Splichal Cooks Up Plan for Building a Real Estate Souffl & #233;

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Super chef Joachim Splichal of Patina Group has bought a Pasadena office building for $7.6 million, adding another piece of Southern California real estate to his personal portfolio.


Splichal, who lives in San Marino and owns other Pasadena properties, called from Paris to say that he also just bought a vacation home in Biarritz to spend some down time with his wife Christine.


“The office building is an investment, and maybe in my older days I will become a real estate developer and give Maguire a run for his money,” he said jokingly, referring to Rob Maguire, chairman and chief executive of Maguire Properties Inc.


Last month, Patina Group, which now boasts 2,800 employees, took over catering operations for the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, and has expanded into the Orange County Museum of Art.


“The only thing we don’t have is the Getty,” he said. Patina runs concessions at seven museums and four arts centers.





Stephen Shapiro of Westside Estate Agency in Beverly Hills, expects a couple of properties in Bel-Air to come on the market priced at $100 million in the next few months, but he finds that many multi-million dollar homes are way overpriced.


“When you have 10,000 real estate agents in the area, they tend to give the seller an unrealistic value for the house in order to get the listing,” said Shapiro. “I lose numerous listings because I give the sellers an accurate price and someone else will give them a price that is 20 percent or 30 percent higher.”


Shapiro said one of the homes being priced at $100 million was built on spec (he wouldn’t offer details on the other one). In general, he says that only a handful of homes in Los Angeles are actually worth that kind of money including the homes of DreamWorks SKG honcho David Geffen and Univision Chairman Jerrold Perenchio, neither of which is for sale.





More than 1,000 people attended memorial services at the Skirball Cultural Center for George Smith, chairman and founder of his own real estate investment firm. Smith died after a year-long battle with bone cancer.


Steven Bram, co-founder and president of George Smith Partners, said the firm’s six remaining partners will continue to support Smith’s annual charity luncheon for the A-T Medical Research Foundation. The event that draws thousands.


The firm’s partners plan to buy out Smith’s 25 percent stake in the company and recently signed a 10-year lease to relocate to the MGM building in Century City in April.


“He was a remarkable person who influenced so many people,” said Gary M. Tenzer, co-founder and executive vice president. Smith had played a practical joke on him just a week before he died, Tenzer said. “The day he called me to ask to be a partner was the happiest day of my life.”



*Staff reporter Kate Berry can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 228, or at

[email protected]

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