Fashion designer turned filmmaker Tom Ford is rumored to be forking out more than $40 million for a Holmby Hills estate owned by the estate of late philanthropist and socialite Betsy Bloomingdale, wife of department store scion Alfred Bloomingdale, Variety reported.
The gated compound has been quietly shopped around for months. Ford and his husband Richard Buckley have been in the market for a new home since losing out on a $53 million deal for an estate formerly owned by film producer Cubby Broccoli in Beverly Hills.
The 10,000-square-foot, nine-bedroom property is anchored by a 1920s-era main house renovated in the 1950s by Billy Haines. It features a red-walled library, an outdoor living area, a swimming pool and pool house, a central fountain in the front and a tennis court, Variety said.
Ford and Buckley are something of home collectors. Among their other holdings is a Richard Neutra-designed home known as the Brown-Sidney House in Bel Air, which they bought in 1997. They also own properties in Santa Fe and in Galisteo, N.M.
Ford’s most recent film, “Nocturnal Animals,” debuts this months and stars Amy Adams. [Variety] — Katherine Clarke