Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
At $250M, mansion is priciest home in US
L.A. property redefines ‘lavish’
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles is now home to the most expensive house for sale in the country: a $250 million mega-mansion.
Just how lavish is the Bel-Air property, which hit the market Wednesday? It’s got four levels, 38,000 square feet of interior, 12 bedrooms, 21 bathrooms, three kitchens, an infinity pool with a swim-up bar, a bowling alley and a theater.
To entice a billionaire buyer, and to set it apart from the other exorbitant homes for sale in the area, the property also comes with a $30 million car collection, 130 art installations, custom furnishings and a decommissioned helicopter on the roof.
The home was built by owner-developer Bruce Makowsky “on spec,” meaning it was developed without a buyer lined up.
The handbag tycoon builds residences for bilguitars. lionaires — nine in the past six years — in a 10-mile radius that includes the most exclusive pockets on Los Angeles’ Westside.
He carefully curates every detail of the house, from the different stones in the bathrooms to the kinds of Champagne stocked in the two wine cellars. The effort is the culmination of his own extravagant travels, interests and taste. “I live the life,” he said.
Four years in the making, the contemporary glasswalled home is the product of 250 workers. Makowsky was inspired by the sharp increase in wealth among the world’s richest people and his love of ships.
“Today, people are spending $300 million on a boat, and they use it about eight weeks a year,” he said. “Then they are living in a $30 million to $40 million home.”
That discrepancy, he said, didn’t make sense, so he created a home with finishes and furnishings reminiscent of a mega-yacht. Nautical themes are present, as are motifs that reflect Makowsky’s love of collectible cars, guns and But unlike his other recent high-profile project — the modern Beverly Hills showplace that sold in 2014 to Minecraft creator Markus Persson for $70 million — this place is less testosterone-fueled and more family-friendly.
There’s an interactive art installation of the Seven Dwarfs. A Hobie Cat sailboat sits on a deck ready for imaginary voyages.
When Makowsky says the mansion “comes with everything,” he means it — including seven full-time staff he will pay for two years.
So far, Makowsky has attracted more than half a dozen potential buyers.
The quarter-billion-dollar question is: Who will buy it?
But Paul Habibi, a professor of real estate at the University of California at Los Angeles, doesn’t expect the buyer to come from the old-money crowd.
“Anybody who has had money for a long time knows better than to spend it on a $250 million house,” he said.