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      Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner’s Encino Mansion Lists for a Cool $16.75 Million

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      Last summer, amid the Covid-19 lockdowns and around the time they added a baby to their growing family, boy band royal and budding actor Joe Jonas and 2019 Emmy nominated Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner hoisted their 3,000-square-foot three-bedroom and three-bath condo in downtown Manhattan’s trendy Nolita neighborhood on the market at $6.5 million. The price was soon and considerably chopped to $5.9 million and, at the tail end of the year, slashed again to $5.4 million, a notable but presumably weatherable bit below the slightly more than $5.6 million the pecuniarily blessed couple paid in March 2018.

      Now, with a Manhattan condo that no one seems to want, at least at a price they’re willing to accept, the Turner-Joneses have taken it off the market and, as was first tittered about by the property gossips at The Wall Street Journal, tossed their fashionably appointed mansion in LA’s ever more popular and expensive Encino community up for sale at an attention getting $16.75 million.

      Redfin

      The sky-high asking price makes it not only the most expensive house currently available on the open market in Encino, it also represents a hefty bump above the $14.1 million the couple shelled out for the then newly built estate only about 1.5 years ago, shortly after their two weddings, the first an under-the-radar affair in Las Vegas and the other a more elegant, star-studded event at the Le Château de Tourreau near the Provençal town of Avignon in the south of France.
      Set on almost an acre of groomed grounds, secured behind high gates and fortified by a comprehensive security system, the roughly 15,000-square-foot home was designed by Jae Omar Design with a sophisticated blend of natural woods and imported stone used in a contemporary manner. According to listings held by Carl Gambino of Compass, there are nine bedrooms and eight bathrooms, plus three powder rooms, between the sprawling L-shaped main house and the two-story entertainment pavilion/guest house,

      Redfin

      Pared back and modern with familiar architectural shapes, the tri-gabled front of the house is accented with vertical wood planks, while a pair of stone foo dogs guard the solid wood front door that floats in a two-story wall of glass held in place between whitewashed brick volumes.

      Lustrous, variegated walnut floorboards in the huge double-height entrance gallery run throughout most of the house; The flannel-grey marble fireplace in the formal sitting room is enhanced by a pair olive-colored velvet sofas; And a floor-to-ceiling wall of glass is all that separates the formal dining room from a climate-controlled walk-in wine vault.
      In the family room, a book-matched grey-marble fireplace column stands between floor-to-ceiling wood storage boxes, and full-height panels of glass vanish into the walls to merge indoor and outdoor living and entertainment spaces.
      The main kitchen is open over a long island where a single plank of polished wood with a raw edge serves as a seven-seat snack bar. There’s also a second prep kitchen for larger scale events as well as an informal dining space that spills out to an outdoor dining area through disappearing walls of glass.

      Redfin

      A second family room on the upper floor includes a fireplace and direct access to a large terrace that overlooks the swimming pool.
      Some of the guest and family bedrooms in the main house open to balconies and all off them, per marketing materials, have deluxe private bathrooms.
      The master bedroom feels like a five-star treehouse with leafy views into the surrounding treetops through huge expanses of windows that slip in the walls. A fireplace anchors the sitting area, the custom-fitted walk-in closet and dressing room is perfect for a couple of red carpet regulars, and the spa-style bath is bathed in earth tone stone tile work with a huge open shower space and a freestanding soaking tub.
      The main house also includes a well-equipped gym that opens to the backyard and a plush screening room. 

      Redfin

      The ground floor of the two-story entertaining and guest pavilion has been transformed into a pub-like lounge complete with red brick walls, a vintage bar and a pool table. There’s also a humidor, a fog machine, disco lights and a hidden DJ station. Upstairs contains guest quarters.

      Shielded by tall fences and mature landscaping with an ancient oak tree that arches over the swimming pool and spa, the resort-style backyard has a couple of comfortably furnished lounging areas, an outdoor kitchen, lots of evergreen faux-grass that incorporates a putting green, and an outdoor projector for al fresco movie nights.
      Check out more images of the mansion below.

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      Sugar Ray Leonard’s Secluded LA Mansion Hits the Market for $46.5 Million

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      Ray Charles Leonard, better known as “Sugar” Ray Leonard and often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, is parting ways with his old Los Angeles digs for $46.5 million. Unfortunately, a training ring doesn’t come with the property, but the Palisades estate has plenty of other amenities that will likely appeal to potential buyers.

      First and foremost, you’ll get plenty of space, as the 16,700-square-foot main home sits on a 1.7-acre lot. That sprawling interior space has much to do with the home’s architect, Richard Landry, known as the king of the megamansion for creating massive projects for the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Mark Wahlberg.

      The pool. 

      Photo: Jim Bartsch

      The primary residence has seven bedrooms, and there’s an additional guest house on the property for friends or family who want to stay the night. The buildings on the grounds were designed to emulate the look and feel of an Italian villa.
      And while the home doesn’t come with any boxing-related perks, there are still many different venues for exercising, including a tennis court and a pool—plus a putting green where you can practice your swing.

      The tennis court. 

      Photo: Jim Bartsch

      Above all, the estate is very private. It’s at the end of a long, gated driveway, with surrounding hedges providing an additional layer of quiet and seclusion.
      That all begs the question: Why is Leonard parting with the place? According to The Wall Street Journal, he and his wife, Bern Leonard, are now empty nesters and therefore looking to downsize from their palatial digs. The couple had previously listed the home for about $52 million in late 2019 but took it off the market shortly after.

      The entryway. 

      Photo: Jim Bartsch

      Of course, while they may be looking for a slightly less gargantuan residence to call home, if you’ve been on the hunt for a megamansion designed by one of the most sought-after architects in the category, then look no further.
      Check out more photos of the estate below:

      The dining room. 

      Photo: Jim Bartsch

      The living room. 

      Photo: Jim Bartsch

      One of the bedrooms. 

      Photo: Jim Bartsch More

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      Frank Sinatra’s Secluded Palm Desert Compound Could Be Yours for $4.25 Million

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      Frank Sinatra may have famously crooned about New York, New York, but the singer spent a fair bit of time in the Golden State as well. He even built a compound in Palm Desert where he lived for many years. The digs are just as enviable today as ever, complete with a helipad and tennis court—yours for $4.25 million.

      The property is known as Villa Maggio, after Angelo Maggio, the character that Sinatra played in the 1953 movie From Here to Eternity, for which he won an Oscar. It’s a 7.5-acre parcel altogether and is situated on a mountain high above the rest of the city, though you can still get to all the local shops and restaurants after a 20-minute drive.

      The living room of the main residence. Sinatra personally designed the home, which stylistically looks like a mashup of midcentury modern and ski-lodge aesthetics. 

      Sean Garrison

      The interiors themselves have been carefully restored, but much of the original tiles and wallpaper that Sinatra selected remains. There are three residences on the grounds, which are great for having family over for an extended stay. The main home has five bedrooms, the guest house has three and the pool house has just one; you’re looking at nearly 6,500 square feet of space in total.
      Sinatra used the home as a sort of respite, since it’s so far above the city’s main thoroughfare, but it was also a place where he hosted many friends for parties. Both a pool and a tennis court are on the property, and the pool house lends itself well to outdoor entertaining, as it has both a built-in firepit and plenty of space for lounging or dining alfresco. The helipad, meanwhile, makes it easy for both the future buyer and their guests to drop in whenever they want.

      The kitchen 

      Sean Garrison

      It’s a chunk of land that could very well grow in size, too, should the next owner feel so inclined. According to the listing, the adjacent property is also for sale. Of course, there’s plenty to enjoy here as is, so, in the words of Ol’ Blue Eyes himself, you can “come fly with me” straight to the estate . . . if you’ve got a helicopter, that is.
      Check out more photos of the listing below:

      The dining room 

      Sean Garrison

      One of the bedrooms 

      Sean Garrison

      The compound sits atop a mountain and enjoys spectacular views. 

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      Home of the Week: Bette Davis Once Owned This Laguna Beach Estate. It Just Listed for $20 Million.

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      It may be more than 70 years since the All About Eve star called this imposing oceanfront mansion just south of California’s tony Laguna Beach home, but locals still refer to it as The Bette Davis House.

      The two-time Academy Award winner was at the pinnacle of her formidable career when she bought the home in 1947 as an escape from the Hollywood paparazzi, living here until 1950.

      Sitting on a bluff overlooking rocky Woods Cove, a five-minute drive south of Laguna, this 5,400-square-foot, six-bedroom French Normandy-style house perches high above the cove, with private-access steps leading to a sandy beach.

      Davis was 39 and married to her third husband, artist and former boxer William Grant Sherry, when she purchased the residence.

      Bette Davis and her third husband, William Grant Sherry, reading in the living room of their home in Laguna Beach, California, 1947. (Photo by Loomis Dean/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images) 

      Photo: Loomis Dean/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images

      According to history books, it had been built in 1929 as a summer home for Charles H. Prisk, a wealthy newspaper publisher and owner of the influential Pasadena Star-News and Long Beach Press-Telegram.
      Designed by well-known Laguna Beach artist and architect Aubrey St. Clair, the three-story, white-stucco mansion preserved many of the original features from when the actress lived here.

      The living room. 

      Photo: Courtesy of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty

      “One of the glass doors leading out to the oceanfront terrace still has the lovely, stained-glass crest featuring the letter “D-for-Davis,” listing agent John Cain, of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty, tells Robb Report.   
      More prominent is the large, wrought-iron “D” on the home’s towering, oceanside brick chimney. According to Cain, when Davis moved in, it used to be a letter “P” that Charles Prisk had installed. “By replacing it with a “D,” she quickly branded the home as her own,” he says.

      The kitchen. 

      Photo: Courtesy of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty

      Features like these helped earn the home a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. While Cain says this limits modifications to the exterior, it does mean tax breaks for owners to help offset restoration and maintenance costs.
      According to records, the current owners purchased the property in 2004, paying $13.5 million. Since then, they’ve modernized the eight bathrooms and upgraded the two kitchens.

      The great room. 

      Photo: Courtesy of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty

      Turn off Pacific Coast Highway a mile and a half south of Laguna Beach, and follow the hill to Ocean Way and you can’t miss the home’s distinctive, Normandy-style, half-timbered frontage, distinctive green window trim and wood-shingle roof.

      A door from the road leads into a private courtyard with a fountain and steps to an outside dining terrace. Inside the main house—there’s a separate guest cottage—the standout feature is the spectacular great room with its intricate, coffered wood ceiling.

      The views from the great room. 

      Photo: Courtesy of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty

      The space gives way to the home’s aptly-named “lookout room” with its wall of windows providing uninterrupted views of the crashing Pacific below, and those legendary California sunsets.
      Steps away, the home’s elegant living room has a French-style fireplace and soaring, distressed-wood ceiling. From here, a staircase ascends to the third-floor bedroom level and the home’s lovely primary suite, where French doors open on to a private terrace with views of Woods Cove and up and down the Laguna Beach coastline. Romantics will love the suite’s Juliet balcony that overlooks the great room below.

      The cozy sitting room. 

      Photo: Courtesy of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty

      Back on the first-floor level, you’ll find the family room with its imposing stone fireplace and doors that exit onto a sunny, beach-overlook patio. The bar area has an ornate stained-glass ceiling. On this level there’s also a wine cellar, a fitness room and another bedroom.
      The self-contained, two-bedroom guest cottage has its own kitchen and a breezy, beach-house feel.

      The primary bedroom suite opens to a private terrace. 

      Photo: Courtesy of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty

      “Of course the Bette Davis connection is a big part of the home’s appeal,” says Sotheby’s Cain. “But what is so special about the property is its prized location and that direct beach access.”
      1991 Ocean Way is listed with Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty for $19.995 million. Take a 3-D tour here.

      The wine cellar. 

      Photo: Courtesy of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty

      The family room. 

      Photo: Courtesy of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty

      The bar. 

      Photo: Courtesy of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty

      Another bedroom. 

      Photo: Courtesy of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty

      Many details from Davis’ era have been preserved. 

      Photo: Courtesy of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty

      The deck overlooking the ocean. 

      Photo: Courtesy of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty

      Views from the patio go up and down the coastline. 

      Photo: Courtesy of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty

      The guest cottage. 

      Photo: Courtesy of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty

      The house perches over a cove. 

      Photo: Courtesy of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty

      A private staircase leads down to the beach. 

      Photo: Courtesy of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty

      Bette Davis and her third husband, William Grant Sherry, boating near their home in Laguna Beach, California, 1947. (Photo by Loomis Dean/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images) 

      Photo: Loomis Dean/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images)

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      Inside Bill and Melinda Gates’s Bonkers Portfolio of American Real Estate

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      After 27 years of marriage, amassing a planetary fortune and founding a namesake philanthropic enterprise with an endowment of nearly $50 billion, Bill and Melinda Gates announced this week that they’ve decided to split up in the most modern of ways, via Twitter. The split appears to be amicable, and the erstwhile couple says they will continue their roles as co-chairs and trustees of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They will, however, need to divvy up their Brobdingnagian pile of assets, a no doubt Byzantine enterprise that has people around the world wondering who will get what.

      It’s often said that the Microsoft founder doesn’t like to spend his money frivolously. Frivolous, however, is in the eye of the beholder and often depends on the size of one’s bank account. And, for Gates, currently ranked by the bean counters at Forbes as the fourth richest person on earth with a net worth of around $130 billion, not spending frivolously means maintaining a fleet of Porsches and other high-performance sports cars, traveling by private jet—reportedly a Bombardier BD-700 Global Express that costs upwards of $40 million—and, though it’s worth but a tiny fraction of his overall wealth, presiding over a property portfolio easily valued in excess of a quarter-billion bucks.
      It’s not clear exactly how many homes the Gates actually own, and some of their estates comprise numerous parcels and several houses. There are, though, at least eight houses and compounds spread across the United States that, according to tax records, have a combined annual tax bill that tallies up to about $4 million. That might be enough to give an ordinary millionaire a million sleepless nights, but for Gates, the yearly tax bills are nothing more than pecuniary child’s play, less, in fact, than he earns in a single day.

      Based on how much wealth he added to his bottom line over the past year, according to Business Insider, he earned about $4,630 per second. That means at a spending rate of $1 million per day it would take him about 400 years to spend his fortune. Business Insider went on to determine that he’s 66% richer than the entirety of the British monarchy, has more money than the richest person in Asia and the richest person in China, combined, and could give every person in the world $15 and still have $28 billion to spare.

      The Gates’ primary property in Medina, Washington. 

      Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

      MEDINA, WASH.
      The Gates’ primary residence has long been a custom-built mansion that overlooks Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. The Pacific Lodge-inspired contemporary extravaganza, designed in conjunction between Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and Cutler Anderson Architects, and often referred to in the press as Xanadu 2.0, after the estate of the lead character in “Citizen Kane,” measures in at about 66,000 square feet.
      Some of the notable creature comforts include seven bedrooms, two dozen bathrooms, six kitchens, including one that services a 2,200-square-foot ballroom/meeting space, garaging for a couple dozen cars and a 20-seat Art Deco-style theater. There’s also a 60-foot swimming pool with an underwater sound system, 2,500 square feet of health and wellness facilities complete with gym, sauna and steam room, a trampoline room with 20-foot ceiling, and a 2,100-square-foot library with a bookcase that swings open to reveal a hidden bar. Outside, there’s a sport court, a salmon and trout-stocked stream, a boat dock and a private lakefront beach with sand imported by barge from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.
      And, of course, the tech gadgetry is next level. Occupants and guests each wear a pin with pre-set preferences for lighting, temperature and audio-visual systems. The pins communicate with sensors throughout the house, and as one moves from room to room not only with one’s music selection of choice follow but the lights and climate systems will alter themselves automatically to correlate with preset preferences.
      And, because all that just isn’t enough, in addition to the main residence, which tax records show has a value of $130 million and a yearly tax bill of more than $2.3 million, the Gates own at least a dozen surrounding properties that altogether span more than ten acres with at least six additional luxury homes.

      The couple’s Indiana Wells home in California. 

      Photo Courtesy: Google

      INDIAN WELLS, CALIF.
      The Gates dropped $12.5 million in 1999 for a deluxe desert mansion that sits alongside the manicured greens of the exclusive Vintage Club in Indian Wells, Calif., a private and exceedingly-posh golf and resort enclave about 20 miles southeast of Palm Springs.

      Not many details about the property are publicly available, but tax records and other digital resources indicate the 1.33-acre estate includes a main residence of nearly 14,000 square feet built in 1993 with six bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms plus a huge swimming pool shaped like a guitar and vast sweep of manicured lawn.
      The Vintage Club’s other homeowners include a bevy of billionaires, Charles Koch, Bill Gross, Dennis Washington and Ingrid Flick among them.

      One of the Gates’ Rancho Sante Fe properties. 

      Photo Courtesy: Realtor.com

      RANCHO SANTA FE, CALIF.
      In 2014, after it had been on the market for a few years at declining prices that started at a wildly optimistic $29.95 million and dropped to about $25 million, the Gates swooped into ritzy Rancho Santa Fe, Calif, a Beverly Hills-style suburb about 20 miles north of San Diego, and scooped up diet guru Jenny Craig’s 228-acre horse farm in an off-market deal for a discounted price of $18 million.
      Then known as Rancho Paseana, and now known as Evergate Stables, the thoroughbred training and competitive hunting-jumping facility has been upgraded over the last handful of years. However, at the time of its 2014 sale, the farm includes four 30-stall barns, plus a fifth that will hold another 21 horses, an office and veterinarian suite, a guesthouse, a couple of 30-acre pastures and a 3/4-mile racetrack.

      The couples Rancho Paseana property. 

      Photo Courtesy: Google

      RANCHO SANTA FE, CALIF.
      At the time the Gates bought Rancho Paseana in 2014, they already owned — and still own — a four-plus-acre estate at the tony Del Mar Country Club. Perched on a low ridge at the end of a palm tree-lined drive with panoramic views over Rancho Paseana, which is now called Evergate Stables, the nearly 11,000-square-foot Mediterranean villa was acquired, per tax records, in 1999 for $5.1 million.

      The Gates’s oceanfront compound in Del Mar, California. 

      Photo Courtesy: Realtor.com

      DEL MAR, CALIF.
      After two decades bunking periodically in Rancho Santa Fe, the Gates decided last year they’d like a place to hunker down at the ocean and, just as the Covid-19 lockdowns began to sweep across the nation, sealed the deal on the much-publicized $43 million purchase of an oceanfront compound along one of the most exclusive streets in the affluent seaside community of Del Mar, about six miles west of their holdings in Rancho Santa Fe.

      Designed by renowned local architect Ken Ronchetti, the single-level home presides over about 120-feet of beach frontage and measures in at a comfortably large but well short of humongous 5,800 square feet with six bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, plus a pair of guesthouses. Marketing materials from the time of the sale indicate the unconventionally bifurcated estate —the main house sits on one side of the street and a secondary structure is on the other — offers a plethora of leisure and recreation options including a home theater, a glass-tiled swimming pool, a 10-person hot tub, a health and fitness suite and, of course, a huge terrace with unparalleled views up and down the sugary sand.

      A private Cody, Wyoming mansion owned by the duo. 

      Photo Courtesy: Google

      CODY, WYO.
      Back in 2009 it was widely reported Gates shelled out somewhere in the neighborhood of $9 million for a sublimely beautiful ranch of almost 500 acres nestled into the foothills of Carter Mountain about 20 miles outside of Cody, Wyoming.
      At the time of the transaction, marketing materials for the property indicated the fairly remote ranch is approached down a seven-mile-long drive with a 15,000-square-foot main residence known as Irma Lake Lodge. Additionally, there’s a five-bedroom guesthouse, a caretaker’s house, and a three-room cottage built by American Old West legend Buffalo Bill Cody who settled the land sometime around the turn of the 20th century. It was Cody, in fact, who gave the four small and pristine lakes that dot the ranch their names: Irma, Lilly, Arta and Natalie.

      The massive Rocky Mountain getaway, Yellowstone Club. 

      Photo Courtesy: Google

      YELLOWSTONE CLUB, MONT.
      The Gates family maintains a substantial Rocky Mountain getaway in the ultra-prestigious Yellowstone Club, a 13,600-acre members-only ski and golf resort community just west of Big Sky, Montana, where some of the other high net worth members are reported to include Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel, TV producer Burt Sugarman and entertainment news journalist Mary Hart, Frank McCourt, former owner of the L.A Dodgers, Peter Chernin, former president of News Corp., and billionaire hotelier Barry Sternlicht.

      It’s not clear how much the Gates paid for the multi-acre estate property that sits on a wooded ridge with magical wrap-around mountain views, but becoming a member of the club is not for mere financial mortals. Membership reportedly requires a roughly $300,000 initiation fee, the purchase of a home, which typically start at more than $5 million, and close to $40,000 in annual fees.
      Though there’s a tradition of members not talking about each other, an unnamed member recalls in a 2009 New York Times article that one of the attractions to Yellowstone Club for the Gates is the high-level of privacy and security that allows the family to take to the slopes without bodyguards.

      The multiacre spread in Wellington, Florida owned by the Gates. 

      Photo Courtesy: Realtor.com

      WELLINGTON, FLA.
      The Gates have had a foot in the South Florida real estate trenches since at least 2009 when they paid $5 million for a waterfront estate in low-key Hobe Sound. That property was sold in 2018 — at a million-dollar loss — but some years ago, no doubt because their daughter Jennifer is an award-winning equestrian, the Gates shifted their property focus to the affluent equestrian-oriented village of Wellington, about 17 miles west of Palm Beach at the swampy edge of The Everglades.
      The Gates didn’t just buy a small training facility, however. Between 2013 and 2019, they ponied up close to $46 million for no fewer than five properties that comprise more than 25 contiguous acres within the exclusive and guard-gated Mallet Hill enclave. Their most recent acquisition in the horsey community came in 2019 when they splashed out $21 million in an off-market deal for a 7.7-acre spread with a recently built mansion.  More