Investor Cyrus Nikou buys spec mansion in Encino for $20M

Investment whiz Cyrus Nikou has bought a new 19,300-square-foot mansion with a pickleball court and putting green in Encino for $20 million.

The founder of Century City-based Atar Capital purchased the spec home at 3737 North Valley Meadow Road, the Wall Street Journal reported. The seller was Shawn Kohen of Kohen Development Group.

Kohen, founder of multifamily developer Kohen Investments, based in Encino, bought the 1.3-acre lot in the hills west of Sepulveda Boulevard in 2021 for $4.2 million.

He then built the two-story, black-and-white “transitional-style home” surrounded by century-old oak trees, with a guest house, putting green, pickleball court, basketball court and a pool.

The nine-bedroom, 12-bathroom house has a living room with a 24-foot window with views of the San Fernando Valley below. It also has a home theater and a spa with a gym and sauna. A master bedroom stretches 4,000 square feet, according to the Journal.

There’s a gated driveway with a motor court, plus a six-car garage. 

Nikou said he and his wife, Maryam Nikou, looked at nearly 30 homes before they settled on the Encino house, which they aim to use as their primary residence. The couple, who have two kids, liked its large entertaining spaces separated from private family areas.

“We do a lot of various fundraising and charity and all sorts of different events at the house, so we wanted a grander home,” Nikou told the Journal. 

The Encino neighborhood that stretches into the Santa Monica Mountains south of Ventura Boulevard has drawn such celebrities as actor Michael B. Jordan, and pop stars Nick and Joe Jonas, and was the childhood home of singer Michael Jackson.

The sale of the Kohen spec house brought cheers from its real estate broker.

“Record breaking sale! Highest sale in Encino ever!” proclaimed Matt Altman of Douglas Elliman, who represented the buyer and the seller, in an all-caps message on Instagram, after the off-market sale. 

Altman was barking out of turn. The sale tied with a 20,000-square-foot Encino spec mansion purchased in 2019 by Nick Jonas and his wife, Priyanka Chopra, for a then record $20 million.  The address of that house was undisclosed.

The same day Nikou closed on the purchase, DJ and record producer Zedd, otherwise known as Anton Zaslavski, bought an Encino home for $18.4 million, Altman told the Journal.

Last month, Kohen Development Group listed a new 17,700-square-foot mansion at 615 North Faring Road in Holmby Hills for $45 million, according to the Robb Report. Kohen Development built it on a two-thirds-acre lot it picked up in 2019 for $7.6 million.

The parcel is officially owned by Encino-based Faring Hills LLC, registered to builder Soheil Matian and led by Shahab Kohen, according to public and state business records. Shawn Kohen’s Kohen Development doesn’t appear among registered businesses with the secretary of state.

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— Dana Bartholomew