Tag: residential

GOP donor sells Back Bay estate in Newport Beach for $23M

[ad_1]

A 3.5-acre equestrian estate overlooking the Back Bay in Newport Beach has sold for $22.85 million.

Buck Johns, a major donor to the Republican Party, sold the 6,900-square-foot home at 2600 Mesa Drive, in Santa Ana Heights, the Orange County Business Journal reported. The buyer was undisclosed.

The deal set a home sale record for the neighborhood on the north side of the Upper Newport Back Bay. The prior record was set last year when the home next door sold for $15 million, after asking $25 million.

Brokers Brian Sperry of Coldwell Banker Realty and Bill Coté of Cote Realty Group represented the seller. Heather Kidder of Arbor Real Estate represented the buyer.

The six-bedroom, eight-bathroom ranch house was built in 1951 by Newport Beach developers George and Elinor Holstein, who subdivided the area along Mesa Drive and developed The Bluffs across the Bay as well as homes for movie stars in Beverly Hills.

They sold the bluffside estate in 1977 to Johns for $550,000, who listed the property in April for $25 million, according to the Orange County Register.

Considered among the largest residential estates in Newport Beach, the property has 381 feet of water frontage along the Back Bay. Nearby homes have between 135 and 150 feet, according to Sperry.

The rustic brown Mid-Century ranch house, with large windows, is unchanged from when it was built 73 years ago. The home has beamed ceilings, a large kitchen, gym, wine cellar and a guest wing.

Outside, there’s a sunken tennis court, gated swimming pool and pool pavilion. It’s also zoned for up to six horses as well as chickens, goats and pigs.

The house once served as a site for tennis court fundraisers, with guests that included President Gerald Ford, Vice Presidents Dick Cheney and Dan Quayle, Mike Huckabee, Larry Elder and Governors Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian.

Many older homes on smaller lots have been replaced by new construction, but larger properties are still available.

In August last year, a 2.7-acre Back Bay estate with a private lake, owned by the late OC developer Harry Rinker, was listed at 2342 Mesa Drive for $32 million.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

Developer’s nature house in Newport Beach seeks $32M

Former duck farm in Newport Beach asks $25M

Newport Beach house red-tagged after backyard slides downhill

[ad_2]

TRD Staff

Source link

August 28, 2024
Capstone Equities eyes office-to-apartment conversion in Encino

[ad_1]

Capstone Equities wants to turn a 75,000-square-foot office building in Encino into 117 affordable apartments.

The New York-based private equity firm has proposed the office-to-home conversion at 5435-5445 Balboa Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

The project, dubbed The Oaks on Balboa, would employ an adaptive re-use of the two-story, Z-shaped office building built in 1980 along the south side of the 101 Freeway. The building sits next to and across the street from two medical office buildings.

Plans call for 117 studio and one-bedroom apartments, set aside as affordable for lower-income households. A parking lot would serve 120 cars.

Capstone aims to streamline the project through Mayor Karen Bass’s Executive Directive 1, which fast-tracks approvals of affordable housing. The firm also would get density bonus incentives to allow a reduction to a required side yard and residential use of a site zoned for offices.

The office-to-home conversion, designed by FSY Architects of Elysian Valley, would result in a white, low-slung apartment building with large windows and pastel turquoise, yellow, orange and green panels, according to a rendering.

Parts of the office parking lot would be converted to apartment courtyards and gardens.

The cost of the project, as well as a timeline for construction, were not disclosed.

The project is less than a mile from where Studio City-based TADG Real Estate Group plans to build a 12-story highrise with 130 apartments atop a Mercedes-Benz showroom at 16747 West Ventura Boulevard, in Encino.

It would replace a used car lot at Ventura and La Maida Avenue, across from Los Encinos State Historic Park.

Capstone Equities, founded in 2006, in the past decade has made 25 deals to buy more than $1.5 billion in real estate, according to its website. It’s not known if it bought the office building in Encino.

In 2022, the property at 5445 Balboa Boulevard was owned by Thousand Gold Balboa LLC, based in Koreatown, according to a property database run by the San Francisco Chronicle. Its assessed value was $14.5 million. Thousand Gold Balboa was managed in February by Marcelo Holdings, led by Yoomi Kim, based in Torrance.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

TADG pitches plan to build apartments above car showroom in Encino

Capstone Equities suing Nightingale Properties’ Elie Schwartz over Whale Building

Former Dodger Jimmy Rollins trades Encino mansion for $9M

[ad_2]

TRD Staff

Source link

August 26, 2024
House for car collector on LA’s Bird Streets finds buyer at $21M

[ad_1]

A Bird Streets home apt for a car collector has landed a new owner for $21 million.

The Mid-Century-inspired home at 9211 Nightingale Drive originally hit the market for $24.5 million about a year ago before turning into a rental.

The buyer is an LLC with a Marina del Rey-based registered agent, according to property records. The seller is an LLC tied to Glendale-based Caspian Commercial Plumbing and its President David Alexy Alexanderian, property records and papers filed with the state show.

Coldwell Banker Realty’s Philip Boroda and Revel Real Estate’s Benjamin Bacal had the listing. Compass’ Jennifer Orio represented the buyer.

The six-bed, nine-bath home totals 10,914 square feet. It touts a 20-foot glass atrium in the foyer, 1,000-square-foot wellness spa, putting green and glass elevator, according to the listing.

For the auto connoisseur, it has a climate-controlled garage for eight cars with a turntable,

The Bird Streets, which gets its name from streets named after birds, sits above the Sunset Strip and is a favorite among celebrities, such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Keanu Reeves.

A range of prices dot the tony neighborhood’s current listings.

Carolwood Estates’ David Parnes and James Harris hold a $69 million listing at 9330 Flicker Way, which was built in 2021 and sits on nearly an acre. There’s also a $17.5 million listing for 9150 Oriole Way, which has four beds and six baths. That’s listed by Carolwood’s Drew Fenton and The Agency’s David Findley. The Beverly Hills Estates’ Jennifer Saginor is on a listing just under $10 million at 9240 Warbler Way, which was built in the 1930s and is on over half an acre.

In April, a Bird Streets spec home at 1898 Rising Glen Road sold for $62.8 million, temporarily wearing the crown for the year’s priciest residential deal in Los Angeles County. The designation later moved to Malibu, where Laurene Powell Jobs paid $94 million for her fourth estate and reports surfaced that Oakley founder Jim Jannard sold his estate in the beach city for $210 million.

Read more

Bird Streets spec home sells for $63M — priciest LA deal this year

Development site in Bird Streets hits market for $5M

Bird Streets mansion overlooking Sunset Strip sells for $38M

[ad_2]

Kari Hamanaka, Christian Bautista

Source link

August 23, 2024
California state senator backs plan for homes on Rowland Heights golf course

[ad_1]

RV Dev’s controversial plan to build 360 homes on a golf course in Rowland Heights has received a boost from state Sen. Bob Archuleta.

Archuleta, D-Norwalk, endorsed the proposal by the Irvine-based developer controlled by an LLC run by George Peterson to redevelop the Rowland Heights half of the closed Royal Vista Golf Club at 20055 East Colima Road, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported.

Peterson is the same well-heeled “sugar daddy” developer who appeared regularly on early seasons of reality TV show “Real Housewives of Orange County.”

Project Dimensions, one of Peterson’s Irvine-based companies, sponsored the original plans for the Royal Vista project in 2021. The revised plans by RV Dev LLC run by the RV Res I LLC that state business records say is run by Peterson call for 360 homes on the east side of the golf course in unincorporated Rowland Heights, officially located in the city of Walnut but actually on L.A. County land.

The Royal Vista Residential Project would redevelop the 61-year-old links into 200 single-family homes, 72 townhomes, 58 duplex homes and 30 triplex homes, divided by recreational trails. Los Angeles County officials must approve the development.

Some 23 percent of the for-sale homes would be set aside for middle-income households.

In 2021, the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission approved a zone change allowing the project to move forward. The 158-acre, 27-hole golf course, split between multiple land owners, closed in February and hasn’t been maintained since.

Pending final approvals, RV Dev could break ground early next year, according to a project website.

Neighbors have long pushed back against the proposed development they say could crowd local schools, cause more traffic and pollution, use more water and destroy open space used by wildlife.

This month, Archuleta weighed in on the side of the developer — and his field deputy caught an earful from residents at a recent community meeting who argued that infrastructure can’t handle a new influx of residents.

Members of the Rowland Heights Community Coordinating Council also opposed the project, saying they felt excluded from the decision-making process. Opponents suggested the defunct golf course should be turned into a park that would “preserve nature,” according to the Tribune.

“[Colima Road is] a two-lane major street that gets us through Rowland Heights,” Council President Yvette Romoshe told the Tribune. “It cannot support the infrastructure of thousands of new drivers on the road.”

“We strongly disagree with that many houses.”

Kile Miller, field deputy for Archuleta, rejected naysayer opinions, saying new developments generally aren’t accepted by communities, but their benefits far outweigh their harms.

He said that infrastructure was already accounted for before Archuleta endorsed the project.

“There’s plenty of traffic studies and impact studies on exactly what the impacts of this development will be,” Miller told the Tribune. “And so, sometimes the developer will need to account for that in order to maybe expand or strengthen or modernize infrastructure in order to meet what the anticipated requirements are.”

He added that a portion of taxes generated by the new development can be directed toward improving Rowland Heights’ streets and more.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

Massive piece of rural LA County land hits market for $99M

LA County to crack down on short-term rentals in unincorporated areas

LA County leads the nation in “granny flat” construction

[ad_2]

TRD Staff

Source link

August 23, 2024
Goldfin Ventures to replace South LA church with affordable housing

[ad_1]

Goldfin Ventures wants to replace a shuttered church in Historic South-Central with a 92-unit affordable housing complex.

The Saratoga-based developer led by Vinu Krishnamurthy has filed plans to build the five-story complex at 665 East Adams Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

The 74-year-old church building that once served as the home of Spiritual Fellowship Church would be demolished.

Plans call for an apartment building with 92 studio and one-bedroom apartments with no on-site parking. Except for a market-rate manager’s unit, all the apartments would be set aside as affordable for low- and moderate-income households.

The developer seeks a streamlined approval through Mayor Karen Bass’s Executive Directive 1, which fast-tracks entitlements for affordable housing.

The charcoal and white building, designed by Mountain View-based Metropolis Architecture, would be built on a nearly third-acre site behind a strip mall. It would include two courtyards and a small rear yard.

Goldfin bought the church property in June last year from Spiritual Fellowship Church for $1.3 million, according to city records cited by Urbanize. It had been listed for $2 million as a redevelopment property, according to Redstone Realty Group.

The 2,000-square-foot Spiritual Fellowship Church, a cream-colored sanctuary topped by a green roof, was built in 1950.

It was opened the following year by fireman Horace Green and his wife, the Reverend Norma Nelson, who soon added its white metal cross outlined in neon, according to an Adams Boulevard blog.

Goldfin Ventures, based in Silicon Valley, was founded in 2018 and run by Krishnamurthy, an IT specialist and co-founder of Swish io, a customized video streaming firm based in San Francisco, according to state business records and his LinkedIn page.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

LA housing agency pays $43M to buy 120 apartments in South LA

Planned Parenthood LA buys South Central industrial building for $38M

LA Football Club opposes apartment project over sign obstruction

[ad_2]

TRD Staff

Source link

August 23, 2024
House-flip firm in escrow on Kanye West’s gutted Malibu digs

[ad_1]

A crowdfunding firm that has flipped homes since 2018 said it’s in contract to buy Kanye West’s gutted Malibu home at a big discount.

Belwood Investments, originally founded in Folsom, is in escrow on West’s home at 24844 Malibu Road for $21 million, according to the company’s marketing lead David Contreras.

The real estate firm acquires homes, partially funded with individual investors who sign up through the company’s app. Belwood says it works with non-accredited investors willing to put up at least $1,000, which is then secured through a trust deed. The business model is to renovate the home and sell it.

The Malibu price would be a steep haircut for rapper and music producer West, who now goes by the name Ye. He put the home on the market in January with a $53 million ask. The price was then slashed in April to $39 million.

The Oppenheim Group’s Jason Oppenheim has the listing. If the property trades for $21 million, it will represent a 60 percent discount from the asking price in January.

Contreras said Belwood is working with The Agency’s Jean-Baptiste Rugiero on the deal. The Agency declined to comment.

The home’s current state has been well publicized.

In 2021, West paid $57.3 million for the property, then tore out the windows, doors and wiring. The gutted structure spans roughly 4,000 square feet with four bedrooms and five bathrooms, but it currently lacks plumbing, electrical, HVAC and interior finishes..

Minimalist designer Tadao Ando redesigned the house, which took 1,200 tons of concrete and 200 tons of steel to build.

Belwood is keen on bringing the house back to Ando’s original vision. The flipper estimates restoration costs of about $6.5 million for a project expected to take 12 to 16 months, according to Contreras.

A broker price opinion report prepared for Belwood by Rugiero and reviewed by The Real Deal estimated the property’s final value once restored to be more than $50 million.

“It seemed like a great opportunity, considering the history of the property and the architect who designed it,” Contreras said of what attracted the company to the investment.

If the deal closes, it would mark Belwood’s first Malibu property.

The investment firm, according to Contreras, plans to work with Marmol Radziner’s Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner, the original architects of the home when it was built in 2013 for financier and art collector Richard Sachs.

After West purchased the property in 2021, he directed the demolition crew to remove everything from tubs to light fixtures, according to a report from The New Yorker in June. Workers were instructed to remove all traces of windows, air conditioning, heating, cable, wiring, bathrooms and more, the report said.

Read more

Kanye West’s Malibu home marks top contract for LA County

Malibu estate with surfboard shack, beach path trades for $32M

Malibu Cove Colony home tops list of LA luxe resi contracts

[ad_2]

Kari Hamanaka, Christian Bautista

Source link

August 22, 2024
Lion Signature gets nod for 111-unit apartment complex in Lake Balboa

[ad_1]

Lion Signature has gained approval to build a 111-unit apartment complex in Lake Balboa.

The Burbank-based developer led by Egish Kuiumjian won a green light from the Los Angeles City Council for the four-story building at 16949-16955 Sherman Way, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. It would replace a former Sizzler steakhouse and parking lot.

The complex would be built on the north side of Sherman Way, west of Balboa Boulevard. Lake Balboa is an L.A. neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley originally part of Van Nuys.

Plans call for 111 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments above 4,500 square feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants, with parking for more than 160 cars.

The council approved the complex on the condition that Lion include 13 affordable units for very low-income households. The component was required by Measure JJJ, which stipulates that a developer seeking a zone change or general plan amendment include affordable apartments.

The white, brown and royal purple project, designed by Glendale-based Alajajian Marcoosi Architects, would be clad in painted plaster, composite wood panels and metal siding.

The E-shaped complex would include two courtyards outside a central leg, which would be topped by a rooftop deck. The apartments would contain large windows and exterior balconies trimmed in black, according to a rendering, with floor-to-ceiling windows for ground-floor shops.

Lion Signature bought the property in 2019 for $4 million, according to property records cited by the Commercial Observer. The developer applied to build the project in 2022.

The project has proved controversial with neighbors, who argued at a Planning Commission meeting in February that it would cause traffic congestion and a loss of privacy. The matter was supposed to go before the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee in June, but was delayed as a result of community pushback, according to Urbanize.

Councilwoman Imelda Padilla, who represents the area, had sought to downsize the building, but was unsuccessful. The project was ultimately approved for the four stories sought by Lion.

Lion Signature, an incorporated firm founded in 2009, is run by three members of the Kuiumjian family, according to state business records.

Despite high demand for apartments in Los Angeles, the number of completed units in the region has plunged in the wake of high interest rates, according to the Observer. There were 3,513 units finished in the most recent quarter ending in June, compared to 4,314 units completed a year earlier, according to a market report from CBRE.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

LA considers beefing up law against tenant harassment

SCAH-LA eyes nine-story affordable housing complex in Mid-Wilshire

LA Archdiocese and nonprofit to build affordable housing on church land

[ad_2]

TRD Staff

Source link

August 20, 2024
“Nothing for us to defend”: LA brokers eye NAR deadline

[ad_1]

A couple posted on Reddit with a question from their search for a Pasadena-area home. They “love” their broker, they wrote.

Still, they hope to negotiate her commission under the new NAR rules, and asked fellow Redditors if it was true they must sign papers before seeing a single property.

Enter a myriad of responses and opinions that make clear confusion still abounds on the eve of the National Association of Realtors’ deadline for new rules stemming from the Sitzer-Burnett class action lawsuit in Missouri federal court.

“If you ask the average person what the MLS stands for, they’re going to say, ‘Major League Soccer,’” said The Agency’s Jon Grauman. “Most people don’t understand the terms and nomenclature of real estate. Why would they? It’s not part of their daily lives.”

But the stakes are becoming clearer. The California Regional Multiple Listing Service released an updated fine schedule for the new rules, including a $2,500 penalty for disclosing listing or buyer agent commissions and $2,500 for showing a property without a signed buyer agreement. Agents receive no warning for either infraction, just the bill.

There’s no excuse for agents who are still confused, said Anthony Marguleas, the founder of Pacific Palisades-based boutique brokerage Amalfi Estates.

“The lawsuit started in 2019, so we’ve technically had five years to get ready for this,” Marguleas said. “The people that aren’t ready, it’s pretty surprising. There have been hundreds and hundreds of emails and trainings over the last six months.”

Marguleas said some of the discourse he’s seen in online industry forums has baffled him.

“It’s pretty shocking how unprepared certain agents are,” Marguleas. “They still put in the private remarks, ‘Call me to discuss commission,’ which you’re not allowed to do.”

Stating the obvious

The Agency’s Ben Belack headed the brokerage’s sales meeting held days ahead of the deadline to discuss the new rules with his colleagues.

While he believes the brokerage’s agents understand the changes, the challenge is wrapping their minds around new conversations and clarifying client questions.

“Before, we had a standard of compensation. Now, we’re going to have a standard of behavior,” Belack said.

A common refrain around how brokers will adapt to increased negotiation and competition has been proving the value of agents’ work. Grauman said for most, that could feel like stating the obvious.

“Our job as brokers right now is to educate, not defend. There’s nothing for us to defend,” Grauman said. “We just need to educate consumers on what’s the new world order. These are not changes to the law; they are changes to the internal way we conduct our business.”

More turns ahead

Ask anyone to forecast the state of the industry post-Aug. 17, and the responses reveal more questions than anything else.

“Have you looked at how this is meant to be policed?” Grauman said. “They’re going to look to agents to essentially tattle on each other if someone is not abiding by the rules.”

One thing many agents have concluded: more litigation is likely.

“The lawsuit that started all of this had nothing to do with buyers; it was only sellers. So there’s dozens of additional lawsuits,” Marguleas said.

Days before the deadline, a group of Signature Sotheby’s International Realty agents filed an antitrust lawsuit in Michigan district court against the National Association of Realtors, the Michigan Association of Realtors and other industry groups. The lawsuit challenges those group’s requirement of membership and seeks class action status, according to court documents.

Belack views ramifications of the Sitzer/Burnett settlements as not just limited to altering the way the NAR membership operates. Instead, it also stands to shake up how the trade organization itself operates.

“Before, it was the sellers as the plaintiffs in the class action,” Belack said. “Now, it’s [NAR’s] membership. Did we ever think agents were going to sue NAR? Well, here it is.”

Read more

Boutique broker explains new CAR forms for residential agents

Beverly Hills brokerage looks to get ahead of NAR settlement rules

REBNY or not: New York’s residential scene braces for NAR deadline

[ad_2]

Kari Hamanaka

Source link

August 16, 2024
What OC city is the hottest residential market in the US?

[ad_1]

Irvine, an Orange County city miles from the beach, has become the hottest residential market in the nation.

Over the past year, the price of a median priced home in the central OC city jumped 20.8 percent to $1.56 million, the highest run-up in the U.S., the Los Angeles Times reported, citing a review by Home Economics based on Zillow figures.

Irvine has also outperformed other California cities in population growth and homebuilding.

While Los Angeles, San Francisco and other large cities have lost thousands of residents, Irvine has added more than 13,000 people in the past three years, the most in the state.

During that period, the city grew to 315,000 residents, leaping ahead of Santa Ana to become the state’s 13th largest city.

Of the nearly 100,000 net new homes built in OC since 2010, 35,000 sprang up in Irvine.

The popularity of Irvine is an affirmation of one of the nation’s largest master-planned communities, according to the Times.

Six decades ago, the Newport Beach-based Irvine Company led by Donald Bren began turning 100,000 acres of ranchland, beanfields and citrus groves into a series of self-contained suburban villages.

Over time, Irvine built a reputation for excellent public schools, low crime and parks.

The economic engine of UC Irvine and the city’s premium office towers helped create a haven for upwardly mobile families, especially those arriving in recent decades from East Asia.

“It’s such a clean, safe city that still has room to add more housing and jobs,” John Burns, CEO of Irvine-based John Burns Real Estate Consulting, told the Times. “Nothing else in Southern California is like that.”

That area includes Great Park, a former Marine air base of 4,700 acres. A lengthy debate over its future was settled in 2002 in favor of residential development. A quarter of the site is set aside for parks, and the city is planning for as many as 15,800 homes.

Construction in Great Park allows Irvine to continue to outpace surrounding communities in homebuilding. In the past five years, the 9,400 homes permitted in Irvine is double the next largest amount of any OC city, according to the U.S. Census.

Analysts say Irvine’s supply of new homes is still being outpaced by demand, especially since the city serves as one of OC’s employment hubs.

Adjacent cities have seen significant price appreciation. Besides Irvine, four other spots in Orange County — Laguna Niguel, Tustin, Lake Forest and Mission Viejo — are in the top 12 U.S. cities with the highest jump in home values over the past year, according to Zillow.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

OC billionaire sells pair of Irvine office buildings for $60M

Donald Bren of Irvine Company leads parade of OC’s wealthiest

Inari Medical expands with 27K sf office sublease in Irvine

[ad_2]

TRD Staff

Source link

August 16, 2024
Malibu estate with surfboard shack, beach path trades for $32M

[ad_1]

A Los Angeles litigation attorney found a buyer for his Malibu estate, trading it for $31.7 million.

The 7,269-square-foot Point Dume home at 28823 Cliffside Drive is yet another ultra-luxury deal for Malibu in what is shaping up as a red-hot year for the beach town.

Property records show the seller was Brian Strange, founder of complex litigation firm Strange LLP. The buyer is an LLC tied to a New York-based accounting firm specializing in services for high-net-worth clients.

Compass’ Chris Cortazzo had the listing, while Compass’ Lily Harfouche represented the buyer.

Records on Zillow show the property hit the market in May, with a $35 million asking price.

The six-bedroom, five-bath home built in 1957 was recently renovated, according to listing sites. The gated property on more than 1.5 acres includes a guest house, guest suite over the garage, room for six cars, a path to the beach and surfboard shack.

The Cliffside sale marks another sizable deal for Malibu, which has hosted ultra-luxury deals of all shapes and sizes this year.

Last month a spec mansion above Billionaire’s Beach sold for $32 million. There was also developer Scott Gillen’s sale of the Malibu home he built, called The Edge, for $61 million.

Among the more eyebrow-raising deals in the city was Steve Jobs’ widow Laurene Powell Jobs’ $94 million purchase of her fourth Malibu property. There was also the reported sale of Oakley and Red Digital Cinema Camera founder Jim Jannard’s estate for $210 million — the state record for a residential price — to an unknown buyer.

Most recently, Westside Estate Agency co-founder Kurt Rappaport told Bloomberg he’s getting ready to release a $300 million private listing. The property, if sold anywhere near its ask, would take the crown as the state’s highest-priced deal.

Read more

Malibu Cove Colony home tops list of LA luxe resi contracts

Kurt Rappaport to roll out $300M estate listing in Malibu

Kanye West’s Malibu home marks top contract for LA County

[ad_2]

Kari Hamanaka, Christian Bautista

Source link

August 16, 2024
SCAH-LA pitches 100% affordable apartment complex in Westlake

[ad_1]

Southern California Affordable Housing wants to build a 148-unit complex in Westlake, across from MacArthur Park.

The Rancho Cucamonga-based nonprofit developer, doing business as SCAH-LA, has filed plans to build the eight-story building at 2400 West 7th Street, across from the southwest corner of the park, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. It would replace a corner strip mall.

Plans call for 148 studio and one-bedroom apartments. Except for a manager’s unit, all of the apartments would be affordable for moderate- and low-income households.

The developer would employ density bonus incentives to build a larger building than local zoning rules allow. It would also employ Mayor Karen Bass’ Executive Order 1, which streamlines approval for affordable housing projects.

The rectangular project, designed by Beverly Grove-based 64North, includes a facade pocketed by arches large and small, which serve as cutaways for balconies on every floor, according to a rendering.

The proposed project would be built across from future water features planned for MacArthur Park, using Measure W funds, and a block to the west of an Abode Communities development that will bring 100 affordable homes on Grand View Street, according to Urbanize.

Southern California Affordable Housing, founded in 2001, is led by Jeffrey Burum, who co-founded National CORE, an affordable housing developer also based in Rancho Cucamonga, according to state business records.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

Jamison prepares office-to-homes conversion in Westlake

Metro and Walter J. Company resubmit urban village plan in Westlake

National CORE lands $19M loan to buy Fort Worth affordable housing

[ad_2]

TRD Staff

Source link

August 14, 2024
Malibu Cove Colony home tops list of LA luxe resi contracts

[ad_1]

A Malibu Cove Colony property tops last week’s list of the largest residential contracts signed in Los Angeles County.

That’s the word from the Eklund Weekly Luxury Report LA, which tallied contracts signed on listings above $4 million within the county between Aug. 5 and Aug. 11. The four-bed, three-bath home at 26940 Malibu Cove Colony Drive counts the beach as its backyard, with a listing price just under $11 million.

Douglas Elliman’s Ivan Estrada has the listing on the home, which property records show is owned by a trust tied to Renee Kaswan, the late inventor of Restatis dry-eye treatment and a philanthropist whose foray into affordable housing in Koreatown ended in a financial meltdown.

The roughly 3,500-square-foot home in Malibu Cove Colony first went on sale in the spring of 2022 for $21.6 million before going on and off the market as a rental and for sale with several price reductions along the way, according to Zillow.

The beachfront contemporary, designed by architect Ron Goldman, has floor-to-ceiling windows, a two-story foyer, Tesla chargers and ocean views.

L.A. County’s second-largest signed contract last week was a Hidden Hills home at 23738 Long Valley Road.

The six-bed, nine-bath property totaling 9,376 square feet is listed at $9.3 million.

Douglas Elliman’s Marc Shevin and Sara Shevin have the listing. Property records show the home is owned by Micah Scheinberg and Cara Scheinberg.

Highlights include a pool, spa and full-size court for sports such as pickleball.

In total, Los Angeles County reported three more contracts in the week ended Aug. 11 in comparison to the prior seven-day period, according to the Eklund report. The market saw a total of 16 signed contracts last week, including one condo unit.

Total volume for last week’s contracts was $102.8 million, which amounted to a 26 percent jump from the prior reporting period.

Read more

LA’s Luxury Home Market Enters August with Quiet Week

Kanye West’s Malibu home marks top contract for LA County

Spec mansion above Malibu’s Billionaire’s Beach goes for $32M

[ad_2]

Kari Hamanaka

Source link

August 13, 2024
Judge OKs Leo Pustilnikov’s purchase of 17 Skid Row buildings

[ad_1]

Developer Leo Pustilnikov, a pioneer of a legal loophole to approve homes in tony Beverly Hills, may now be the largest owner of homeless housing in Los Angeles.

A judge has approved his purchase of a portfolio of 17 Skid Row buildings for formerly homeless residents in Los Angeles’ Skid Row for $10 million, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The seller was Receiver Specialists, a receiver that controlled the apartments and aging single-room occupancy hotels with 1,200 units once owned by the Skid Row Housing Trust.

The price works out to $8,333 per unit.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stephen Goorvitch said the sale to the owner of Beverly Hills-based SLH Investments was in the best interest of poor tenants and L.A. taxpayers who had to foot the bill for maintenance and repairs of the buildings for 16 months.

“This is a solution that is the product of collaboration, hard work and checks and balances,” Goorvitch said. “Only time will tell whether this will be a success story, but I am optimistic.”

The judge also approved the sale of an additional building, known as the New Genesis, to KE Ventures, an affiliate of Washington, D.C.-based Dalian Development, the multifamily arm of Fateh Family Office, for $2.1 million.

Both deals are slated to close next month.

With the earlier transfers of 11 other properties to nonprofit landlords, all 29 buildings once controlled by the Skid Row Housing Trust have found new owners.

Under the terms of the deal, reported by The Times last month and formally announced in court papers filed by Receivership Specialists, Pustilnikov will pay $19 million for the portfolio — and then receive $9 million back to cover renovations and repairs.

For the trust buildings, Pustilnikov formed a partnership, Hope for an Affordable LA, alongside North Hills-based Hope the Mission, which will oversee social services.

Ann Sewill, general manager of the Los Angeles Housing Department, said she has been impressed with Pustilnikov’s attention to the properties and attempted visits with tenants across the portfolio.

“We have a clear-eyed view of how to put these buildings back into financial and physical viability,” Sewill told the Times.

Pustilnikov, who has long been interested in acquiring the trust buildings, now owns high-value residential and commercial properties across Los Angeles County.

The 38-year-old developer has pioneered using the state legal loophole known as builder’s remedy that allows developers to skirt zoning in cities with uncertified state housing plans. He currently has projects in the pipeline for 3,500 homes in Beverly Hills and Redondo Beach.

In the past decade, he estimates having completed more than $1 billion in real estate deals, according to a profile by The Real Deal.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

Leo Pustilnikov to acquire 17 Skid Row buildings in LA for $10M

AIDS Healthcare scuttles $27M deal to buy six buildings on Skid Row

Skid Row Housing Trust diversifies into the distressed mortgage business

[ad_2]

TRD Staff

Source link

August 9, 2024
LA’s Luxury Home Market Enters August with Quiet Week

[ad_1]

Manhattan Beach’s residential market is standing tall even as the number of signed contracts for Los Angeles County shrinks.

The nine-bed, 11-bath home at 763 31st Street in Manhattan Beach was last week’s largest property under contract, with an asking price of $10.5 million, according to the Eklund Weekly Luxury Report L.A. The roundup counts signed contracts of residential listings within the county priced above $4 million.

The Spanish Colonial home on 31st Street totals 7,308 square feet with glass walls, cathedral ceilings, space for a home theater and a pool with waterfalls.

Property records show the seller is a family trust tied to Gregory Hartmann and Dana Hartmann.

Claire Gillespie and Margaret Gillespie with Vista Sotheby’s International Realty have the listing.

Manhattan Beach notches another victory with the contract.

Two weeks ago, a home in the city’s Hill Section neighborhood was the top contract in Eklund Gomes’ report, with a $16.9 million ask for the property at 934 1st Street. The city also saw its priciest home sale ever last month when 1800 The Strand traded for $24.5 million.

Elsewhere in L.A. County, a Hancock Park home with a listing price of $9.4 million was last week’s second-largest property under contract.

The home at 434 South Rimpau Boulevard has served as a well-known local attraction during Halloween, when homeowner Richard Correll decks the property out with items he’s collected from various film sets over the years. Correll is a director, actor, writer and producer who co-created “Hannah Montana.” He has also directed episodes of “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody,” “Family Matters,” “That’s So Raven” and “Fuller House” among other television shows.

The Colonial Revival is listed by Coldwell Banker Realty’s Anne Loveland and Sue Carr. It hit the market less than a month ago, according to Zillow.

The property has five bedrooms and eight bathrooms across 9,113 square feet. Highlights include a second-floor atrium, guest house and backyard with a trampoline and zipline.

Overall, Los Angeles County counted 13 contracts for the week ended Aug. 4, which is off from the 16 signed in the prior seven-day period, according to the Eklund report. Last week’s contracts equated to total volume of $81.5 million, which compares with $136.6 million in the prior week.

Meanwhile, demand for luxury condos remained thin as the segment saw its third straight week of no signed contracts.

Read more

Manhattan Beach home tops LA County’s residential contracts list

Manhattan Beach property breaks city record again with $24.5M trade

The Agency’s Rainy Hake Austin talks trends in LA luxury market

[ad_2]

Kari Hamanaka

Source link

August 6, 2024
Leo Pustilnikov to acquire 17 Skid Row buildings in LA for $10M

[ad_1]

Developer Leo Pustilnikov has agreed to buy 17 Skid Row buildings for formerly homeless residents in Downtown Los Angeles for $10 million.

The owner of Beverly Hills-based SLH Investments has cut a deal to buy the portfolio of buildings containing 1,200 units once owned by the Skid Row Housing Trust, the Los Angeles Times reported. The seller was Receiver Specialists, a receiver that controls the properties.

If the deal goes through, the price works out to $8,333 per unit.

The addresses of the properties, made up of single-room occupancy hotels and small apartment complexes, were not disclosed. Their 1,200 units serve formerly homeless tenants, many of whom are elderly, disabled or suffer from mental health problems.

The deal requires judicial approval slated for Los Angeles County Superior Court next month.

Under the terms of the deal, reported by The Times this month and formally announced in court papers filed by Receivership Specialists, Pustilnikov will pay $19 million for the portfolio — and then receive $9 million back to cover renovations and repairs.

“The purchaser appears to me to be a responsible and qualified operator,” wrote Kevin Singer, president of Receivership Specialists, in the court filing. “The at-risk population that lives at the sale properties needs a permanent owner/operator, and without such an owner/operator the alternatives for these tenants could be catastrophic.”

For the trust buildings, Pustilnikov formed a partnership, Hope for an Affordable LA, alongside North Hills-based Hope the Mission, which will oversee social services. Mayor Karen Bass and city officials have insisted that mental health, addiction and other supportive services continue to be offered in the buildings as a condition of a sale.

The sale to Pustilnikov, plus a separate sale to another owner for an additional property, would finalize the dissolution of the trust’s portfolio of 29 buildings.

The trust’s failure last year triggered what city officials called an “impending humanitarian crisis” with tenants living in squalid conditions and sparked widespread fears of losing a critical source of last-resort housing, according to the Times.

Eleven of the trust’s properties, mostly those newer and in better condition, already have been sold to nonprofit landlords.

The remaining buildings, which are older and lose money despite federal rental subsidies, struggled to find new owners as the traditional nonprofits shunned them. The city once planned to take over the rest of the portfolio, but the plan fizzled as budget pressures rose.

Last spring, Hollywood-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation offered to buy a dozen buildings for $53 million. Then the nonprofit backed out because of the expected cost of repairs.

Pustilnikov, who has long been interested in acquiring the trust buildings, now owns high-value residential and commercial properties across Los Angeles County.

The 38-year-old developer has pioneered using the state legal loophole known as the builder’s remedy that allows developers to skirt zoning in cities with uncertified state housing plans, with mixed-use projects in the works in Beverly Hills and Redondo Beach. In the past decade, he estimates having completed more than $1 billion in real estate deals, according to a profile by The Real Deal.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

AIDS Healthcare bids $53M for Skid Row housing portfolio in DTLA

AIDS Healthcare scuttles $27M deal to buy six buildings on Skid Row

Skid Row Housing Trust diversifies into the distressed mortgage business

[ad_2]

TRD Staff

Source link

July 29, 2024
Boutique broker explains new CAR forms for residential agents
[ad_1]
After much ado, residential agents have some clarity about a sales process that complies with the National Association of Realtors court settlement.

With the Aug. 17 deadline looming for the rollout of new rules resulting from NAR’s $418 million settlement of an antitrust case earlier this year, the California Association of Realtors last week released updated disclosure forms for agents.

Earlier versions were not without drama. The Consumer Federation of America’s June critique found they were too difficult to understand. CAR suggested the consumer group spent too much time on “grammar, formatting and design” of old drafts. Meanwhile, a Department of Justice inquiry further delayed the forms’ release.

In the NAR case, the court found that having a seller pay a commission to the buyer’s agent created a conflict of interest and amounted to collusion. NAR agreed to prohibit listing brokers from offering commissions to buyer’s agents through the Multiple Listing Service, and to require buyer’s agents to obtain written compensation agreements before taking them on home tours. The new forms are designed to address these issues.

With the documents now out, and the disclosures packet four pages longer than the previous one, Nourmand & Associates President Michael Nourmand went over the forms and explained the changes to TRD.

What changed?
- Big change: No more box designating a fee for the buyer’s agent. Instead, there’s a box specifying if a buyer is unrepresented, the seller is to pay the buyer’s agent a specific amount.
- Nourmand’s take: “I believe that buyers are going to ask the seller to pay their agent and it’s now going to be reflected in the price. I think now it’s part of the negotiation on price because it’s an expense.”
- Big change: The fee in the Buyer Representation and Broker Compensation Form overrides the fee agreement in the residential purchase agreement.
- Nourmand’s take: “If in my BRBC I say to the buyer ‘You only have to pay me 2 percent’ and I write an offer and in the purchase agreement the seller agrees to pay me 2.5 percent, I’m getting paid 2 percent because the BRBC overrides it. … That’s something very important because I know in a matter of months, somebody’s going to walk into my office very upset that they didn’t sign a full fee on the BRBC.”
- Big change: Many in the industry say the California residential market’s largest headwind now and in the future is housing affordability. But if sellers don’t pay the buyer’s agent, it raises the possibility of buyers bringing more money to the deal.
A few ideas of possible workarounds have been floated, such as lenders potentially approving a buyer credit that could be used to pay the buyer’s agent, he pointed out. However, time will tell if that becomes a viable option.

Nourmand’s take: “Normally, when people buy a place, they’re cobbling money together. … Sometimes, they’re getting money from family, so it’s not the best time for them to write a check to an agent.”

Ready?

Take a look through The Real Deal’s post-settlement reporting and one thing is clear: management at some of the largest brokerages say they’re ready for Aug. 17. Some with boots on the ground feel less confident.

“It’s going to take some time. This is educating buyers, educating other agents. I get calls from other agents who work at other companies to ask me questions about how it works and what I think is going to happen,” Nourmand said. “Obviously they’re my colleagues so I answer them, but to me that also clearly demonstrates they’re not getting it from their leadership.”

When asked what types of brokerages those agents who called are hailing from, Nourmand described them as being mostly from big boxes not headquartered locally.

Nourmand views that as a competitive advantage of boutique brokerages. Agents at smaller firms may have easier access to managers to get clarity on the new rules.

“The advantage that boutiques have is I see my people,” he said. “I see my agents on a regular basis.”

What to do?

Nourmand outlined some steps he has taken to clarify the buying process for agents and clients.
- Change the website, again: Last month the agency sought to get ahead of the new NAR settlement rules by displaying the buyer agent commission on all Nourmand website listings.
  That will now be updated to remove the “buyer agent compensation” line. It will be replaced with “seller concession” and specify either “yes” or “no.”
- New buyer presentation: This is given to buyers to review the services Nourmand & Associates provides.
  It’s an educational play for buyers who think their agents’ sole job is showing them houses, while also offering the formal meetings that have historically happened mostly on the sell side.
  
  “This is to explain that if you think I can beat a machine, that’s impossible. Even if I sat on my computer refreshing the screen, that’s the worst use of time. Yes, we will show you properties on the market and schedule showings and tell you about stuff that’s off market and coming soon, but here are the other services we do,” Nourmand said.
- Final thought: “There’s a lot of moving parts [in getting a deal done] and I think that’s what’s really frustrated Wall Street and Silicon Valley is how do you disrupt human emotion?” Nourmand added. “One of the core things we do is keep the buyer and seller apart because they would kill each other. How do you have a standardized way to deal with that? … It’s a lot of soft skills that people don’t understand.”
Read more

Beverly Hills brokerage looks to get ahead of NAR settlement rules

Justice Department investigates California Realtors’ sales paperwork

More legal woes for NAR as court revives lawsuit
[ad_2]

Kari Hamanaka

Source link
July 29, 2024
R.W. Selby gets nod for makeover along Hollywood Walk of Fame

[ad_1]

R.W. Selby could soon redevelop part of Hollywood’s Walk of Fame with 633 apartments, offices, shops and restaurants.

An affiliate of the Brentwood-based developer led by Rick Selby was approved by the Los Angeles City Planning Commission to build the mixed-use project on two sites at 6626-6636 West Hollywood Boulevard and 1623-1645 and 1638-1644 North Cherokee Avenue, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

The affiliate, J+J Hollywood, would bulldoze a swath of commercial properties and parking lots.

Plans for the project, dubbed Hollywood Central, call for four apartment buildings containing 633 units, 29,600 square feet of offices and 41,700 square feet of shops and restaurants on the south side of Hollywood Boulevard at Las Palmas and Cherokee avenues.

The western site, south of the Walk of Fame between Las Palmas and Cherokee, would replace a parking lot with three highrises with 393 studio and one-bedroom apartments above an underground parking garage for 353 cars.

The new structures would include a seven-story building with 46 units above 4,250 square feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants; a 15-story building with 281 units and 30,200 square feet of retail; and a seven-story building with 66 apartments and 7,700 square feet of ground-floor offices.

R.W. Selby would employ density bonus incentives for larger buildings than allowed by local zoning rules in exchange for 40 affordable apartments for very-low income households.

The eastern site, across Cherokee Avenue, would replace commercial buildings with a 13-story tower with 240 apartments above 30,000 square feet of ground-floor offices and a restaurant, with underground parking for 109 cars.

The developer has also used density bonus incentives for taller buildings in exchange for 27 affordable apartments for very-low income households.

The four buildings, designed by Long Beach-based Studio One Eleven, have a semi industrial look, with bay or floor-to-ceiling windows surrounded by brick, stone, and metal. The larger complex would include pedestrian walkways flanked by shops and restaurants, with landscaped seating.

Construction would take 31 months, with completion estimated in 2027, according to an environmental study.

The project is among a handful of large Hollywood developments in the works, including the multi-tower Crossroads Hollywood development on Sunset Boulevard, according to Urbanize. Since the pandemic, the Hollywood Walk of Fame has also seen a resurgence in foot traffic and hotel occupancy, according to a study.

In 2022, R.W. Selby was building a modular, 202-unit apartment complex on a parking lot at 1601 Las Palmas Avenue, in Hollywood.

R.W. Selby & Co., founded by Selby in 1975, has acquired more than 7,000 apartments in Southern California and greater Las Vegas, including student housing near UCLA, according to its website and LinkedIn pages.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

Developer proposes nearly 650 apartments along Hollywood’s Walk of Fame

A year into Measure ULA, a stiff real estate market in the city

Fariborz Moshfegh resubmits plan for 10-story hotel in Hollywood

[ad_2]

TRD Staff

Source link

July 26, 2024
Spec mansion above Malibu’s Billionaire’s Beach goes for $32M

[ad_1]

A spec mansion perched above Malibu’s Billionaire’s Beach has sold for $32 million, after initially testing the market with a nearly $50 million asking price.

The estate was first listed in 2019 for $50 million, fully furnished. More recently, it was re-listed in February for $38 million.

The property, named Villa Splendido, sits on a 17-acre lot at 5046 Carbon Beach Terrace. It has five bedrooms and nine bathrooms and boasts a private driveway from Pacific Coast Highway, ocean views, infinity pool with a swim-accessible bar, guest house and wellness center that includes a gym and massage room.

Douglas Elliman’s Ani Dermenjian and Westside Estate Agency’s Kurt Rappaport were the listing agents. It’s unclear who represented the buyer, which property records show is a Texas-based LLC.

Malibu Real Estate Investments, led by Kirkor Suri and Bedros Oruncakiel, built Villa Splendido. Although the duo behind the development got their start in commercial real estate, they transitioned to residential in 2000, with ambitious plans to “conquer the Malibu residential real estate market,” their company’s website states.

Villa Splendido’s sale marks yet another trade in a year of blockbuster deals for Malibu.

Spec developer Scott Gillen closed earlier this month on the $61 million sale of The Edge. It marks the first sale within Gillen’s five-estate community, named The Case. The Edge, at 24186 Case Court, was first listed in 2020 for $75 million.

In June, Crown Pointe Estates at Malibu kicked off the month’s activity, selling its net-zero carbon spec home for $28.5 million. Laurene Powell Jobs later scooped up her fourth Malibu property for $94 million. There was also the sale of Oakley founder Jim Jannard’s Pacific Coast Highway estate, which reportedly sold to an unidentified Delaware LLC for a record $210 million.

Read more

Malibu spec home from developer Scott Gillen trades for $61M

Summer slowdown affects tally of LA luxury houses in contract

Soboroff Partners, Gerschel family sell Malibu’s Park at Cross Creek

[ad_2]

Kari Hamanaka

Source link

July 26, 2024
Justice Department investigates California Realtors’ sales paperwork

[ad_1]

Federal investigators will look into California Association of Realtors’ forms and contracts that a national consumer group calls “anti-consumer” and “unreadable.”

The U.S. Justice Department has launched a “formal inquiry” into the trade group’s paperwork for home sales drafted ahead of a national real estate commission settlement slated to take effect next month, the Orange County Register reported.

The Consumer Federation of America maintains the documents contain “anti-consumer provisions,” according to an analysis. It said the association’s new buyer-agent representation agreement was “too disorganized and complex for the average homebuyer to understand.”

The 200,000-member California Association of Realtors, in response, said that the Consumer Federation had issued a “misguided critique” of draft forms that remain “a work in progress.”

The local trade group has been revising dozens of standard forms, addenda and contracts to comply with the commission settlement set to go into effect Aug. 17. Realtors use the forms and contracts for housing transactions.

The National Association of Realtors reached the proposed settlement in March with plaintiffs in a federal class-action lawsuit challenging seller payments of buyer agent commissions.

The settlement would ban home-sales agents from posting offers to pay buyer commissions in an MLS, a Realtor-run listing database. Such offers still could be publicized by other means, and seller-paid commissions could continue. Home shoppers must sign contracts with agents before visiting any homes.

One Realtor-group official estimated that four out of five buyers close on a home without such a contract.

In late June, the California Association of Realtors said it would delay the release of 19 forms after receiving the Department of Justice inquiry, saying it needed additional time to consider the department’s concerns, according to the Register.

Association officials declined to reveal details of the inquiry or to say what the DoJ’s concerns were. Justice Department officials also declined to respond to a reporter’s request for details of the probe.

While the government has looked into “potentially anticompetitive conduct” by NAR and has monitored the commission settlement, this is the first public report that a federal agency has launched an investigation of the state Realtor group.

The Consumer Federation issued 19-page critiques of two new California Association of Realtors contracts — the “Buyer Representation and Broker Compensation Agreement” and the “Residential Listing Agreement.”

In a June report, University at Buffalo law professor Tanya Monestier called the buyer representation agreement “virtually unreadable” because of its formatting, numbering and lettering scheme, extensive cross-referencing and “complicated and inconsistent language.”

“No layperson will be able to understand and appreciate the terms they are agreeing to,” Monestier wrote.

She added that pay provisions “are drafted in a way that disguises the obligation of the buyer to pay his agent” and “telegraph how Realtors plan to circumvent the NAR settlement.”

In a separate report, Monestier wrote that only 20 percent of CAR’s listing agreement, a “monster of a document” that sets out terms for a home sale, would be understandable to the average seller. In addition, she wrote, CAR’s draft listing agreement contained “provisions that are substantively unfair to a seller.”

Read more

Beverly Hills brokers make sense of NAR settlement

NAR strikes landmark deal spelling end of 6% commissions

“Everything changes now”: Here’s what NAR’s $418M settlement means for broker commissions

The Realtor association argued in online posts that Monestier’s critiques contained flaws. It said it was “absurd” to suggest that offers of compensation outside the MLS bypasses the NAR settlement.

“The (Consumer Federation) report contains wild speculations that brokers using CAR forms will try to get around the NAR settlement,” the association said. “CAR supports the goals of the settlement.”

— Dana Bartholomew

[ad_2]

TRD Staff

Source link

July 18, 2024
Armenian Bribery Case Puts Holmby Hills Mansion on Market

[ad_1]

A Holmby Hills megamansion owned by a former Armenian politician will be forfeited to the U.S. government and sold off for “the highest obtainable market price,” federal prosecutors said Monday.

The forfeiture of 530 South Mapleton Drive ends a two-year case involving Gagik Khachatryan and his family in which the Department of Justice alleged bribery money was used to pay for the home.

It will now be sold with 85 percent of the sale proceeds staying with the government and the remainder going to Khachatryan’s sons and a business they own. Some or all of the U.S. government’s proceeds will be recommended for transfer to the Armenian government, according to a DOJ statement.

The government’s complaint was originally filed in May 2022 and alleged Khachatryan and his family received more than $20 million in bribes from businessman Sedrak Arustamyan, who sought special tax treatment. Khachatryan previously served as Armenia’s minister of finance for a two-year stint ending in 2016. Prior to that, the ex-politician was chair of Armenia’s State Revenue Committee.

An FBI Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force and U.S. Marshals Service investigation helped bring the matter to court, along with assistance from Armenian prosecutors. A separate criminal case on the matter in Armenia is still pending.

The more than 30,000-square-foot home sits on 1.2 acres next to the Los Angeles Country Club. It was designed by Richard Landry, the architect often referred to as “King of the Megamansion.”

The estate has 11 bedrooms and 27 bathrooms. Other highlights include a garage that can fit eight or more vehicles, billiard room, movie theater, two-story library, pools and staff quarters, according to listing sites.

Douglas Elliman’s Josh Altman and Tommy Bubonic have the listing, which has an asking price of $39.8 million.

That’s a haircut from when the home first went up for sale two years ago for $63.5 million and has subsequently bounced on and off the market.

Read more

Disgraced Armenian official’s Holmby Hills chateau relists at $40M

Justice Department wants Armenian ex-politician’s LA mega-mansion

Kohen Development lists spec home in Holmby Hills for $45M

[ad_2]

Kari Hamanaka, Christian Bautista

Source link

July 8, 2024