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There is nothing quite as good to go with everyone’s morning cup of coffee and brioche as a good real estate mystery, especially a US$102 million mystery, and yesterday the Los Angeles Times came up with a great one that has everybody buzzing.
The Fleur de Lys is a 50, 000 square foot residence on a 4.6 acre estate on L.A.’s Westside and it is widely reported to have just sold for US$102 million, making it the highest-priced home sale ever recorded in the whole of LA County.
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The estate was built in 2002 by a couple from Texas, the founder of Metro Networks David Saperstein and his wife Suzanne Saperstein, in the French Chateau style, – hence the name Fleur de Lys. The couple divorced not long after it was finished however, and Suzanne then finally listed it for sale in 2007, i.e. just before the financial crash, with an asking price at the time of US$125 million.
And there it remained, as an unsold orphan designed with a taste that is certainly not for everyone, until the beginning of this week.
Built on 4.6 acres the property has 12 bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, two motor courts, a pool/spa complex, a tennis court, formal gardens, a ballroom for 500, a two-story library, a tennis court, a music room, a commercial kitchen, a cutlery room, a staff dining room, staff offices, security center, and a 3, 000-square-foot wine cellar and tasting room.
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According to the LA Times, three separate billionaires last week engaged in a bidding auction for the nearly five-acre trophy estate, with the winner closing within 10 days and paying cash, for a deal that included all the furniture. Since news of the sale escaped to the press intense speculation has ensued as to the identity of the buyer too, which has so far not officially been disclosed.
The LA Times later updated their own story to say taxes will be mailed to a law firm located at Santa Monica’s Milken Institute, and inferred Michael Milken might therefore be the buyer.
However we later learned that the real estate agent for the anonymous buyer is apparently the 67-year-old Michael Milken’s own son-in-law, so it clearly looks like a false trail was set.
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And just to clear up that Michael Milken’s personal sense of taste does not run to the style of Fleur du Lys, Milken’s own spokesperson finally went as far as to send the LA Times an e-mail saying the paper was wrong.
“I did a quick check and can tell you that neither Mike Milken nor the Milken Institute is the purchaser, ” said Milken representative Geoffrey Moore.
So dear readers, maybe we will all have solved this important mystery in time for tomorrow’s coffee and brioche….
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