Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Tuesday Tidbits

Facebook founder and multi-billionaire Mark Zuckerberg has embarked on a multi-million dollar renovation of the San Francisco house he and his missus, Priscilla, purchased last year for about $10 million. City records show they plan to add a $60,000 greenhouse, a $65,000 kitchen and a $720,000 addition of of first floor office, media room, mud room, laundry room, wine room, wet bar, and half bathroom. (SF Gate)

photo: Google

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The conglomerate who bought Wayne Newton's 36-acre Las Vegas ranch Casa de Shenandoah—20% of which is actually owned by by Mister Newton himself—and valiantly attempted to turn it into a Graceland-type theme park/shrine has gone belly up, thrown in the towel and listed the proudly garish estate for $70 million. In addition to a main mansion, the property has seven other residences, stabling for dozens horses, garaging for 16 cars plus a car museum, a gaming room, an F28 jet and terminal, a petting zoo. (Redfin, Curbed)

listing photos: Synergy Sotheby's International Realty

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After spending $26.5 million on a 13-acre hilltop estate with a stunning John Saladino-designed villa in Montecito (CA), perpetual property shufflers Ellen Degeneres and wife Portia de Rossi have finally sold their picturesque equestrian-oriented compound in Thousand Oaks for $10,850,000. (L.A. Times)

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Oscar-winning film and television screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno, United States of Tara) has a gated mid-century raised-ranch in the at the top of L.A.'s Laurel Canyon that she'd like to sell for $1,299,000. Oh, and she's got a 19-foot Airstream (with tiger-striped curtains, above right) parked in the front drive that can be had for the right price, too. (Trulia Luxe Living)

listing photos: Teles Properties

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After first being listed with a grotesquely optimistic $125,000,000 price tag, the late fashion designer Gianni Versace's Casa Casuarina—a screaming statement in unapologetically garish quasi-residential opulence in the heart of Miami Beach's busy and loud South Beach district—has at long last been sold at auction for $41,500,000. The new owners of the Ocean Drive mansion are the Nakash family who own the Jordache designer jeans brand.

Fun fact: According to the kids at Curbed Miami, Eric Trump was present to bid on the property for his father, Donald. (For lots more juicy photos of the property go here.) (Curbed Miami)

photo (top): Curbed Miami
listing photos (bottom, left and right): via Forbes