The biggest sale in Beverly Hills in 2010 came in late December with a $23 million bang for a 23,000-square-foot home owned by Louis and Kelly Gonda. The property was originally listed at $42 million, but the asking price was rapidly lowered to $35 million, then dropped to $24.4 million.
Gonda joined the nation’s billionaire club courtesy of aircraft leasing business International Lease Finance Corp., which he co-founded with his father and Steven Udvar-Hazy. At one point, he made Forbes’ list of the world’s richest 300 people; in 2008, Forbes put his wealth at $1.4 billion.
When the American International Group Inc. collapsed, his considerable shares in the company tanked along with it and he listed this home as part of an asset divestiture, he told the Wall Street Journal. A Gulfstream corporate jet and a beach home in Playa del Rey were also put on the market.
In addition to closing escrow on the Beverly Hills home, the Gondas sold their Manhattan pied-a-terre for $12 million just days later. The 3,100-square-foot Upper Eastside penthouse has a terrace described as large enough to land a helicopter on.
But don’t cry for him, Argentina; he’s still got piles of money and he’s still a guy who shares it. The Gondas have long been noted for their philanthropy. Louis Gonda, head of Lexington Management Holdings, and his wife hosted countless charitable events at their stone Georgian mansion, which sits on 1.5 acres and has a commercial-grade kitchen with two islands. There’s a 1,100-square-foot guesthouse; two staff apartments; a mosaic tiled saltwater pool; and a large grassy lot with meandering paths, streams and waterfalls. The estate has a five-car garage and a guardhouse, which I suspect comes in handy if you’re one of the world’s richest guys.
Zach and Rita Goldsmith of Hilton & Hyland Real Estate in Beverly Hills had the listing.
The sale got me wondering: Even if Gonda did have to drop his asking price by almost half, is it possible that 2010 wasn’t as gawdawful a year in real estate as we think? Apparently if you live in the world’s most famous ZIP code – that’d be 90210 – you are still sitting pretty.
In Beverly Hills, the number of sales were up year over year from 113 to 158, the average price improved from $3.56 million to $3.76 million and the average time it took to sell a home actually declined from 83 days to 76. Thank you Richard Stearns of Partners Trust for culling that data.
Malibu Sale
Need some more good news? A record land sale just closed escrow in Malibu, according to the MLS.
Mark DiPaola, the guy who founded Vantage Media and then CheckPoints – the hot award-winning mobile-shopping rewards app – plopped down $11 million for an ocean bluffs lot on a primo Point Dume location. The one-acre lot had been listed at $12.5 million.
DiPaola founded Vantage Media and served as its president for six years. Under his leadership, Vantage ranked No. 1 on the 2007 Deloitte & Touche Fast 50. In February 2007, he raised $70 million in Series A funding, the largest first-round financing of any company in nearly two years, according to the Dow Jones Venturewire.
Venice-based CheckPoints is the fastest-growing mobile-shopping application on the iPhone, amassing its first 100,000 users in one month and another 100,000 users in the two weeks before Christmas. The free app lets shoppers earn “points” that can be cashed in for prizes including airline miles, cash, gift cards and gadgets. Shades of the old S & H Green Stamps program!
DiPaola was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist and received the 2009 Award for Excellence in Achievement from his alma mater, UC Berkeley. He invests in technology startups through his venture arm, D3 Ventures.
The lot he bought has 130 feet of beach frontage and deeded beach rights.
Chris Cortazzo of Coldwell Banker, Malibu, had the listing. Michael Gardner of Prudential Malibu Realty represented the buyer.
Available Home
The longtime Hollywood Hills home of Jeff Franklin, head of Jeff Franklin Productions, is available for sale at $12 million. Don’t look for it in the MLS, but call Cindy Ambuehl at Partners Trust Real Estate Brokerage in Brentwood, who has it as a pocket listing.
Franklin – writer, creator and producer of popular TV shows such as “Full House” and “Family Matters” – has owned the home for more than 20 years. As he puts it, this is the place where “Full House” was born.
He founded his company in the 1980s. His logo is a snow globe on his desk with a sailboat in it and a studio audience laughing in the background.
Franklin recently decided to tear down the end-of-the-cul-de-sac house and started to build a 10,000-square-foot contemporary home designed by architect Richard Landry. The new property will have a subterranean six-car garage and unobstructed views from Beverly Hills to the ocean. Final permits have been approved and they’ve already broken ground. Buyers get the lot, renderings, permits and plans.
Westlake Village Listing
Criminal defense lawyer Joel R. Isaacson has listed his Westlake Village home for $1.1 million. Some of the high-profile cases he has worked on include the LAPD Rampart Division police corruption scandal, Erin Brokovich extortion case; the Menendez brothers; and defending former stock trader Amir I. Elgindy. He was also a legal analyst for KCAL (Channel 9) for the O.J. Simpson homicide and civil trials.
The 3,074-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-bath, one-story house sits on 1.6 acres. The home has a Spanish clay tile roof, three-car garage, pool, spa, vaulted ceilings and mature landscaping.
Eric Billingsley of Rodeo Realty has the listing.
Ann Brenoff can be reached at [email protected].
