$9 million per floor for Trousdale Estates manse

The only five-story house in Beverly Hills has hit the market for $9 million per floor.

The home’s five-story distinction was the result of both an aggressive building technique and fortuitous timing: The property is located on a steep incline in Trousdale Estates, and to maximize the views the owner, facing a 14-foot height restriction, decided to dig more than 80 feet into the hillside, according to the listing. That was in the 1980s; soon after the home went up, the City of Beverly Hills changed hillside building regulations, effectively precluding a similar construction.

“This important grandfathered-in structure is truly irreplaceable,” crows the listing, “and will allow a new owner to re-construct this property like none other in Trousdale Estates.”

305 Trousdale Place in Beverly Hills (Estately)

The 10,000-square-foot, five-bedroom property hit listing sites last week. The owner is an LLC tied to the Shooshani family, according to records. Sion Shooshani, who died in 2020 at age 95, was an Iranian-born businessman and the mastermind of the unique hillside construction, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2015. The home was first built in 1962, according to records, and renovated in 1985.

The house, which is almost entirely built into the hillside — from the front street entrance it appears to be only one story — sits on just under half an acre, and has a pool, expansive rooftop patio space and an indoor racquetball court. The white glass and concrete structure may not last all that much longer, however — the listing urges a potential buyer to renovate the existing home or build a new one, taking advantage of the grandfathered-in building code and the property’s breathtaking views.

It also comes with a proposed remodel: Architect Michele Saee has already developed a new design for the home, dubbed “The Butterfly House,” that was inspired by “the sense of flight or the sense of floating,” he recently told the Wall Street Journal. Renderings for Saee’s design show an airy, light-filled home with an unusual contoured roof.

The $45 million ask ranks on the high end for Trousdale Estates: In November an Indonesian industrial heir paid $28 million for a house in the area that had previously been listed at $39 million, and in September 2020 the media executive Jeffrey Katzenberg paid $30 million for a 6,500-square-foot home.

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