Ariana Grande’s new Bird Streets home had once been in the portfolio of convicted spec home investor Robert Shapiro.
The pop star paid $13.7 million for the home in the Hills in an off-market deal, far less than the $25.5 million it listed for two years ago. The Los Angeles Times first reported the sale. The most recent offering was around $17.5 million for the four-bedroom, five-bathroom property. Compass most recently had the listing for the home on Thrasher Avenue.
The 10,000-square-foot, three-story home has balconies, an infinity pool, a “wellness center,” a 300-bottle wine cellar, and an interesting past.
The iDGroup-designed home is among the 138 properties tied to Sherman Oaks-based investment firm Woodbridge Group of Properties.
Shapiro, who was head of the now defunct company, is serving 25 years in federal prison for what authorities called a $1.3 billion Ponzi scheme to defraud investors.
In the years before news broke of federal investigations of Woodbridge in late 2018, Shapiro’s firm bought numerous high-end residential properties around L.A., and built spec homes and mansions on many of them.
After Shapiro’s arrest, a court-appointed administrator of the properties — Frederick Chin of Viewpoint Collection — was put in charge of recouping investor losses. Since then Woodbridge’s L.A. properties have been steadily sold off.
Kylie Jenner picked up a former Woodbridge property in Hidden Hills last month for $15 million. Another one, the 20,000-square-foot Carla House in Beverly Hills, sold in January for $35 million.