Niami’s “The One” set for auction undone

Nile Niami’s spec behemoth The One could head to auction unfinished as soon as January.

Lawrence Perkins, a receiver appointed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to sell the property, said he plans to hire two brokers to drum up bidders for an auction, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Perkins now manages Crestlloyd, Niami’s company that owns the property. He anticipates a $250 million sale, and said $200 million would satisfy all debts on the property.

“Our goal is to run a thoughtful sale process to maximize the value from the small group of people in the world that can buy a property like this,” he said.

Niami’s debtors, including Hankey Capital and Joseph Englanoff, have fought over what to do with the property.
The 105,000-square-foot home was twice set to go to a court-ran receivership auction, but those were canceled.

The firm is currently working with Aaron Kirman with Compass and Williams & Williams Estates Group, the firm founded and operated by Rayni and Branden Williams. No contracts have been signed yet, however.

Perkins also plans to hire Concierge Auctions to run the auction. The auction house has handled several high profile property auctions in the L.A. area, including the sale of Steven Udvar-Hazy’s Villa Firenze.

Concierge has in the past been accused to using fake bidders to pump up prices.

Perkins previously told the court that Crestlloyd was focused on completing The One before putting it up for sale. He said completing the project could take $10 million and up to a year.

Real estate experts working for Crestlloyd advised that any potential buyer would want to customize the property anyway, so it would be better to save the money and leave it unfinished.

“The juice isn’t worth the squeeze to finish it, because someone’s just going to have to redo a lot of the work anyway,” Perkins told the L.A. Times.

[LAT] — Dennis Lynch