Filed under: News, Lifestyle, Selling
A Beverly Hills estate nestled on 25 acres and boasting a 10,000 bottle/barrel wine cellar for the fruits of its own vineyard, is selling for $195 million -- yowza! -- reportedly making it the country's most expensive public listing.
It's called Palazzo di Amore -- the Palace of Love in Italian -- and is being sold by real estate entrepreneur Jeff Greene, who bought the property on Lania Lane in 2007 just before his wedding, hence the "love" reference. He paid $35 million, and added another $25 million in renovations, according to the Los Angeles Times. (See the slideshow below.)
OK: $35 million plus $25 million equals $60 million. That means Greene stands to make a $135 million profit if/when he sells his Palace of Love. Not a bad way to make a living.
What does a paltry $195 million buy these days? A six-building estate including:
- Mediterranean-style villa with over 30,000 sq. ft., 12 bedrooms, 23 bathrooms.
- 5,000-square-foot master suite.
- three sets of double gates protecting the property.
- security guard house.
- quarter-mile, tree-lined drive.
- private waterfall.
- twin curving staircases.
- dining and living spaces that open onto the grounds.
- chef's kitchen with commercial, walk-in refrigerator.
Such an estate, of course, requires a staff to run it smoothly, so a separate wing features a secondary staff kitchen, two staff rooms, two private office suites, and a three-car attached garage.
But wait; there's more. The estate has a 15,000-square-foot entertainment complex with:
- pools lined with olive trees.
- discotheque/ballroom with state-of-the-art laser light system and revolving dance floor.
- two-lane bowling alley and game room.
- theater that seats 50-plus guests and includes a dressing room for live stage shows or movie screenings.
Like many others in the extremely high-priced range, the second-most-expensive home in America, the Owlwood Estate in nearby Holmby Hills, isn't advertised online, reports Zillow. But the Palazzo's listing agents prefer not to follow the "pocket listing" strategy.
"Nowadays, people think it's best to keep high-end listings very private," Gottula told Zillow. "But we don't think pocket listings are in the best interest of the seller. We sold the highest priced listing of 2010, Le Belvedere, by marketing it like crazy."
Joyce Rey says the biggest challenge of selling such an astronomically priced property is making sure potential buyers are pre-qualified before spending 90 minutes showing them the estate.
Rey suspects the eventual owner will be a foreign billionaire.