Let me just say this upfront: I want Jonathan Frank’s life.
Frank, who spends two to three months a year on Fiji, where he owns land on the private island of Wakaya, is a real estate investor and financier who just shaved $10 million off the price of his Malibu oceanfront estate, bringing it down to $40 million. It’s a 19,000-square-foot home that sits on a three-acre bluff and has a stone stairway leading down to the beach. There’s even a climate-controlled 22-car garage. But he had me at Fiji.
Frank, owner of Frank Holdings, owns and invests in all types of real estate including shopping centers anchored by drugstores and supermarkets, and multiple apartment units of Section 8 housing across the country. At one time, he was involved in manufacturing plants overseas that produce construction materials. An equal opportunity investor; I like that, too.
Frank, who grew up in Los Angeles, is moving to a recently purchased home in Malibu that sits directly on the beach, according to his listing agent. In an interview, Frank said he and his family travel a great deal and are just “moving on.”
The Malibu estate he is selling was built in 2007 and has nine bedrooms. The resortlike compound has a saltwater swimming pool and spa; the main house features glass doors along the entire ocean side that open to wraparound flagstone decks and a full outdoor kitchen. There also is a large grassy lawn, a rarity for properties along the bluffs.
The home is scaled for large parties, but doesn’t skimp on the high-end details: massive stone fireplaces, wood beams, wide-plank walnut floors, a commercial grade elevator and hand-forged designer hardware. A gourmet eat-in kitchen, and the dining and family rooms all open to the outdoors. The master suite has a built-in Moroccan daybed, suitable for afternoon naps. The home has a wine cellar, professional theater with stadium seating, hair salon, massage suite and mirrored gym, too. Oh, and a dance studio. There is also a three-bedroom guest/staff house.
Bob Hurwitz, president of Hurwitz James Co., has the listing.
By the Incline
Before there was a gated Malibu Colony – before there was actually even a Malibu – there was a Hollywood enclave along the Pacific beachfront in Santa Monica where the movers and shakers of the day lived and played.
A house on this stretch that once was owned by Douglas Fairbanks was bought for $6.9 million by Robert Moore, vice chairman of Paramount Pictures. It had been listed at $7.9 million, according to the MLS.
Moore oversees the studio’s worldwide marketing, distribution, home entertainment, digital, TV, licensing and business affairs division. He joined the company in 2005 after co-founding the privately held Revolution Studios, where he supervised all aspects of business affairs and finance. Before Revolution, he worked at Walt Disney Studios for 13 years.
The three-bedroom, three-bathroom Mediterranean has formal family and dining rooms. The upstairs master suite has a huge deck and fire pit. There is a pool, sports court, and large entertaining areas with indoor-outdoor flow.
Since it sits on the beach, it’s got a drop-dead, steal-my-breath-away ocean view. The house is within walking distance of the California Incline, which I suppose appeals to some but this is a stretch of PCH where drivers use pedestrians for hood ornaments, so we do hope Moore will use caution.
Fairbanks lived in the home when it was the only beach to go to, said Jeffrey Hyland, the listing agent and principal of Hilton & Hyland in Beverly Hills. Hyland is the author of “The Legendary Estates of Beverly Hills” and is regarded as a historian of Old Hollywood homes.
“Everyone who was anyone in Hollywood was there: Louis B. Mayer, Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst, Mae West and Harold Lloyd. Irving Thalberg lived next door,” Hyland said. After Fairbanks and Mary Pickford divorced, he moved in here with Lady Sylvia Ashley.
Chad Rogers, also of Hilton & Hyland, represented the buyer.
Calabasas Listing
Gospel music industry executive Vicki Mack-Lataillade has listed her Calabasas home for $2 million. Mack-Lataillade, considered one of the most powerful women on the gospel music scene, was the founder and owner of GospoCentric Records and B-Rite Music. Some of the award-winning artists she’s worked with include Kirk Franklin, Kelly Price, Kurt Carr and Dave Hollister.
Billboard Magazine named GospoCentric the top gospel label in America at one point, with sales of more than 30 million CDs. The company was purchased by Zomba Music Group. Lataillade and her husband, Claude Lataillade, went on to establish Lataillade Entertainment, which partnered with Central South Distribution Inc. in 2009.
The 6,000-square-foot, five-bedroom, five-bath, one-story estate is in the gated Park South community of Calabasas. It’s on a full-acre lot and Mack-Lataillade is the original owner. The home has 25-foot-tall ceilings, granite countertops, marble and hardwood floors, a sweeping staircase, mountain views and a pool.
Ken Marker and Corey Brown of Rodeo Realty’s Sherman Oaks office are co-listing the property.
Canyon Setting
Jean and Rob Klein – she of Klein/Cerniglia Architecture and Interior Design and he of Klein Construction Group – have listed the canyon home that they bought as young entrepreneurs in Malibu at $2.3 million.
Jean Klein remembers: “We began looking for a place to get away … a place to raise our children in a peaceful, secluded outdoor experience. This property provided all we were looking for and still allowed us to stay connected to the design and building needs of our clients.”
Klein has worked for more than 20 years in commercial and residential design. Her husband has been a general contractor for more than 30 years.
Madison Hildebrand of Coldwell Banker Previews International, Malibu office, is the listing agent.
Ann Brenoff can be reached at [email protected].
