Billionaire Ron Burkle sells Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home at record price

The Mayan-influenced home in Los Feliz sold for nearly 3 times more than the previous record

Frank Lloyd Wright, Ron Burkle, and the Ennis House
Frank Lloyd Wright, Ron Burkle, and the Ennis House

Billionaire Ron Burkle has sold a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Ennis House in Los Feliz for a record price.

The $18 million sale of the Mayan-influenced home was by far the highest paid for the celebrated architect’s creation, according to Variety, which first reported the sale.

The near century-old 5,500-square-foot home in Los Feliz is among Wright’s most famous creations. It was built from 27,000 concrete blocks and has appeared in numerous films, television shows and commercials.

The buyer isn’t known. The price is nearly three times more than the previous record for a Wright-designed home, the Storer House in the Hollywood Hills. That sold in 2011.

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Despite the record, Burkle unloaded the three-bedroom hilltop home with panoramic views of the city at a discount from its original $23 million asking price. It hit the market in June 2018.

Burkle, co-founder and managing principal of the Yucaipa Companies, a private equity firm, bought the property from the nonprofit Ennis House Foundation in 2011 for $4.5 million. The home was in a state of disrepair, bearing the scars of damage sustained during the 1994 Northridge earthquake and subsequent neglect.

Burkle reportedly spent another $17 million over the years to restore the home to its original state. Just before listing Ennis House, Burkle picked up a home formerly owned by comic legend Bob Hope, with similar plans to restore it. [Variety]Dennis Lynch