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Los Angeles

$70M top bid with clock ticking on The One

Auction of Nile Niami’s complicated masterpiece closes today

The One (Concierge Auctions, iStock / illustration by Ilya Hourie for The Real Deal)
The One (Concierge Auctions, iStock / illustration by Ilya Hourie for The Real Deal)

The world’s ultra rich and famous have just hours left to bid on a Bel- Air mega mansion that developer Nile Niami once predicted would fetch $500 million.

The auction, conducted online by the luxury auction house Concierge Auctions, began on Monday and closes at 4 p.m. Pacific Time on Thursday. A live tracker on Concierge’s website showed that, as of 1 p.m., the highest bid was $70 million. The $70 million offer came at 12:43 p.m. Pacific Time, and was the third bid the property had received. A $50 million offer came on Monday,, and another bidder upped the amount to $60 million on Tuesday.

The $70 million offer came from a third bidder.

The number could rise much higher: Most bidding on luxury properties typically happens toward the very end of an auction’s allotted time frame.

A representative for Concierge did not immediately respond to an interview request. Aaron Kirman, one of the brokers who has the property’s current $295 million listing, also did not immediately respond.

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The One was originally conceived by the Niami as “the largest and most expensive property in the urban world.” It is located on nearly four acres on a Bel-Air hilltop, the 105,000-square-foot contemporary spec behemoth has 21 bedrooms, dozens of bathrooms, a nightclub and full-service salon and spa — a massive build that Niami even floated as potential event space for concerts and events such as boxing matches.

For years, however, the project has been beleaguered by various construction delays — it still has not received a certificate of occupancy — and financial trouble. Niami, through an entity called Crestlloyd, owes some $200 million in debt to lenders including Hankey Capital and Joseph Englanoff. Last September, after Niami defaulted on $106 million in debt, the property entered receivership, and Crestlloyd subsequently filed for bankruptcy in an ultimately failed attempt to stave off an auction.

The property was most recently listed at $295 million; on the eve of the auction announcement, Niami made a strange, last ditch play to stave off the process by offering the mansion as a digital currency.

“Hopefully, there’s someone out there that is going to want to walk hand-in-hand with me into the stratosphere,” he said in a video. “However, this house will go to auction — and this house will be sold to the highest bidder.”

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Bel AirLA Luxury Real EstateNile Niami