The fresh ‘Shahs’ of Bel-Air
In Bel-Air, the longtime home of late automobile titan Lee Iacocca is on the market for $32 million just two years after it traded hands for $19.5 million.
The seller is Lilly Ghalichi, a reality star who appeared in Bravo’s “Shahs of Sunset.”
She and her husband, Dara Mir, made a few changes during their twoyear stay, updating the kitchen with a marble island and adding herringbone floors in the bedroom.
The home was owned for nearly three decades by Iacocca, who’s best known for developing the Ford Mustang and also saving Chrysler Corp. from the brink of bankruptcy as chief executive in the 1980s.
His daughter sold the estate after his death in 2019.
The property near Hotel Bel-Air spans over an acre with a 10,700-square-foot mansion, swimming pool and tennis court. A long driveway approaches the column-lined entry, which leads to modern living spaces navigated by arched doorways.
Ornate chandeliers hang over a handful of dining areas, and wood-beamed ceilings top a two-story living room with a fireplace. The office has been painted a splashy shade of blue.
Six bedrooms and seven bathrooms complete the home, including a primary suite with a terrace. The house was built in 1990, and Iacocca bought it three years later for $4.25 million.
Tyrone McKillen and Andrew Hurley of Compass hold the listing.
A hefty price for a half-built home
Gary Friedman, chief executive of the high-end furniture retailer RH, just quietly sold his half-built home in Beverly Crest for $24 million.
The off-market deal highlights
the skyrocketing value of land in affluent pockets of L.A. since the pandemic. Records show Friedman bought the property in its incomplete state for $15 million in 2019, so the sale brings a profit of $9 million.
Even in its unlivable condition, it’s no surprise the property fetched such a fortune. It sits at the end of a cul-de-sac and spans 2.8 acres — a rare amount of land for the neighborhood.
For reference, of the 105 properties currently on the market in Beverly Crest, only 15 include more than 2 acres. Of those, 14 cost more than $20 million.
The house was originally built in 2013 by Marmol Radziner, an L.A.-based architecture firm known for its contemporary designs
and restoration work, including the 2007 restoration of Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs.
The mansion spans four stories and takes in views from downtown Los Angeles to the ocean. Its sleek, sharp exterior is still intact, but the living spaces have been hollowed out and boarded up. It was being marketed as either a tear-down or renovation project.
Friedman is CEO and chairman of RH, previously known as Restoration Hardware. The California-based company had $3.76 billion in revenue last year, and Forbes puts Friedman’s net worth at $2.2 billion.
Weston Littlefield and Alex Howe of Aaron Kirman Group at Compass held the listing. Littlefield also represented the buyer.
Acting pair offers up private haven
In the hills of Glendale, actors Alison Pill and Joshua Leonard are shopping around their secluded, Scandinavian-inspired estate for $2.5 million.
Pill, who starred in “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” and Leonard, best known for his role in “The Blair Witch Project,” paid $1.27 million for the property in 2015, records show.
They’ve made the place their own during their sevenyear stay, turning the architectural abode into a cabinstyle home fit for Big Bear. Wood and stone cover the exterior, and ivy crawls up a two-story wall of glass.
Inside, warm wood floors mix with sleek shades of white and bright accent walls of orange and green.
Dramatic beams hang 20 feet above the open floor plan, which combines a galley-style kitchen, sunny dining area and living room anchored by a river rock fireplace. A lofted lounge overlooks the space from above.
The 2,400-square-foot floor plan includes three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a theater, library and garage that’s been converted into an office and gym.
Outside, the gardenfilled grounds cover about half an acre and include a huge redwood deck with a dining area and hot tub.
A native of Canada, Pill was a child actor before starring in films such as “Milk,” “Vice,” “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen” and the HBO show “The Newsroom.”
Leonard has worked as an actor, writer and director since “The Blair Witch Project.” His credits include “The Shaggy Dog,” “If I Stay” and “Unsane.”
Phil Missig of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties holds the listing.