The luxury housing bubble in Los Angeles keeps expanding.
A celebrity plastic surgeon turned home developer is ready to sell a 34,000-square-foot speculation home for $180 million, a home that is next door to Bruce Makowsky’s $188 million spec estate, according to the Wall Street Journal.
It puts the pair of modern palatial residences in direct competition to become the most expensive home sold in the country.
“It’s like Rolls Royce and Bentley, what brand speaks to you more?” said Hilton & Hyland agent Branden Williams, in an interview with The Real Deal. He is working on both properties. “One’s blonde, one’s brunette.”
The $180 million home was developed by “scarless” rhinoplasty specialist Dr. Raj Kanodia, who lives across the street and said he spent around $50 million to develop them 1.2-acre property, according to the Journal. The house features nine bedrooms, a Portuguese limestone façade and a 2,000-bottle wine room, among other high-end amenities, according to the Journal.
That $118 million home, which hits the market in January will get a buyer 38,000 square feet, a dozen bedrooms and 21 bathrooms. There are five bars, two champagne rooms, and a 40-seat theater. Mackowsky first listed the home for a record $250 million, a price that many in the industry called highly aspiration. Makowsky relisted the home in April for $188 million.
Kanodia’s Bel Air spec home (Credit: Photographer Simon Berlyn)
The two developers have “communicated, chatted, and collaborated many times,” according to Kanodia. Williams is working with wife and colleague Rayni Williams, and another Hilton & Hyland agent, Tyrone McKillen, on both sales.
Makowsky’s project is on the MLS and they’ve held private parties and a public opening there, but Kanodia’s house isn’t going on the open market, Branden Williams said.
“It’ll be very exclusive,” he said. “It’s only verified buyers that are able to see the property.”
A sale of either near their asking prices would be the most expensive sales in the United States, which was set by hedge fund manager Barry Rosenstein when he bought a Hamptons estate for $137 million in 2014.
Neither is the even most expensive listing in Bel Air though. That goes to the sprawling, 10-acre estate of the late Jerrold Perenchio, a former chair of Univision. Perenchio bought the 1933 Chartwell estate in 1986 and expanded it over his 30 years there. It listed in August 2017 for $350 million. [WSJ] — Dennis Lynch