Raphael Stevens
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Rick and Kathy Hilton’s $25 Million Bel Air Mansion Sells to a Chinese Billionaire
Way back in 2015, Rick and Kathy Hilton spent $9.3 million to buy a heavily modified 1930s house in L.A.’s prime lower Bel Air neighborhood, one located just a quick jog away from their own main residence. The long-married socialites—he a grandson of Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton and the co-founder of the Hilton & Hyland real estate brokerage, she the quirky mother of Paris Hilton and former star of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”—subsequently tore down the existing structure and spent years building an all-new trophy mansion to be sold on speculation.
That new mansion, a gleaming and all-white affair, merges Old World architecture with modern-day style and state-of-the-art technology. Completed circa 2021 and prominently showcased on “RHOBH,” the house sports glamorous architecture by Hollywood-based firm Harrison Design and sophisticated interior design courtesy of a collaboration between Nicole Gordon Studio and Kathy Hilton herself.
The former Hilton spec-manor in early 2021, while it was still in the final stages of construction. The exteriors are a white-brick traditional throwback, but the interiors are far more contemporary.
Google Earth
The newly-complete estate first hit the market in September 2021, asking a whopping $55 million. Unfortunately, however, things didn’t quite go as planned. The house ended up languishing on the market for more than two years, suffering several big price chops during that time. By early 2023, the asking price had been slashed all the way down to $39.5 million. But by then, L.A.’s controversial new mansion tax and high interest rates had already put a big damper on the market.
Though it was removed from the market last fall, records now reveal the house quietly sold this week—for just $25 million, a staggering 55% discount off the original list price. The all-cash, bargain-shopping buyer is an entity tied to the family of Song Qinghou, a billionaire Mainland Chinese tycoon who made his $6.1 billion fortune in the beverage industry; in 2012, he was ranked by Forbes as China’s richest man.
Zong and his family will enjoy bespoke craftsmanship and premium finishes throughout the stately three-story home, which features a white-brick Georgian look outside, plus a total of eight bedrooms and no fewer than 16 bathrooms inside, including 12 full baths and four powder rooms.
Though it sits quite close to the public street, the house is privately sequestered behind driveway gates and extraordinarily tall hedges.
Google Earth
Highlights include an extraordinarily long foyer with grey-and-white checkerboard stone floors, formal living and dining rooms with chevron-pattern hardwood floors, a walnut-paneled library with a black marble fireplace, and a huge kitchen dressed monochromatically in denim blue paint. Upstairs, the primary bedroom is ensconced in its own private wing, complete with dual showroom closets and dual marble-sheathed bathrooms. There’s also a basement-level entertainment space with a wet bar, a wine room and a full catering kitchen.
While the home’s grounds are actually somewhat compact compared to those of many neighboring estates, they do include grassy lawns, a motorcourt with ample space for 10+ cars, and tall hedges for privacy. Out back, the simple rectangular swimming pool and spa are flanked by a rectangular poolside pavilion generously equipped with a lounge, a guest bedroom suite, and yet another full kitchen.
While Zong, his wife, and the couple’s adult daughter Kelly appear to be new to Bel Air, they are very familiar with California. From 1997 until 2008, records show the family owned a spacious but relatively modest hacienda-style residence in the wealthy L.A. suburb of San Marino. As for the Hiltons, they continue to own and reside in a 1920s stone manor house elsewhere in Bel Air, complete with approximately 15,000 square feet of luxurious interior space. More
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Cristiano Ronaldo Reportedly Scores a Multimillion-Dollar Mansion in Dubai
Cristiano Ronaldo is no stranger to luxury homes, and from the looks of his most recent real estate investment, the Portuguese soccer star is putting down roots in the United Arab Emirates following his first season with Saudi Arabian professional football club Al Nassr.
The fleet-footed forward, who inked a roughly $200 million-per-year deal with the Riyadh-based team, just purchased a mansion in Dubai, The Daily Mail reported. The 38-year-old striker’s alleged new, not yet built home is located on Jumeirah Bay Island, an exclusive man-made oasis known to locals as Billionaires Island, and is expected to be completed later this year, in 2024, people familiar with the neighborhood told Bloomberg. Currently, it’s unclear exactly how much Ronaldo paid for the swanky estate. However, word on the street is that he splashed out an estimated “tens of millions of euros” for the palatial property.
The seahorse-shaped gated community has become a playground for high-net-worth individuals in recent years, overshadowing other wealthy emirate enclaves, including Dubai Hills, Palm Jumeirah, and Emirates Hills, brokers told Bloomberg. Currently, the über-affluent neighborhood features a private yacht club, a beach resort, and several fine-dining restaurants, while developer Wissam Damaa of Palace Luxury Living and former SoftBank executive Akshay Naheta are in the midst of launching a collection of 10 luxury mega-mansions on the island, which are expected to sell for over $545 million collectively.
Cristiano Ronaldo dropped millions on a new home in Dubai’s gated Jumeirah Bay Island neighborhood.
Warren Little/Getty Images
Aside from Ronaldo, the secluded, sought-after community is already home to some incredibly deep-pocketed residents, including Saudi billionaire Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel and Israeli businessman and real estate mogul Teddy Sagi. Also in the neighborhood is Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of the late former Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos and once Africa’s richest woman.
Ronaldo, who topped Forbes’s list of the highest-paid professional athletes in 2023, has racked up quite the real estate portfolio with his impressive earnings. In addition to his new digs in the Middle East, the former Manchester United player and his longtime girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez own a lavish four-story home in Madrid’s prestigious La Finca neighborhood, where his initials are carved into the metal detailing on the entry gate (he’s put it on the rental market recently), and he’s building a $22 million mega-mansion in Portugal, where he plans to live once he retires. The expansive home is slated for completion this year and is expected to become the most expensive private residence in Portugal once finished.
Authors
Abby Montanez
Abigail Montanez is a staff writer at Robb Report. She has worked in both print and digital publishing for over half a decade, covering everything from real estate, dining, travel and topics…
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Rex Tillerson Seeks $6.5 Million Deal for an Elegant Washington, D.C., Townhouse
When veteran oil and gas man Rex Tillerson went to Washington, D.C., to serve as the 69th U.S. secretary of state under former president Donald Trump, the cowboy boot-wearing Texan dropped $5.5 million on an 1920s-era townhouse in the prestigious Kalorama neighborhood.
The former Exxon Mobile CEO’s tenure as secretary of state was tumultuous and short, barely more than a year, and in the years after his unceremonious dismissal in March of 2018 (he claims he found out he was fired by a tweet!), he and the former president traded insults in the media. But it’s only now, some six years later, that Tillerson and his wife Renda have put their stately four-floor D.C. home on the market. The $6.5 million price buys more than 5,700 square feet of traditional elegance with three (and potentially four) bedrooms and three bathrooms, plus three more powder rooms.
The listing is held by Mark McFadden and Hunter McFadden at Compass.
The 1920s residence stands four floors above the tree-lined street.
Carlo Russo with HD Bros
A few heads of state and untold numbers of West Wing movers and shakers no doubt passed under the front door’s carved stone pediment and made their way to the ground-floor library for a private tête a tête or perhaps took the whimsically muraled elevator to the parlor level, where a spacious fireside living room has three huge windows overlooking the street and the adjacent dining room is lit by a delicate Venetian glass chandelier. Elsewhere, the parlor floor includes an up-to-date kitchen with a pantry large enough to accommodate a desk and a family room.
The Texas-sized primary suite sits on the third floor and includes several mirrored wardrobes, a couple of fitted walk-in closets, a separate dressing room, and a large, compartmentalized marble bathroom. A cozy study that features custom built-ins and paisley wall coverings completes the third floor, while two more bedrooms on the uppermost floor each have an ensuite bath.
Back on the ground floor, along with an oversized laundry room and a dedicated office with built-in desk space, there’s an airy lounge that opens the courtyard-style back garden. A lower terrace alongside the detached two-car garage includes a built-in barbecue for summertime grilling and chilling.
A cozy study wrapped in paisley wallpaper includes a floor-to-ceiling bank of custom built-ins.
Carlo Russo with HD Bros
Kalorama, aka the Beverly Hills of Washington, D.C., is cheek-to-jowl with foreign embassies and luxury homes owned by some of the most influential and powerful people in the country and the world, including Jeff Bezos, the Obamas, Fox News anchorman Chris Wallace, and one of Washington’s most beloved and famous hostesses, philanthropist Esther Coopersmith.
The Tillersons have long made their primary home in Fort Worth, Texas, where records indicate they still own a 5,400-square-foot home bought in 2014 near the swanky River Crest Country Club. However, they substantially upsized in 2019 with the purchase of a 16,000-square-foot mansion that had been custom-built for Major League Baseball great Vernon Wells in the nearby suburban town of Westlake.
Click here for more photos of Rex Tillerson’s home in Washington, D.C.
Carlo Russo with HD Bros More
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Tennis Champ Caroline Wozniacki’s Miami Penthouse Swings Onto the Market for $42.5 Million
Game, set, match. Tennis pro Caroline Wozniacki and her husband, former New York Knicks player David Lee, have served their sprawling Florida penthouse on the market for a whopping $42.5 million with Dina Goldentayer of Douglas Elliman. Located on Fisher Island, an exclusive 216-acre enclave off the coast of Miami, the waterfront condo is perched at the top of the 10-story Palazzo Del Sol development.
The couple, who married in 2019, originally purchased the palatial pad back in 2021 for $18.7 million, property records show, and according to The Wall Street Journal, they upgraded to the penthouse apartment after selling a different unit in the luxury Kobi Karp-designed complex that same year for a cool $16.25 million.
The penthouse features a custom bar that overlooks Biscayne Bay and the South Beach skyline.
Dina Goldentayer/Legendary Productions
Altogether, the 7,000-square-foot spread comprises five bedrooms and five full baths across its two floors. There’s an additional 5,000 square feet of outdoor space divided between two terraces. Goldentayer told the WSJ that after Wozniacki and Lee bought the residence, they went on to transform the raw space by reworking the floorplan and adding high-end touches such as white oak herringbone flooring throughout and a striking custom bar.
The lavish duplex opens to a dramatic great room with soaring 18-foot ceilings and glass pocket doors. The huge space is broken up into four different entertainment spaces, including a hosting salon, a bar area, a TV watching space, and a formal dining area. Elsewhere, the kitchen feels super sleek and contemporary. Here, you’ll find top-of-the-line Gaggenau appliances, a swanky dine-in marble island, a massive wine wall, and an Art Deco-inspired hood above the stove.
The residence sports a private rooftop lap pool alongside an alfresco dining area.
Dina Goldentayer/Legendary Productions
Of course, the aerie has a few aces up its sleeve. For starters, the screening room is equipped with a state-of-the-art Bang & Olufsen sound system, and on one of the terraces, there’s a hot tub and fire pit. The real pièce de résistance, however, is without a doubt the private rooftop pool, which has sweeping views of Biscayne Bay.
The 47-unit condominium, which was completed in 2016, is positioned on the north end of Fisher Island and is complete with its own fitness center, movie theater, hair salon, and spa treatment rooms. The ultra-elite, members-only island is known for being one of the priciest ZIP codes in the country and has counted Oprah Winfrey, Mel Brooks, Julia Roberts, and Andre Agassi among its residents.
Click here to see all the photos of Caroline Wozniacki’s Miami penthouse.
Dina Goldentayer/Legendary Productions
Authors
Abby Montanez
Abigail Montanez is a staff writer at Robb Report. She has worked in both print and digital publishing for over half a decade, covering everything from real estate, dining, travel and topics…
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Chuck Lorre Gets $13 Million for His Spare Los Angeles Estate
The so-called Sitcom King has yet another hit on his hands, except this one’s not of the television variety. Property records reveal Chuck Lorre has raked in $13.8 million by selling one of his two Pacific Palisades homes, in an off-market transaction that closed in the final days of 2023. The nearly half-acre property happens to sit right next door to the prolific TV creator’s (Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, The Kominsky Method, Mom) main residence, a charming Country English-style estate that he’s owned for nearly 30 years.
The just-sold house hasn’t been offered on the public market in many years, so photos and details are unfortunately scant. But tax records say the two-story traditional was built in the 1930s and is large but not quite mansion-sized, with four bedrooms and five bathrooms in about 5,400 square feet of living space. The hillside property has no pool but does offer a broad backyard patio, well-tended gardens, manicured lawns front and rear, and over-the-treetops views of the Pacific Ocean. Out front, a large sycamore obscures most of the house from public view.
Originally built in the 1930s, the East Coast traditional-style house has been extensively modified over the years.
Google Earth
Lorre acquired the property back in the fall of 2020 for $9.5 million, so he’s walking with a hefty profit for three years of ownership and maintenance. According to reports from the time of his purchase, the 71-year-old initially bought the house because he needed a place to live while his main residence next door underwent a major, multi-year renovation and expansion, rendering it uninhabitable for some time. But that construction is now completed, and so Lorre no longer has any need of his “spare” house.
The new owner of Lorre’s secondary Palisades home, records reveal, is Dean McKillen—a widely known developer in L.A.’s high-end property circuit, and a son of Irish business tycoon Paddy McKillen.
And as one might expect from a man with a net worth reported to exceed $500 million, Lorre and his third wife Arielle Lorre have no shortage of places to live. In addition to their main Palisades estate, the TV titan and the Instagram influencer 33 years his junior currently maintain a multimillion-dollar luxury condo in New York City and an $8 million oceanfront home in Malibu, the latter property acquired by Lorre way back in 2011 from Tony Danza. More
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David Spade Drops $9 Million on an All-New SoCal Beach Getaway
Over the course of his 35-year career, prolific actor and stand-up comic David Spade has amassed a considerable fortune. And two years ago, he put his financial wherewithal on public display, slamming down nearly $14 million on an all-new mansion in the Hollywood Hills, perched directly above L.A.’s bustling Sunset Strip.
Any industry star with an A-list-sized bank account also requires an impressive beach house, and Spade has now added that very thing to his portfolio. Records reveal the 59-year-old Michigan native just forked out $9.5 million for another all-new house, this one sited in the breezy and fiendishly expensive Cameo Highlands community down in Newport Beach’s Corona Del Mar neighborhood, about an hour south of Los Angeles by car.
Unfortunately, because the house was only just completed and was not on the market at the time of Spade’s purchase, photos are scant. But we do know that the landlocked beach pad, which sits a short jaunt above Pacific Coast Highway, sports dazzling ocean and sunset views from its hillside perch. Contemporary and flooded with natural light via oversized windows, the single-story residence offers four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms in about 3,800 square feet of living space.
Designed by local architect Mark Teale and built on speculation by developer Nicholson Companies, the house includes an open floorplan with an atrium entryway, a media room, a large office, and a central great room headlined by a chic, European-style kitchen flaunting premium SubZero and Miele appliances.
Other highlights, according to renderings and prior marketing details, are not limited to an infinity-edged pool and spa, a state-of-the-art solar panel system, and a loggia-covered patio ideal for al fresco dining and entertaining. All four bedrooms feature ensuite bathrooms, and the entire home is bathed in a soft, neutral color palette that allows the view and the ocean to be the visual stars of this real estate show.
And while the house does not offer direct beach access, it’s just a short distance from famed Crystal Cove State Beach, as well as minutes from the numerous dining and shopping destinations of Laguna Beach and Newport.
In addition to his main residence in the Hollywood Hills and his new Corona Del Mar getaway, Spade also maintains a cozy $2.3 million bungalow near West Hollywood. Brenda McCroskey of Compass held the Corona Del Mar listing; Stuart Vetterick of Hilton & Hyland repped the buyer. More
