Several weeks ago Your Mama passed along some juicy Platinum Triangle real estate gossip about Lola Karimova-Tillaeva—the 30-something old daughter of Uzbekistan's dictatorial president, Islam Karimov—being the mysterious buyer of Le Palais, a massive mansion set behind high walls and higher hedges directly across the street from the perennially chic Beverly Hills Hotel. The existing residence was spec-built from the ground up by mega-mansion developer Mohamed Hadid who listed the ersatz palace on the open market last year with an asking price of $58 million.
Our snitchy source Peter Propertypurveyor told Your Mama that the rumored purchase price then circulating around the upper echelons of the Bev Hills real estate world was about $47 million. Well, children, the actual, recorded purchase price for the ostentatiously palatial 48,000 (or so) square foot behemoth was nowhere near the $58 million dollar asking price or the rumored $47 (or so) million purchase price. Of course, it's entirely possible there were other monies or assets exchanged between buyer and seller that increased to overall purchase price but the amount on which the new owner will be taxed is the recorded price of—drum roll, please—$32,750,000.
There the curious have it. Moving along now...
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
L.A. Reid Lists Hamptons Estate
LOCATION: Sagaponack, NY
PRICE: $18,995,000
SIZE: 7,000 square feet, 8 bedrooms, 9.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: It may not have the publicity ensuring $65 million asking price of Richard Gere's postcard perfect 6.3 acre water front compound in the low-key Hamptons enclave of North Haven, near Sag Harbor, but veteran music industry mover and shaker L.A. Reid's landlocked 3.27 acre estate in sleepy but supuh-swank Sagaponack ain't exactly real estate child's play with its $18,995,000 asking price either.
Property records show the song writing record producer and his former school teacher second wife, Erica,* scooped up the gated estate in February of 2006 for exactly $10,000,000.
The gray-shingled, multi-winged mansion, set privately at the tail end of an unusually long (shared) driveway that cuts across active farm fields, measures in at about 7,000 square feet, as per current listing details, with 8 bedrooms and 9.5 bathrooms, including five en suite guest/family bedrooms and a two-level master suite. (Is that the master bedroom, children, the room with the extra-deep tray ceiling and a gigantic boob-toob on the goddamn floor, smack in front of the wood-framed glass sliders that otherwise provide access to the outdoors? Seriously? Well, that's just plain silly. Master bedroom or not, a person can't even watch the thing proper if they're laying down on the bed. The angle is just too severe. Anyways...)
There's a partially paneled formal living room that's just about perfect for late afternoon/early evening cocktail parties. Triangular clerestory windows surely fill the room with the exact sort of ambient late-summer light for which the Hamptons are beloved by Hamptonites. Listing photos show a baby grand piano where, just maybe, one of Mister Reid's many famous entertainer friends have tinkled the ivories while sophisticated ladies and gents in linen pants sip champers in front of the strikingly minimalist fireplace. Opposite the fireplace there are lighted cubbies for the display of objet d'art (or whatever) and a trio of wood-framed glass doors allow for an easy transition to a large deck with backyard vista. Any of the children who might be invited to a cocktail thing at Mister and Missus Reid's house this summer would be wise to take note of the two dangerous looking sprays of twisted twigs in identical clear glass vases set on the identical coffee tables.
The dining room has a long table with 10 Vladimir Kagan chairs, some sort of upside-down, pagoda-shaped fabric chandelier of the likes we've never seen before, and (vexing) large scale contemporary paintings. One painting depicts a giant letter Q and the other is a rather disturbing portrait of a man who looks like he's violently shaking his head side to side. We know art is a very personal thing and we're 100% positive some of y'all would poo-poo at least some of the art Your Mama and The Dr. Cooter have in our house but that is not, no siree Bob, a painting Your Mama would not want to look at throughout an entire Thanksgiving Day turkey meal.
Less formal family quarters include a den with fireplace and a cook-friendly center island kitchen fitted and kitted with two-toned Shaker-style cabinetry, sleek stainless steel hardware, and high-quality stainless steel appliances that include at least two dishwashers and a built-in microwave oven.
The wood ceiling in the family room has a dramatic, steeply pitched vault spanned by heavy duty, A-shaped beams and trusses. The track lights affixed to the trusses don't make us feel great in our decorative soul but we swoon for the way the architect has floated the beams away from the ceiling. A (slightly off-center) fireplace anchors the far end of the room that's furnished with a lot of low, lounge-y semi-chaise sofas and slipper chairs. There's a flat screen television mounted on a long wall sheathed with a stacked stone treatment and, on the opposite wall, a series of over-sized wood-framed sliders open to a big deck with expansive view over the back yard and adjacent farm field.
Listing photos show a spa space on the mini-mansion's upper floor that may or may not be part of or directly accessible from the master suite. The spa room is complete with a giant terry cloth sofa, a massage table placed in the center of the room, an inversion contraption back in the corner, and, on the back wall, a semi-portable-looking free-standing dry sauna that gives Your Mama a screaming case of claustrophobia just to look at. We do, of course, adore a sauna as much as the next Norwegian but that one looks like the sort of thing in which panicked young girl with a dying cell phone battery would try to hide in a straight to DVD horror movie. Next thing you know, the heat goes up and up and up, the door won't open, and the murderer steams her like a soup dumpling at Joe's Shanghai. But we digress.
Other luxuries at the Reid's Sagaponack summer home include a meditation room, finished basement level that contains a gym, a temperature controlled wine cellar lined floor-to-ceiling with built-in bottle racks, and—according to this article in Hamptons magazine—a drum studio.
The fully manicured estate has high hedges on three sides but is open on the south flank so it can take advantage of the preserved views over the fields and an oblique view of Sagaponack Pond. Besides the spacious porches and decks along the many sides of the back of the house, outdoor recreational amenities include a Har-Tru tennis court almost completely obscured by trees, a pergola shaded viewing platform, a small pond, and a heated saltwater swimming pool and spa nestled into a man-made tumble of boulders.
Other Sagaponack home owners with recognizable names include—but are far from limited to—paper mogul Peter Brant and his supermodel wife Stephanie Seymour and Real Housewives of New York's resident minor European royal by marriage, LuAnn de Lesseps, whose house is right next door to writer/director/producer/actor Bob Balaban's summer spread. Billy Joel and his third ex-wife, Katie, used to own a couple of ocean front cottages at the bottom of Gibson Lane and esteemed writer Kurt Vonnegut owned a house on Sagg Main Street for more than 30 years. Sagaponack's largest estate, as every one who knows anything about real estate in the Hamptons knows, is owned by billionaire industrialist Ira Rennert who recently requested permission from the city to add a 633 square foot Pilates studio to one of his two pool houses at Fair Field, his still quite controversial 63 acre ocean front mega-compound that already encompasses more more than 110,000 square feet of seaside opulence.
Mister and Missus Reid seems very much in the mood to lighten or at least shake up his portfolio of residential properties. In addition to his spread in the Hamptons, the couple also own a modest townhouse type condo in Atlanta, GA as well as a 5,000+ square foot apartment on Park Avenue in New York City that—some of the children may recall—they listed on the open market in early May (2013) with an asking price of $18,900,000.
With both his New York area residences up for sale, Your Mama wonders where Mister and Missus Reid plan to set down their next real estate roots. Will they return to Atlanta or will they decamp for the west coast? Or are they simply selling out and upgrading or downsizing? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
*Mister Reid's first wife was Pebbles from TLC.
listing photos: Sotheby's International Realty
67th Bentley Drivers Club Concourse d'Elegance 2013
Another Annual fixture in my event calendar for the year is the Bentley Drivers Club Councours. I always enjoy this event as it's always full of incredible Bentleys and the atmosphere is always relaxed and informal, enough chat heres the results:
The Blue Train Bentley
(ink sketch)
Which of the two Blue Train cars this is I was unable to find out, but this is one of the two restored cars that go by the Blue Train name. The name Blue Train comes from the French "Le Train Bleu" express which ran between Calais and the French Riviera. In 1930 the Rover Light Six beat the train in a race. Upon hearing this over dinner (usually the case) Woolf Barnato, one of the Bentley Le Mans drivers at the time said he could beat the train not just to Calais but reach the Conservative Club in St James by the time the train reached Calais. The next morning on 13th March 1930 Barnato did just that, winning a £100 bet and subsequently getting fined more by the French authorities for racing on French roads without permission.
fantastic styling on the rear arches.
1935 Alpine Rally Car Replica
(ink and watercolour)
1935 3.5l Gurney Nutting Sportsman Coupe
(ink and watercolour)
The swept detailing on the side drew me in enough to to sketch this luxurious coupe, with lots of curved and sweeping shapes I enjoyed the challenge.
1930 Speed Six
(ink sketch)
The speed six was th machine that took Bentley to victory at Le mans and this is an incredible example of the model which won best restored on the Concours.
Bentley Corniche
(ink and watercolour)
1975 Bentley T1
(ink and watercolour)
more photos.....
Clean Cut Nature of a Bentley's Engine
Details from a possibly unrestored example.
1952 R Type
1923 3 litre
1935 3 1/2 litre
1934 4 1/2 "Blower" Special
This one got away again! Maybe next time....
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
John McEnroe and Patty Smyth Buy House Number Two in the Bu
LOCATION: Malibu, CA
PRICE: $3,345,000
SIZE: 2,800 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Thanks to tireless real estate yenta Yolanda Yakketyyak and a second-on-the-motion from our eerily well-informed confrère Lucy Spillerguts, Your Mama has learned that even though famously volatile tennis great John McEnroe and his part-time musician wife Patty Smyth (of the 1980s New Wave band Scandal) already own an ocean front house in Malibu's guard-gated, much coveted, and star-studded Colony community, the couple quietly snatched up a second home six miles to the west.
Information Your Mama turned up on the internets reveals the non-celebrity sellers first put the 1.52 acre property in the scenic and coveted Paradise Cove area on the market way back in October 2009 with a wildly unrealistic and arguably quite greedy $8,800,000 price tag. The asking price was dropped no fewer than a dozen times until, in October 2012, it reached its nadir of $3,650,000. It wasn't too long before along came Mister and Missus Johnny Mac who somewhat surreptitiously acquired the property by way of a vaguely named trust in March (2013) for $3,345,000.
As best as Your Mama's booze soaked brain can surmise from a careful reading of listing details from the time of the sale, the low-slung single story residence of about 2,800 square feet—a classic example of a quintessential California ranch house—has three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. There's also a detached, and entirely self-contained one bedroom and one bathroom guest house that's absolute perfection for anyone with flatulent over nighting family members who snore and/or weekend house guest friends like our famously ill-behaved b.f.f. Fiona Trambeau who has an tendency to show up with an unruly looking man-friend she meets God only knows where when she comes to visit. Anyhoodles, poodles...
Semi-glossy wood floors, a pleasantly vaulted exposed wood ceiling, and numerous over-sized windows and wood-framed glass doors tie the main house's open concept main living spaces together. At one end a living room/t.v. lounge area has clerestory windows, a red brick accent wall that we're oddly fond of, and, believe it or not butter beans, there's a fireplace hidden behind the seller's big ol' tufted black leather sectional sofa. As much as we abhor the behemoth, bachelor pad-ish black leather sectional sofa we're smitten like a kitten with the rustic picnic table-style dining table. We know they're a little decoratively passé nowadays but we none-the-less think a picnic is perfect for a casual, care free, and bare-footed house at the beach like this.
The main living/dining area flows right on into the roomy and well-outfitted kitchen where a thick slab of lightly veined marble water falls over one end of the super-sized center island. One one side of the island there's a full wall of Shaker-style blond wood cabinetry—maybe it's maple?— and on the other a row of counter-to-ceiling windows provide the dishwasher an all-but-unobstructed view into the red brick courtyard nestled between the main house and the guest house.
Listing details show the master suite "feels like a spa" and includes a spacious, glass-walled bathroom finished with slate tile floors (and walls). There's a long, floating double sink vanity with wall-mounted taps, a free-standing tub that looks like it might be crafted of polished poured concrete, and both indoor and outdoor showers.
Instead of wood, the guest house has travertine or limestone floors or some other material that probably cost a small fortune. Otherwise the guest house has a very similar vibe to the main house with over-sized windows, a vaulted (and sky-lit) exposed wood ceiling, and an open-plan main living area with a full-sized kitchen. Maybe it's just the obsessive-compulsive in us, but Your Mama would prefer the kitchen in the guest house have the exact same finishes as in the main house. What do the children think?
In addition to the cozy courtyard between the main and guest houses where there's a convenient built-in barbecue/outdoor kitchen, the private property's expansive grounds include several more patios and terraces, an inconveniently located circular fire pit, and a broad sloping lawn dotted with mature shade trees and various fruit trees. Best of all—and perhaps most valuable of all—is that the McEnroe-Smyth's newest addition to their impressive residential property portfolio comes with private, deeded access to a dazzling stretch of sand along purdy Paradise Cove. The long, crescent-shaped beach at Paradise Cove isn't easily accessible to the public but the hoi polloi can spread their sheet on the sand if they cough up forty bucks to park their car in the parking lot that surrounds the funky—if kinda pricey—Paradise Beach Cafe where a hamburger runs $17 and a two-plus pound of steamed clams go for about thirty bucks.
The McEnroe-Smyth's new digs in Da Bu are located in the same discreet, gated enclave where some of the other homes are owned by retired pro hockey player Chris Chelios, photographer (and Hollywood scion) Tina Broccoli—her daddy is the late James Bond producer Cubby Broccoli, powerful but semi-mysterious venture capitalist Aviv "Vivi" Nevo, and country music royals Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood/
Our research indicates (but does not prove) that Mister McEnroe and Miz Smyth live primarily in New York City where they're known to own one of the multi-floor tower units at the venerable, tri-towered Beresford building on Central Park West. (As far as Your Mama knows, the other two quirky quadruplex penthouses continue to be owned by retiring Coach CEO Lew Frankfort and the estate of legendary Cosmopolitan editrix Helen Gurley Brown.)
Like many New Yorkers with the necessary financial resources Mister and Missus Johnny Mac also keep a high-hedged spread in the Hamptons that they picked up in May 1999 for $4,200,000. The Southampton estate, a stone's throw from the beach and just up the lane from Howard Stern's super-sized ocean front summer house, includes a 7,000 square foot main residence fronted by massive motor court, extensive lawns and gardens, an in-ground swimming pool, and—natch—a tree-ringed tennis court.
listing photos: Coldwell Banker
Monday, July 22, 2013
Monday Mish Mash: Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell
After years of putting the mini-compound up as a summer rental at $80-95,000 per month, the couple listed their house on rapidly disappearing Broad Beach in July 2011 on the open market with an asking price of $14,749,000. By May 2012 the price had plummeted to $11,200,000 and by September (2012) the priced had tumbled even further to $9,950,000.
Property records now show the couple sold the gated, Gus Duffy re-designed residence—with 4 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms plus a two-room guest house above the two-car garage—in mid-July (2013) for $9,500,000.
source: Redfin
listing photos: Coldwell Banker Previews International
Monday Mish Mash: David Spade
Mister Spade purchased the 4 bedroom and 3.5 bathroom beach house in May 2005 for $9.3 million and hoisted it back on the market in 2007 with a sensationally rose tinted $16 million price tag. At least once Mister Spade has put the house up for lease. In 2009 it was listed as a summer rental at $65,000 per month.
Mister Spade continues to own a gated estate in the Trousdale Estates area of Beverly Hills that he bought in late 2001 for $4,000,000 and had previously been owned by both Eddie Murphy and Warren Beatty.
source: Trulia Luxe Living
listing photo: Trulia
Monday Mish Mash: Another Real Housewife Bites the Real Estate Dirt
South Florida scuttlebutt José Lambiet revealed that a 1,200 square foot, canal-front home in the Westwood Lake area of Miami (above) that Miz Sierra co-owns with her mother, Lucero, is all set to be auctioned to the highest bidder on August 27 (2013). Your Mama found evidence online that Miz Sierra unsuccessfully attempted to sell the property back in November (2012) when it was listed for $250,000. The price was lowered twice down to $232,900 before it was taken off the market in late April (2013).
Real Housewives aficionados may (or may not) find it interesting that the chomper fixer's primary residence in Miami—the mock-Med macmansion featured on The Real Housewives of Miami—also had a judgement of foreclosure filed and recorded against it in late April 2013 although it's not clear—at least not to Your Mama—if this house is scheduled to be auctioned.
Property records show Miz Sierra also owns the house next door to her primary residence, which does not, as per our brief and unscientific research, appear to be under threat of foreclosure, as well as another canal front home in Miramar, FL that records show is co-owned by Miz Sierra and her parents and also does not appear to be threatened by foreclosure.
So far, Miz Sierra has not commented on her foreclosure issues. Maybe she's just too busy putting some bright white veneers on some really tan lady's teeth so she can save her house from the auction block.
source: Gossip Extra
photo: Active Realty via Zillow
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