Uzbek-born perfume magnate sells Beverly Hills mansion for $36M

Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva and her husband, Timur Tillyaev, have sold a 48,000-square-foot mansion across from the Beverly Hills Hotel for $36 million.

An affiliate of the daughter of former Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov and her entrepreneur husband traded the seven-bedroom, 11-bathroom mansion at 900 North Crescent Drive, the Wall Street Journal reported. The buyer in the off-market deal was not disclosed.

Vertfort, the Culver City-based affiliate of the couple, bought the 1-acre estate known as Le Palais in 2013 for $32.75 million.

The two-story white mansion, clad in hand-carved French limestone, was built two years earlier at Crescent and Beverly drives by spec developer Mohamed Hadid, father of models Gigi and Bella Hadid.

The house, which hit the market for $58 million in 2012, has a 5,000-square-foot kitchen with a room-size walk-in refrigerator, a fireplace and huge glass windows that open to the outdoors, according to the Journal.

The home also includes a 15,000-square-foot basement with a ballroom that can seat 250, a Turkish-style bath with mosaic tiles and a 50-seat movie theater. On top, there’s a green roof with gardens and a bird habitat.

Outside, there’s a 60-foot-long infinity pool, manicured gardens and citrus groves.

“I wanted something grander that would set the pace for the area,” Hadid told the Journal a dozen years ago.

Drew Fenton at Carolwood Estates brokered the deal on behalf of the seller. Broker Lea Porter of the Beverly Hills Estates represented the buyer along with Zac Mostame of Carolwood Estates.

The late Islam Karimov was president of Uzbekistan for a quarter century after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Karimova-Tillyaeva, a former diplomat, is a philanthropist and founder of The Harmonist Maison de Parfum, a perfume maker based in Paris, according to the company’s website. 

Home sales in Beverly Hills have ebbed during a broader slowdown in the luxury market.

The number of single-family home sales in 90210 dropped 28.9 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the same period a year ago, according to Miller Samuel, an appraisal firm. The median sale price for a single-family estate was $7 million, down 13 percent year-over-year. 

Hadid, a developer who specializes in over-the-top projects, may be best known for his flops.

Last month, a turnaround specialist filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles, claiming it improperly canceled the building permits for a barely begun 78,000-square-foot estate in Beverly Crest, which Hadid once listed for $250 million. 

The lawsuit relates to Hadid’s bankruptcy on the planned 37-acre development at 9650 Cedarbrook Drive. Hadid filed for bankruptcy on the site in August 2022, and the property has since been listed at $68 million. 

In 2019, a judge ordered Hadid to demolish a 30,000-square-foot mansion in Bel-Air. 

The partially built house, which was supposed to command $100 million, was built bigger than Los Angeles building codes allow, the judge said, and was a danger to the public. Neighbors who filed a lawsuit feared the mansion at 901 Strada Vecchia Road could slide down the hill.

— Dana Bartholomew

This story has been updated to include that Drew Fenton of Carolwood represented the seller.

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