The mystery buyer of the late Paul Allen’s 24,400-square-foot estate in Beverly Crest for $45 million was identified as a California-born developer now operating in Dallas.
Randall Van Wolfswinkel, a Dallas-based construction magnate, bought the Spanish-style hilltop hacienda at 9402 Beverly Crest Drive, Dirt.com reported.
Wolfswinkel, founder of First Texas Homes and a collector of luxury real estate, cut a deal with Allen’s family in January last year to lop off $10 million from the $55-million asking price. Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft, died in 2018 at age 65.
The 10-bedroom, 12.5-bathroom complex on 3.2 acres above Beverly Hills includes a 9,500-square-foot mansion, a guesthouse, a staff/bodyguard building with a camera-monitoring room, a cinema building with a movie theater and a 9,200-square-foot giant recording studio.
The storied property dates back to the 1920s and the Golden Age of Hollywood, but has been extensively remodeled.
Its most famous occupant of what was once called “The Castle” was actor Rock Hudson, who lived in the home from 1962 until he died in 1985.
Film director John Landis bought the home, then spent years demolishing and rebuilding the Hudson residence into a larger, grander interpretation of an authentic Spanish Revival villa.
In 1997, Landis sold the estate to Allen, who took his turn at remodeling and expanding the estate. The main house has five bedrooms, surrounded by gardens and glades lined with bougainvillea, a large swimming pool, tennis court and patios with sweeping views of Los Angeles. There’s a gourmet kitchen, gym, massage room and an upstairs master retreat with dual closets and a limestone bath.
It’s most notable feature may be the all-glass funicular that connects the pool deck to the lighted tennis court below
Allen died leaving a $26-billion fortune and one of the world’s largest collections of trophy real estate. Last summer, Allen’s New York penthouse and a lower apartment sold for $101 million to Julia Koch, of the Koch Industries family. A few months earlier, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt paid $65 million for Allen’s “Enchanted Hill,” a 120-acre vacant lot in Beverly Crest.
The reportedly reclusive Van Wolfswinkel, 60 and unmarried, maintains at least five luxury estates — two in Texas, three in California — including a 17,000-square-foot compound in Highland Park, frequently called “the Beverly Hills of Dallas,” plus a penthouse condo at the Ritz-Carlton Tower Residences in Dallas.
In 2020, Van Wolfswinkel bought a 1-acre lot on “Billionaire’s Row” in Trousdale Estates from David Geffen for $34 million. In his native Santa Barbara, he owns an $18 million oceanfront mansion recently expanded by Warner Group Architects.
— Dana Bartholomew
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