Can a vintage estate in Bel-Air really fetch $250M?

It could be America’s priciest home — with a $250 million asking price in Bel-Air meant to draw sensational headlines and elite eyeballs.

Billionaire financier Gary Winnick and his wife, Karen, have listed their historic Casa Encantada estate at 10644 Bellagio Road, which has set two records as the priciest home sold in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported.

If it fetches its soaring asking price, the 8.5-acre estate could set another sales record. Hedge fund mogul Ken Griffin set the record in 2019 with the purchase of a 23,000-square-foot penthouse on New York’s Billionaire Row for $238 million.

The 40,000-square-foot, H-shaped mansion was built in 1938 by Hilda Boldt Weber on the Bel Air Country Club golf course. The Georgian home with a Moderne flair, designed by James Dolena, was considered among America’s most luxurious.

The Winnicks bought the 60-room Casa Entantada in 2000 for $94 million, a record at the time. The seller was Dole Food magnate David Murdock, who in 1980 purchased it for $12.4 million, also a record. The estate was previously owned by Conrad Hilton, who in 1950 paid $225,000.

The Winnicks conducted a 1.5-year restoration led by designer Peter Marino that cost tens of millions of dollars. In 2019, they listed it for $225 million.

“To me, this is a work of art, and I have been its steward,” Gary Winnick, 75, told the Journal.

The sprawling estate, hidden from the street, is at the end of a curved driveway that ends with a motor court and fountain in front of its neoclassical portico.

Of its original 60 rooms, a third were dedicated to servants’ quarters and the walk-in silver, fur and wine vaults in the basement, according to the late realtor and historian Jeff Hyland.

Interior finishes included rooms paneled in rare woods like English sycamore and black walnut. The main house has seven bedrooms and 17 bathrooms, according to Zillow.

The Winnicks restored the intricate plasterwork, and hired eight Parisian artisans to redo the walls of the dining room in a Japanese-inspired lacquer finish. It took 14 coats of paint and was polished by hand over many months, Gary Winnick said.

The elaborately landscaped grounds include a swimming pool and silk trees, which draw parakeets into their branches.  A tunnel connects two holes of the golf course.

Brokers Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency and Drew Fenton of Carolwood Estates hold the listing.

At $250 million, Casa Encantada is the priciest listing in Los Angeles County, and ties for the most expensive listing in the U.S. In September, billionaire Gary Barnett listed his penthouse at Central Park Tower in New York for $250 million.

In 2020, Jeff Bezos bought the Warner estate in Beverly Hills from David Geffen for $165 million. In 2019, Lachlan Murdoch bought the Chartwell estate in Bel-Air from the estate of late Univision Chairman Jerry Perenchio for $150 million.

Last month, Beyoncé and Jay-Z bought a 40,000-square-foot beachfront estate in Malibu for $200 million.

— Dana Bartholomew

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