LA history, starchitect cred included in Bel-Air buy

A Bel-Air estate designed by the famed architect Ted Grenzbach and owned by one of the biggest names in Los Angeles’ financial sector has gone into contract.

The home, located at 531 Barnaby Road, had a last asking price of just shy of $30 million. The property went into contract last week, according to listing sites.

Joyce Rey, the Coldwell Banker-affiliated luxury agent who had the listing, declined to comment on the price of the deal. She said via email that the buyer was a Southern California business executive who was drawn to the property because of its location near one of two entrances to the posh enclave in a spot that borders the 15th and 16th holes of the Bel-Air Country Club.

“Benvenuto a casa!” crowed the listing, which calls the estate an “exquisite Bel Air Mediterranean sanctuary.”

The 7,800-square-foot, four bedroom mansion was completed in 1980, according to records, and designed by Ted Grenzbach — the “architect to the stars” who grew up in 1930s Hollywood and went on to design homes for clients including Frank Sinatra, Cher, Gene Kelly, Rod Stewart, Barbra Streisand and Johnny Carson.

Grenzbach’s design for the Barnaby Road mansion included various imported elements from Italy and has multi-level outdoor space, a sunken bar and multiple fireplaces; the 1.6-acre property also includes a pool, bocce court and large wine cellar. Since its original construction the home has been “meticulously renovated,” according to a listing.

The seller, according to records, is Allan Rudnick, who ranks among Los Angeles’ most successful investment managers and financial advisers.

In 1989 Rudnick co-founded Kayne Anderson Rudnick, an L.A.-based investment firm that has $65 billion in assets under management; along with Rudnick and Richard Kayne, a now-billionaire investor, the firm was co-founded by the late John Anderson, an attorney and investor whose donations to UCLA made him the namesake of the university’s Anderson School of Management.

Rudnick retired from KAR in 2007 and now serves as a director and chairman of various mutual funds managed by the firm First Pacific Advisors, according to a web bio. He and his wife Paula bought the Barnaby Road house in 2003 for $8.3 million, according to records. The property appeared on listing sites in January.

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