As the NHL season begins, Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz is unquestionably watching earnestly to see if Connor McDavid and company can bring a Stanley Cup home this season.
But the pharma mogul no doubt also has a watchful eye on the sale of his historic western Los Angeles home, The Manor, a lavish 56,500-square-foot home first built by Holywood royalty that’s been sitting on the market for close to two years, as per the listing on Zillow.
This April, Katz, the largely self-made billionaire, dropped the price on the 4.6-acre Beverly Hills estate to a tidy US$137.5 million. It had been listed at $155 million as of January 2023, a reduction from the original asking price of $165 million when it first appeared on the market in February 2022, only to be removed that December.
Katz paid about $120 million for the home in July 2019, so his Forbes-estimated net worth of $5 billion – making him the 690th wealthiest person globally as of Oct. 7 – shouldn’t suffer too much due to the $17.5 million reduction.
What does $138 million get you?
The French Chateau home covered in imported limestone at 594 South Mapleton Drive in historic Holmby Hills has everything the super-rich could want.
The interior – said to be bigger than both the White House and the Taj Mahal – boasts 14 bedrooms, 27 bathrooms, multiple bars, a beauty salon, a fully-equipped gym, wine cellar, library, billiard room, an indoor pool, sauna and a two-lane bowling alley.
Outside, there’s a heated in-ground pool, several outdoor seating areas and expertly landscaped gardens overlooking Beverly Hills below.
As for neighbours, you might run into Jay Z and Beyoncé bringing daughter Blue and twins Rumi and Sir to daycare, or perhaps pass by Leonardo DiCaprio or Jennifer Aniston on Wilshire Boulevard.
One neighbour potential buyers won’t have to worry about bumping into for the foreseeable future is Sean Diddy Combs, owner of a 10-bedroom mansion that was raided by U.S. Homeland Security earlier this year in connection with allegations of the rap mogul’s involvement in sex trafficking.
Diddy’s house, located on the same street, was listed in September for $61.5 million.
Spelling things out
The site is regarded as significant in La La Land because of the couple who built it: late TV mogul Aaron Spelling and his wife Candy.
Until 1983, the lot featured a manse owned and lived in by crooner Bing Crosby and his family. The Spellings tore that structure down to make way for their modern mansion which took about five years to build and cost about $21 million.
It was Tori, the Spelling’s oldest daughter and one of the stars of Beverly Hills 90210 produced by her father, who dubbed it The Manor.
After Aaron died in 2006, Candy continued living there before deciding to sell in September 2010, asking $150 million. It was sold to Petra Ecclestone, daughter of Bernie and the Formula One heiress, for $85 million and a change in July 2011.
The Manor was back on the market seven years later in 2018 with an asking price of $175 million. It was de-listed and returned to the market in May 2019 for $160 million. Katz scooped it up not long after.
Katz houses
The Manor isn’t the only property Katz is looking to offload in L.A.
According to the Los Angeles Times, in 2015 an LLC linked to Katz paid $34.5 million for a 4.6-acre property that once belonged to Canadian-American TV personality Art Linkletter.
The lot, which features an unfinished mansion project, was returned to the market in July 2022 at an ask of $38.5 million and dropped to $35 million in October.
The price was reduced to just under $30 million this April.
The L.A. Times also reported that Katz paid $9.1 million for a nearby home once owned by Arthur Marx, the son of entertainer Groucho Marx.
Of course, Katz’s biggest splash on the elite real estate market was his 2017 acquisition of a modern Malibu mansion owned by mega realtor Kurt Rappaport. At the time, the $120 million sale – $85 million for the home and $35 million for the artwork and furnishings – set the record for the largest residential real estate deal in Los Angeles’ history.
Dubbed Meridian Mansion De Fredoc, the 22,000-square-foot dwelling on nearly six acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean features six bedrooms, seven baths and a massive infinity pool. According to TMZ, the house was used in the 2016 movie Nocturnal Animals starring Jake Gyllenhaal.
While the comings and goings of the billionaire class are impossible to conceive for even the wealthiest average person, it’s presumed Katz spends a chunk of his time at his multi-million dollar estate in his hometown.
While not as opulent and jaw-dropping as his L.A. residences, the property overlooking the river valley through floor-to-ceiling windows, has an infinity pool, an outdoor hockey rink emblazoned with the Oilers logo and is regarded as one of the most luxurious private residences in the city.
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