Berggruen adds elbow room with latest Beverly Hills buy

First Nicolas Berggruen bought William Randolph Hearst’s former Beverly Hills estate for $63.1 million. Then he bought the house next door for $12.3 million. Now he’s added another in the row for $14.8 million.

The billionaire investor and philanthropist’s newest pad is the seven-bedroom, 6.5 bath house at 1015 N. Beverly Dr., Dirt.com reported. The deal puts the price tag on the three contiguous parcels he’s accumulated – now essentially a 5.5-acre compound – at $90.2 million.

Berggruen bought the first two properties from attorney and financier Leonard Ross; both were sold as part of bankruptcy proceedings

The latest edition is a 7,000-square-foot home built in 1926 he bought from 102-year-old British billionaire Jacques Gaston “Tony” Murray in an off-market deal.

The curving white stucco house with a tile roof on just over an acre of land last sold in 2014 for $8.9 million.

A front door flanked by porthole windows opens onto a foyer leading to a kitchen, butler’s pantry and breakfast room. A fireside living room is flanked on one side by a master suite outfitted with a separate sitting room and bath, and a formal dining room and library on the other.

All of the rooms feature walls of glass and French doors opening out to an expansive terrace. Amenities include two additional kitchens, a recreation room, courtyard and backyard glade with a large freeform pool.

The peripatetic founder of the Berggruen Institute, an international think-tank billed as working toward shaping policy for the 21st century, relocated to Los Angeles last year.

The institute is building a new headquarters on 450 acres in the Santa Monica Mountains.

The head of Berggruen Holdings, a private investment company, has dual American and German citizenship.
Berggruen’s main residence is in West Hollywood’s Sierra Towers building, where he spent more than $20 million buying up at least seven different condo units. He also owns a 1920s Spanish Revival-style Hollywood mansion atop the Sunset Strip.

He paid more than $40 million five years ago for half of the legendary estate of Edie Goetz, daughter of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer co-founder Louis B. Mayer, in Holmby Hills. Then he paid $22.5 million for the other half of the Goetz estate next door.

[Dirt] – Dana Bartholomew