Inside the Homes
Eric JarvisBillionaire Larry Ellison has listed his 2.62-acre compound on the east shore of Lake Tahoe for $28.5 million.
The property, located in Glenbrook, Nev., was originally meant to be Mr. Ellison’s primary home at Tahoe. But he had the chance to build an estate on the north shore of the lake—it is scheduled to be finished this year—so he is selling the Glenbrook compound, says Jennie Fairchild of Chase International Real Estate, who has the listing. Mr. Ellison has created a 7.6-acre compound with about 420 feet of lake frontage at the north shore’s Incline Village, according to public records.
The Glenbrook property includes a 9,242-square foot main house with six bedrooms, eight full bathrooms and one half-bathroom; Mr. Ellison spent three years remodeling it “from the studs up,” according to Ms. Fairchild. There is a soundproof screening room, a gym, a billiard room, a library and a sauna. The master-bedroom wing has two dressing rooms and two bathrooms, each with a handcrafted wooden ofuro, a Japanese soaking tub.
Eric JarvisA view from Mr. Ellison’s Lake Tahoe property.
In addition to the main house, there is a 1,326-square-foot, two-bedroom, three-bath guesthouse and another 2,934-square-foot lakefront home with five bedrooms, three full baths and two half-baths.
The property sits on 230 feet of lake frontage with a private white-sand beach, two piers, a floating dock, two buoys and a rock breakwater. A 426-square-foot lakeside cabana has a sun deck and a built-in barbecue on the roof. Nearby, a hot tub also looks out over the lake.
The grounds include terraced gardens, a pond, a stream, a small waterfall, a heated driveway and patios, a state-of-the-art security system and a guardhouse.
The location on the east shore of the lake is known as a “banana belt” because it gets so much sun, according to Ms. Fairchild. Many of the nearby properties are large family estates that are passed down from generation to generation, she says, and rarely come on the market.
Mr. Ellison assembled the Glenbrook property over three years, according to public records. In 2006, he paid $11.7 million for the main house and 1.6 acres. He then paid $3.3 million for two additional parcels in 2009, according to public records. Mr. Ellison’s other Tahoe holdings include not only his Incline Village compound, but also another 12.6-acre estate in Glenbrook, according to public records. This second Glenbrook property involved three different deals on which Mr. Ellison spent $29 million, according to public records.
—Sarah Tilton
A Piece of a Palace on the Côte d’Azur: Luxury Condos on the Mediterranean Ask $2 Million to $20 Million
Apartments carved out of the Côte d’Azur’s Maeterlinck Palace are going on the market in May for $2 million to $20 million, or $2,800 to $4,000 per square foot. The apartments—the exact number has yet to be determined, but it will be no more than 19—will be built by the summer of 2014. Each unit will have a panoramic view of the Mediterranean Sea and will range from 1,000 to 5,000 square feet in size.
Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison has listed his 2.62-acre compound on the east shore of Lake Tahoe for $28.5 million. Alyssa Abkowitz reports. Photo: Jarvis Photography.
Built on a rocky outcrop between Nice and Cap Ferrat, the place was known as the Villa Orlamonde in the late 1920s and ’30s, when Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck hosted many parties there with his actress wife. A Nobel Prize winner for literature, Mr. Maeterlinck snagged the property in an auction after a French count’s plans for a hotel and casino rivaling Monaco were scuppered by the construction of Nice’s Palais de la Méditerranée nearby in 1928.
Recognizable for its rows of Greek columns, which flank a 65-foot-long swimming pool and gardens, the property became an upscale hotel in the 1980s before being sold to an Irish bank at the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008. After the estate spent several years on the market, Czech billionaire and real-estate investor Radovan Vitek paid $61 million for it in 2012, with plans to convert the site into high-end apartments.
“We wanted to change the ballgame for the most sophisticated trophy residences, for people with homes in London, the Hamptons and St. Tropez, not just families looking for a holiday apartment,” says Alexander Kraft, owner of Sotheby’s International Realty France and Monaco, which worked for Mr. Vitek on the project and has the listing. The region’s popularity among wealthy foreigners has helped to keep property prices from declining as much as they have in other parts of the country, although the number of transactions has slowed in recent months.
—Mimosa Spencer
Twelve Waterfalls and a Tennis Court With Viewing for 300: A San Diego Compound Lists for $9.75 Million
Leonard Bloom, a sports and entertainment entrepreneur, has listed his San Diego compound for $9.75 million.
The 15,000-square-foot home located in the Alvarado Estates community above Mission Valley has nine bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, two dining rooms and multiple balconies. The home includes an 870-square-foot theater with a bar and dumbwaiter, 30-foot ceilings in the living room and satellite security. The property has a 2,200-square-foot guesthouse, 12 waterfalls, a driveway that can fit 100 cars, views of the San Diego Chargers’ Qualcomm Stadium and a tennis court with viewing for more than 300 people.
Mr. Bloom says he bought the property in the 1980s and expanded and renovated the home twice, once in the early 1990s and again in 2000. He estimates he spent close to $14 million on renovations over the years. He’s selling the home because his latest business ventures require him to be closer to Los Angeles. “I wish I could just take the house and move it to where I want to be,” Mr. Bloom says.
Over the course of his career, Mr. Bloom has owned the Los Angeles Sharks hockey team and the San Diego Conquistadors basketball team with Wilt Chamberlain. His firm has worked with entertainers including Johnny Carson, Frank Sinatra, Joan Rivers and Robin Williams. He has hosted Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush at his estate and thrown events for the San Diego Chargers.
Sandy Hardcastle-Taylor of Coldwell Banker Previews International has the listing.
—Alyssa Abkowitz
Alexander Haig‘s Home in Virginia Sells for $5.18 Million
The McLean, Va., home of the late Alexander Haig, who served as secretary of state under former President Ronald Reagan, has sold for $5.18 million, or 6% under its asking price of $5.5 million.
The buyer is the incoming group president of an international communications and IT corporation who is relocating from California, says the buyer’s agent, Mike Anastasia of Keller Williams Realty Old Town in Alexandria, Va. Mr. Anastasia says his client read about the property in The Wall Street Journal’s Private Properties column and visited the home a day before it hit the market. Listing agent Michael Rankin of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty says he got an offer three days later.
The Georgian-style home is 11,725 square feet and has five bedrooms, nine bathrooms and eight fireplaces. A top-floor master suite has views of the Potomac River. The 1-acre property also has a gym, a sauna and a staff apartment. Mr. Anastasia says his client plans to renovate the kitchen and family-and dining-room areas to open them up and bring in more light.
Mr. Rankin shared the listing with Russell Firestone and Lawrence Calvert, also of TTR Sotheby’s.
—A.A.
A version of this article appeared March 29, 2013, on page M2 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Larry Ellison Lists Lake Tahoe Compound for $28.5 Million; White-Sand Beach Included.
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