—ascends to the second floor where there's a large office area completely encased in glass that overlooks the dining room. A long hallway provides access the guest/family bedroom wing that consists of one bedroom with walk-in closet and private attached facility plus two smaller bedrooms, each with private powder rooms and a shared sky-lit shower room that opens directly into the hallway.
The star-worthy, second floor master suite has huge windows, massive sky lights, a small private balcony, and several standard closet/storage cabinets plus a fully-fitted dressing room. The compartmentalized bathroom consists of his-and-her terlit/bee-day cubbies that open into a shared shower space and a wide, curving wall with twin sinks/vanities that flank an over-sized soaking tub.
A glass enclosed exterior staircase climbs from the second floor to the massive roof-top terrace with built-in stainless steel barbecue center/outdoor kitchen and expansive city view.
We haven't a clue why Mister and Missus Keys might want to sell their fancy pants penthouse so soon after buying but it could be that in the end it's just not large enough to accommodate their growing family—Mister Beatz has four children by four woman including a toddler boy named Egypt born to Miz Keys.
Prior to buying Mister Kravitz's sloppy real estate seconds, Miz Keys owned a fairly traditional, 15-room mansion in the upscale suburban Long Island enclave of Syosset (NY) bought in December 2005 for $2,933,380, put up for sale in early summer 2010 with an asking price of $3,850,000 and sold, according to property records, in June 2011 to a local orthodontist and his wife for $2,995,000.
listing photos and floor plan: Sotheby's International Real Estate
Jack Nicholson Lightening Aspen Real Estate Load
LOCATION: Aspen, CO
PRICE: $15,000,000
SIZE: 5,780 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 6 full and 2 half bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Three-time Oscar winning Tinseltown icon Jack Nicholson is well known both as a ladies man and for his bulging property portfolio that until recently included a near-legendary, non-contiguous 4-parcel compound above Mulholland Drive in the Beverly Hills Post Office, a small house tucked into the hills above L.A.'s Laurel Canyon he's owned since the 1970s, a 70-or-so-acre spread in the mountains above Malibu (CA), a few acres with a wee residence in the unlikely northern California town of Shasta, a 5 bedroom/3 bathroom bay front house in Kailua on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, and three separate residence in Aspen, CO.
Last September Mister Nicholson sold his Malibu property for, according to listing information, $3,500,000 and thanks to Charlie Chatterbox we've come to learn he's looking to lighten his real estate load a little more and recently hoisted his historically designated Victorian manse in Aspen, CO on the market with Rocky Mountain high asking price of $15,000,000.
A few quick clicks and clacks of the nearly worn-out beads on Your Mama's bejeweled abacus show that it's current price is a staggering 27-time more than the $550,000 property records we peeped indicated Mister Nicholson paid for the place back in January 1980.
Listing information for the house itself is slim and shows little more than it was built in 1895, remodeled in 1988, measures 5,780 square feet, and includes 5 bedrooms and 6 full and 2 half bathrooms.
We don't know barely a thing about Aspen except it's hideously expensive, insanely beautiful and popular amongst the world's richest and most famous who scoot around the picture perfect town in down coats, diamonds and Chewbacca–esque aprés-ski boots.
According to Charlie Chatterbox, Mister Nicholson's Victorian is located on the most highly desired street in the highly desired West End part of town known for it's tree-shaded streets, big ass Victorians and easy-peasy walk into the hustle-bustle of the downtown core.
Other residents in the West End area, according to Mister Chatterbox, include professional bicyclist Lance Armstrong and both of the low-profile and very rich Koch brothers. Just a few short blocks away from Mister Nicholson's nest is the (in)famous yellow Victorian where Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller had their Christmas Day domestic blowout in 2009.
Other home-owning Aspenites include songwriter Kevin Costner (who installed a baseball diamond on his gigantic ranch —a field of dreams, if you will), Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell (in Snowmass), and Spanish hottie Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith (near Woody Creek), and lavish living songwriter Denise Rich (on Red Mountain), the woman real estate watchers surely recall who recently listed her epically-scaled New York City triplex a couple months ago for a mouth-drying $65,000,000.
listing photos: Joshua & Co.
Bi-Coastal Double Whammy: Norman Jean Roy (New York City)
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $2,275,000
SIZE: 1,604 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Earlier today we discussed a 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom bungalow in Hollywood (CA) owned by hot-shot celebrity photographer Norman Jean Roy and on the market with a $1,395,000 price tag.
This afternoon we shift to New York City where a 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom condo crib owned by Mister Roy and his professional photographer wife—or ex-wife, no disrespect, we're not sure—Joanna Isobel Kelly has been on the market since the early days of 2012 when it appeared with an asking price of $2,390,000. Since then the price has dropped 5% to its current figure of $2,275,000.
Property records indicate Miz Kelly and Mister Roy only picked up the Flatiron District condo in March 2011 for $2,050,000. We'll leave the children to speculate if this quick flip is for investment purposes, represents a common case of The Real Estate Fickle, or if it's an indication of something else entirely we neither allude to nor claim to know anything about.
Listing information shows the west-facing, loft-minded condo weighs in at 1,604 square feet and includes a total of 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms plus a surprisingly and marvelously large-for-New-York-City combination laundry/pantry room.
The sleek, loft like condo has nearly-white hardwood floors underfoot and crisp, gallery-white walls that Your Mama adores unapologetically. A couple of exposed Corinthian columns—one in the kitchen one in the hallway near the door to the master bedroom—speak to the architectural history and dignity of the pre-war building that once housed the world's largest shoe store according to information we dug up on the interweb.
There's a wrought iron-railed Juliet balcony off the dining area that's open wide to the state-of-the-art kitchen all done up with glistening, Poggenpohl-brand white lacquer cabinets; winter white Corian-brand counter tops; a four-stool snack counter; and top-grade, Euro-style appliances including an integrated Sub-Zero fridge-freezer. We'd have better appreciated if those high-gloss cabinets went all the way to the ceiling but at least Miz Kelly and/or Mister Roy had the good sense not to stick some fake ferns or wicker baskets up in that squat space.
The current residents—who may or may not be Mister Roy and/or Miz Kelly, we don't know—utilize the second bedroom as a living room and the original living/dining space as an extra-specially spacious dining room with two full walls of high-end shelving units that hold a rafts of actual books, a few black and white photographs, and a number of knick-knacks like that gold-plated Harry Allen pig bank that we live and die for.
The master bedroom isn't humongous or even big by any standard but its relative wee-ness is partly made up for by the custom-fitted closet/dressing room that's the size of a small bedroom. Presumably both bathrooms are a sybarite's naughty dream but all we can vouch for is the long, windowless master facility complete double sinks set on floating wood cabinets and an egg-shaped soaking tub set into a niche sheathed in gleaming white tile. One-inch (or so) square pixilated grey tiles climb two walls floor-to-ceiling opposite the sinks and bathtub but switch again to all white in the good-sized (but hardly party-sized) stall shower fitted with one of those can-be-annoying rain-type shower heads.
Taxes and common charges for the condo ring up to $3,554 per month, according to listing information, and cover costs for building maintenance and amenities that include 24-7 doorman, fitness center, 3,600 square foot landscaped roof deck and—bargain shoppers and penny pinchers will appreciate—a one-block walk to both Trader Joe's and T.J.Maxx.
listing photos and floor plan: Brown Harris Stevens
Bi-Coastal Double Whammy: Norman Jean Roy (Los Angeles)
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,395,000
SIZE: 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Before anybody starts to stamp their feet, roll their eyes and whine like a three year old about how they ain't never heard of a "celebrity" named Norman Jean Roy give us a moment to say a little about who this person is and why his modestly scaled (if not exactly inexpensive) and done-done-done domicile in Hollywood (CA) qualifies to appear on our little online endeavor about the real estate doings of the rich and famous.
Many if not most of the children may not instantly recognize Norman Jean Roy's name but Your Mama would fall out with flabbergast iffin all of y'all aren't familiar with at least a few bits and pieces of the bi-coastal celebrity photographer's considerable body of work. A quick perusal of the website for Mister Roy's representative(s) reveals the slender, handsome, lantern jawed, and smooth-pated professional picture taker has captured the photogenic mugs of Tinseltowners for advertising campaigns that include (but are far from limited to): Drew Barrymore for Neiman Marcus; Demi Moore for Ann Taylor; George Clooney for Omega watches; and Halle Berry for Revlon.
Mister Roy's resumé also shows he's much in demand—mostly by Condé Nast, it seems—to shoot stars for the covers for high-gloss publications. He's photographed Lindsay Lohan, Sandra Bullock and Cher for Vanity Fair, Armie Hammer, Channing Tatum and Zac Efron for Details, Eminem for Rolling Stone, Kim Kardashian, Blake Lively and Eva Longoria for Allure, and Liv Tyler for Harper's Bazaar, just to name a few. He was selected—and no doubt paid boo-coo bucks—to shoot the triple-wide fold-out cover of the annual Hollywood Issue of Vanity Fair in 2011 on which appeared (among others) Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, James Franco, a barely dressed Olivia Wilde and a simply flaw-less Mila Kunis.
Mister Roy is—or maybe was, we're not sure to be honest—married to fellow photographer Joanna Isobel Kelly and property records (and their own bios) reveal they maintained residences in both Los Angeles and New York City. Property records show in August 2005 Mister Roy forked over $1,230,000 to acquire a 1920s bungalow in a leafy and upscale pocket of Hollywood. The property was purchased in only his name but her name pops up on some of the deeds and documents we peeped at in the public property records.
Anyhoo, the fully-renovated, meticulously-maintained and high-hedged house in the Hollywood, CA neighborhood sometimes referred to as Sunset Square has popped up on to the market with an asking price of $1,395,000.
The painstakingly landscaped front yard, completely hidden from the street by a tall hedge and driveway gate, has been almost completely graveled over to provide additional off-street parking besides what's available along the narrow, paver-tiled driveway that runs up alongside the house. This graveling might seem like a ludicrous notion to some people, but it's really rather practical and has all been handled by the landscape designer(s) in the most dignified manner that includes a birch tree-backed, trough-like fountain/water feature.
A small, vine-draped front porch provides shelter from rain and sun and opens into the L-shaped and hardwood floored, open plan living/dining/lounging area that includes a not especially formal "formal" living room with fireplace at one end and a cozy den with a bank of French doors that lead out to the backyard entertainments and delights on the other. In between, the windowless (and also not very formal) dining room borrows its natural light from the wide banks of paned windows and French doors in both the living room and den. Artificial light in the dining room comes courtesy of a George Nelson bubble pendant fixture that hangs sparingly over a wonderfully gigantic, dinner party-friendly Parson's table surrounded by ten matching molded plastic Eames side chairs with wooden tower bases.
An home office area—a potential third bedroom, according to listing information—tucks into a tight corner between the dining room and the light, bright and almost entirely white galley kitchen outfitted with snow white, Shaker-style cabinets with glass-fronted uppers, some sort of sand-colored tumbled stone counter tops, and medium-grade stainless steel appliances. We do like the chopping block center island even though it seems a bit in the way but we are irrationally fearful of that pot rack dangling from ceiling in the center of the room and laden with pots and pans that look eager as beavers to bang somebody upside the head or get snarled up in some hair-hopping queen's extra-high beehive.
Current listing information does not indicate the size of the house—the Los Angeles County Tax Man pegs it at 1,805—but does reveal there are two bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The master suite at the rear of the residence offers "plenty of closets" and an attached "bespoke" bathroom with tumbled Carrara marble tiled steam shower. The second bedroom has a view of the front garden/graveled motor court.
The kitchen, den and master bedroom all open on to a trellis-shaded dining deck with handy-dandy, built-in outdoor kitchen/barbecue set up. The deck steps down to the paver-stone driveway that runs up along one side of the house to a detached 2-car garage at the back of the property as well as down to the backyard fun-in-the-sun space with tanning terrace and plunge-sized saltwater swimming pool set simply into a flat grass pad with just the slimmest of stone coping.
Listing information indicates the home and swimming pool are powered by a solar system and indeed several banks of solar panels can be seen in at least one listing photos mounted on the roof.
Mister Roy's soon-to-be ex-residence sits in the very same neck of the Hollywood woods as homes owned by a variety of Showbizzers who include Academy Award-winning filmmaker Dustin Lance Black (purchased fall 2010 for $1,455,000); Stylish actress Selma Blair (listed earlier this year for $1,780,000 and no longer on the open market); Nip/Tuck actor Dylan Walsh (listed in late January for $1,425,000 and is now deep in escrow); The inestimable actress and activist Sally Struthers (purchased February 1991 for $762,500); Reality queen turned clothing designer Lauren Conrad (recently listed for $2,100,000 and currently in escrow); Agent to the stars Simon Halls (sold August 2010 for $2,000,000, not long before he and man-mate Matt Bomer bought a big house in the historic Hancock Park 'hood).
Stay tuned for the 411 on the (also currently on the market) New York City apartment Mister Roy and Miz Kelly bought in March 2011 and flipped back on the market less than a year later.
listing photos: Sotheby's International Realty / Los Feliz
Real Estate Round Up: Peter Thiel
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $11,500,000
SIZE: 5,870 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms*
* as per public property records
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: We suggest the children snatch up a snack, pour out a few fingers of your favorite hooch and buckle in for the long haul because Your Mama's feeling a wee bit long-winded today. Okay? Ready? 3, 2, 1...
It doesn't take a silly (celebrity) real estate blog maven to tell the children that billionaires are different than regular people. While regular folks sweat blood, tears and financial fear over five dollar a gallon gas and worry about whether they're going to have to eat cat food in their dotage, billionaires can and regularly do drop fat dimes on multi-million dollar high-maintenance residences around the globe. Simmer down fire breathers, we're not making a statement, we're just stating the obvious.
One such financially fortunate billionaire is German-born and San Francisco-based tech-tycoon, venture-capitalist and hedge fund manager Peter Thiel who has been on a bit of a real estate tear the last couple of years; By Your Mama's faux-forensic research and rudimentary calculations Mister Thiel has coughed up close to fifty million clams over the last couple of years on at least three new private residences that include a double wide mansion San Francisco's Marina District, an ocean front spread on Maui (HI), and, most recently, we hear through the real estate gossip grapevine, a high-style mansion perched on a prominent promontory just above the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles (CA).
He may not be a household name in a Hollywood sort of way but make no mistake puppeenuh-weenuhs, Mister Thiel's a God damn rock star in the high-powered business and social circles in which he orbits. Mister Thiel, for those who don't know, is the co-founder and former CEO of Pay Pal—he's no longer involved in the day to day there—and a very early investor in the social media supernova Facebook. Mister Thiel's original and exceedingly savvy 2004 angel investment of $500,000 in Facebook was recently reported by the folks at Time to now be worth somewhere around 2.5 billion dollars.
Mister Thiel, in his mid-40s, is an outspoken, occasionally controversial, and politically-minded Libertarian who's ridiculously well-connected in the highest echelons of international affairs; He's listed as a member of the Steering Committee of the somewhat secretive Bilderberg Group. Given the Bilderberg Group's near total, (in)famous and conspiracy-creating media black out, his eponymous foundation kind of ironically gave a less then $500 donation to the Committee to Protect Journalists, an organization that promotes and defends "the rights of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal."
In addition to his fast moving business enterprises, Mister Thiel offers notable philanthropic support of a number of idiosyncratic, somewhat esoteric and arguably even eccentric organizations such as The Methuselah Foundation that supports anti-aging research and the thrillingly ambitious and wildly out-of-the-box Seasteading Institute. In 2010 he controversially set up a fellowship that offers 20 people under the age of 20 $100,000 (apiece) if they would drop out of college and pursue their own start ups. At least some of the budding entrepreneurs live in a San Francisco mansion called The Glint.
Anyhoo, according to two sources—let's call them Little Boy Blue and Henrietta Hasthedish—Mister Thiel recently and quite quietly dropped $11,500,000 for the approximately 6,000 square foot, multi-wing sprawler on a 1.23 mostly flat acre lot just above Los Angeles' iconic Sunset Strip. The now-modified original residence was designed and custom built in the mid-1950s by revered architect Paul Revere Williams for Russian-born vaudevillian turned legendary restaurateur Dave Chasen and his wife Maude.
In case y'all don't know, L.A.-based Mister Williams was a rarity in his field in that he was black at a time when there just weren't that many black architects and certainly not a lot (if any) black architects who designed both traditional and contemporary private homes for a long list of rich and famous Showbizzers such as Frank Sinatra, Tyrone Power, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Barbara Stanwyck, Bert Lahr, and the magnificently-named Zasu Pitts. In the mid-1930s the in-demand architect was commissioned by hedonistic cigar mogul Jay Paley to design a monumental, modern-minded Georgian Colonial mansion in Bel Air's Holmby Hills nowadays owned by Paris Hilton's hotel magnate grandaddy Barron.
Indeed, as happens with time, many of the many dozens of Paul R. Williams-designed homes in southern California have been raped, pillaged and/or razed by subsequent owners. Those that aren't—as well as those that have been respectfully altered—are still much coveted amongst affluent Angelenos who cotton to their understated elegance and proper proportions.
The Chasen house above the Sunset Strip was designed to meander across mostly flat hillside parcel accessible by two gated entries from two separate streets. Although we can't confirm it still exists, according to Henrietta Hasthedish, the house was originally designed with an oval entrance hall contained just a few but very large rooms with commanding views across the twinkling lights of Tinseltown from downtown to, on a clear day, the Pacific Ocean. The Paul Revere Williams Project website describes the original residence far more succinctly than Your Mama ever could:
"The open floor-plan, multiple levels, interesting angles, curved walls, beamed ceilings and native materials such as hand-split cedar shakes and Palos Verdes stone inside and out gave the home a modern California feel."
The Chasen house was owned for a spell in the 1990s by a now-deceased gentleman who—so tongue-wagged Henrietta Hasthedish—hailed from a prominent farm family and sometimes hosted "naked pool parties" in the backyard. Henrietta went on to tell Your Mama this Diener fella added a two-story wing off the west side of the house.
The Chasen residence passed through several hands and was eventually acquired in 2002 by Larry Schnur and Beverly Schnur, respectively a financier turned race car driver and a former decorating editor at House Beautiful magazine. The couple paid, according to property records $4,500,000 for the out-and-out trophy property that the Los Angeles County Tax Man shows spans 5,870 square feet and contains 4 bedroom and 5 bathrooms, numbers that may or may not be an accurate reflection of the current size and etc. of the home.
The Schnurs, as per a 2004 article in—you got it—House Beautiful, hired L.A. and Santa Barbara-based nice-gay interior decorator-designers Neil Korpinen and Rick Erickson to give the old girl a face lift. Like the house's original celeb-favored architect, Misters Korpinen and Erickson had previously done over homes for a number other high-profile peeps including bawdy entertainer Bette Midler, stage and silver screen actor Nathan Lane, L.A.-based billionaire art patron Eli Broad, and curly-haired clarinetist Kenny G.
Mister Korpinen and Erickson maintained many of Mister Williams' architectural swoops and flourishes but at the request of Mister and Missus Schnur infused the expansive interiors with the Hawaiian spirit of aloha that includes a whole lot vintage rattan furniture, grass cloth and vibrant tropical colors. The indoor areas transition to the outdoors with a Hawaiian style lanai—otherwise known to Mainlanders as a covered porch—that steps down to a prairie-sized sunbathing and entertaining terrace, swimming pool, spa. Beyond the swimming pool a low-profile rock wall rings a semi-circular grass pad that projects into the horizon where a (long ago removed) pool house once stood and obstructed the powerful city views.
Rumor has it the Schnurs recently went splitsville and quietly made their supremely sited residence above the Sunset Strip available for purchase through one of Los Angeles' most successful and well-connected real estate agents.
Property records do indeed reflect a recent transaction recorded in mid-February 2012 that transferred the property from Mister Schnur to a San Francisco-based limited liability company with an address—the children may or may not care to know—directly across the street from a magnificent Art Deco tower Your Mama once upon a lifetime ago called home. None of our regular online resources reflect a purchase price but both Henrietta Hasthedish and Little Boy Blue both told us the highly desirable property went for around $11,000,000.
As far as Your Mama knows—which is really so very little—this is the first house in Los Angeles owned by Mister Thiel who has lived primarily in San Francisco since at least the early Aughts when he purchased two adjoining penthouse apartments atop the Four Seasons Residences of San Francisco for an undisclosed amount of moolah. Property records indicate he sold off his fancy Four Seasons penthouse(s) in October 2005 for $6,500,000.
We're not quite sure of his real estate whereabouts for the next few years but in early September 2009 a 4-story mansion in San Francisco's Marina District—a bulky combination of two side-by-side houses—popped up on the open market with an asking price of $8,180,000. Within six weeks the price dropped to $7,400,000 and in mid-January 2010 the mansion was sold to a limited liability concern connected to Mister Thiel for, according to the property records we peeped, $6,500,000.
Mister Thiel, according to the California Markt website, subsequently had the whole place worked over by Fog City-based decorator and Gilt Groupe executive Shane Reilly. The classic, 1940s Marina-style exteriors embrace a more modern vibe inside and includes, according to California Markt article, a living room that works for both intimate and grand scale entertaining, two dining rooms, a private office that adjoins the master suite, and a roof top pavilion with marble-faced fireplace. A massive roof terrace offers dead on and couldn't-be-closer view of the Beaux Art-style Palace of Fine Arts on one side and a wind-screen shielded view on the other of the vermilion towers of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The gated residence, a quartet of interconnected pavilions, curls around a tropically landscaped courtyard with land-side swimming pool on one side and opens on the ocean side to to a foliage-ringed flat lawn that wraps around the house. Of course, we've never set foot on the property but can imagine the views are beyond delicious from the private, peninsula setting that juts ever-so slightly out into the bay. The house, according to property records available online, measures in at 4,735 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms, all numbers that may or may not be an accurate reflection of the houses actual size and etc.
As it turns out Mister Thiel's Hawaiian hideaway is just a half mile up the road from the ocean front residence scooped up by Aerosmith front man and American Idol judge Steven Tyler in late 2011 for $4,800,000.
Mister Thiel, for anyone who thinks it might matter, is an out gay man well known amongst a certain set for throwing glitzy "soirees" with, an anonymous source told The Daily News last year, food and cocktail servers in "assless chaps." Last summer, again according to The Daily News, Mister Thiel hosted an evening get together at his Union Square aerie with a "not-so-hot shirtless bartender"where a gaggle of party goers got stuck in the elevator on their way out in the early morning hours. This was not, we're pretty sure, the same summertime shindig during which right wing sassy pants Ann Coulter brazenly and fearlessly slammed gay rights and equality during a speech to a roomful of mostly gay men in attendance to commemorate of the one-year anniversary of GOProud, an advocacy group for gay conservatives.
Since Mister Thiel likes to throw (sometimes crazy) parties and host events for causes he cares about and his new house in Los Angeles has an alleged history of naked pool parties Your Mama expects (and hopes) it's only a short matter of time before some of our more a-list homo pals and acquaintances will soon have yarns to spin about the doings up at Mister Thiel's fab new party pad above the Sunset Strip.
aerial photo (Los Angeles): Bing
listing photos (San Francisco): Pacific Union International via Redfin
aerial photo (Hawaii): Steve Strand via Pacific Business News
listing photos (New York): Stribling via The Jane Dough
Michael Phelps Flipping in Fells Point
LOCATION: Baltimore, MD
PRICE: somewhere between $1,075,000 and $1,475,000
SIZE: 4,080 square feet, bedrooms, 3 full and 2 half bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: A week or so ago we received a covert communique from an industrious young man we'll call Balamer O. Riole who alerted Your Mama that record breaking Olympic super-swimmer Michael Phelps had quietly made his mini-mansion-sized waterfront condominium in Baltimore, MD available for purchase with an unspecified asking price.
No offense to anyone intended, especially to Mister Riole who did most of our property record legwork for us, but Your Mama promptly forgot the matter until yesterday when we stumbled across of a 2009 photograph of a handle-bar mustachioed Mister Phelps and wondered aloud, "Well, who's that daddy?"
Anyone who knows Your Mama knows—in the main—we know as much about sports as we do about astrophysics, which isn't much more than knowing how to spell the words. We do know, however, a thing or two about Michael Phelps, the long and lithe Baltimore Bullet who rose to athletic fame during the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens—that's Athens Greece, puppies, not Athens, GA—when he stroked his way to six gold and two bronze metals. In 2008 the 6-foot 4-inch aquatic phenom launched into international super stardom when he took home 8 more gold medals from the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing. That's in China, dolls.
Property records show the still competing and oft-winning ambi-stroker—who plans to snag a few more medals from the upcoming 2012 Olympics in London—scooped up his four-floor townhouse in October 2007 for $1,699,900. The townhouse, one of a dozen or so similar (or maybe even identical) townhouses in a semi-separate enclave of a large residential apartment complex called The Crescent at Fells Point, sits directly on a quiet finger of Baltimore's busy harbor in the historic and charming Fells Point neighborhood.
As far as we can surmise, the red brick, steel and glass contemporary condo isn't on the open market but—as of today—a listing does indeed appear on the website of a local real estate agent who Mister Riole described as the "indisputable...doyenne of Maryland's most expensive real estate."
The asking price for Mister Phelps' condo shows as by request only on the agent's website where the listing sits between a pair of properties listed at $1,075,000 and $1,475,000 respectively. Common real estate sense tells Your Mama this placement puts the asking price of Mister Phelps' Fells Point pad somewhere between those two amounts. Of course, we could be absolutely, dead wrong.
Should our entirely unscientific and possibly inaccurate assessment of Mister Phelps' asking price be at all on point—and we really can't stress enough that we could be wrong as a chicken wearing lipstick—it would appear that Mister Phelps is prepared to lose a couple to several hundred thousand dollars on the sale of his big ol' Bawlamore bachelor pad.
Listing information is somewhat slender but does indicate there's a two-car ground floor garage and a total of 3 bedrooms and 3 full and 2 half bathrooms spread throughout the suburban house-sized, townhouse-type residence that property records peg at 4,080 square feet.
A zig-zagging wood and steel staircase winds geometrically from top to bottom and connects all flour floors (plus roof top terrace) of the vertical living space that does not—as far as we know or can surmise from the limited listing information—have an elevator rendering it a pretty negligible option for the glutially weak and/or lazy.
Honey-colored hardwood floors stretch throughout the loft-like main level living/dining area that includes an awkward two-sided fireplace with some sort of too-pedestrian flecked granite surround and a tee-vee nook with curving back wall tiled floor-to-ceiling with a bold and completely unexpected mottled orange tile. A commercial style glass door opens to a small balcony that overlooks a landscaped promenade and bustling marina.
The hardwood floors—regrettably by our meaningless opinion—turn to some sort of (probably expensive) tile in the eat in kitchen that adjoins the dining area. A large center island has a cook top with grill and breakfast bar. The raised panel cabinets are of unknown material that looks like mahogany, the counter tops granite and the appliances perfectly acceptable mid-grade stainless steel.
A built-in housekeeping desk set into a window-lined bay hangs over the driveway with a fairly up close view of the adjacent apartment building and the breakfast area has a wide, floor-to-ceiling window with oblique and obstructed views of the harbor.
In addition to the two guest/family/flexi-use bedrooms listing information indicates there's a "luxe master suite with spa bath," which we're guessing is the one shown in listing photos with an over-sized oval soaking tub, frosted glass shower and crapper enclosures, and granite-topped sink and vanity spaces.
The gravity defying staircase ascends to a small roof top pavilion that gives access to a tiled, wrap-around roof terrace with easy-maintenance planter boxes, panoramic marina, harbor and city views and, it appears in listing photos, a hot tub that may or may not be visible to one or more neighbors.
Naturally Your Mama hasn't a clue why Mister Phelps would be willing to sell his townhouse at what would appear to be a significant loss but our tattletale Mister Riole told us that word on the suburban Baltimore real estate street is Mister Phelps has a been known to house hunt in Baltimore's upscale suburbs and—again according to Mister Riole—showed some interest last summer in this massive, nearly all-glass mansion on its own private peninsula in Pasadena, MD. T
Mister Riole also suggested Mister Phelps might reasonably like to relocate to the ritzy Ritz-Carlton Residences on Baltimore's Inner Harbor where his mother Debbie recently acquired a two bedroom garden apartment described as glitzy and dramatic and sitting so close to the harbor, "its easy waves could almost lap up onto her patio."
listing photos: Krauss Real Property Brokerage
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