Friday, September 20, 2013

End of Week Pick Up Sticks: Brad Grey


SELLER: Brad and Cassandra Grey
LOCATION: Los Angeles (Bel Air), CA
PRICE: $27,500,000
SIZE: 10,616 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Paramount chieftain and all-around Showbiz power player Brad Grey and his second wife, Cassandra, have listed their stately white-brick Georgian-Colonial mansion in L.A.'s tony Bel Air area on the open market for $27,500,000.

Mister Grey acquired the house in the wake of his split and subsequent divorce from his first wife, Bonnie, in an off-market deal a bit more than four years ago for $22,000,000. The Hollywood honcho's top producing real estate broker told the property gossip gals at the Wall Street Journal that his client made several modifications and upgrades to the house including landscape refreshment, dining room renovation, sitting room addition on the second floor, and professional projection equipment installation in the formal living room so the glammed-up salon can do double duty as a de riguer screening room.

Current listing details show the 10,600+ square foot mansion was originally designed by L.A.-based mansion specialist Richard Manion and built in 2006 on 1.1 gated acres enclosed by electronic drive gates, high stucco walls, and and and even taller row of trees and privacy hedges.

Main floor living and entertaining spaces include: a double height foyer guaranteed to impress guests and pizza delivery people, roomy; sophisticated, cocktail and dinner party accommodating formal living and dining rooms; a cozy paneled office/library; a family room dominated by a gigantic, U-shaped sectional sofa; and, finally, an all-white kitchen with stainless steel appliances and an industrial-sized pot rack that looms over the super-sized center work island.

In addition to the master suite that's complete, according to digital marketing materials, with dual closets and bathrooms, there are three bedroom suites on the second floor clustered around a sitting room, perhaps the above mentioned one he added. One bedroom and one bathroom staff quarters, probably wedged tightly behind the kitchen near the laundry facilities and garage, bring the bedroom total to five.

Other features of note include three fireplaces, a fitness room plus a separate Pilates studio with private bathroom, a three car attached garage with off-street parking for a dozen or so more cars, and a state-of-the-art security system equipped with closed-circuit surveillance cameras.

Being in the prime East Gate section of Bel Air Mister Grey's estate is surrounded by a whole lotta L.A.-based money and power. Next door on one side is the Gothic Tudor mansion once owned by Nic Cage and on the other side is the almost four acre fully landscaped estate Beny Alagem who started Packard Bell and currently owns the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Across the street, funnily enough, are Rick and Kathy Hilton—that would be Paris's parents and the heirs to the Hilton Hotel fortune. Next door to the Hilton's is the home of music industry executive Jerry Moss and few doors down (and across the street) is Mi Patria, the nearly 9,000 square foot hacienda-style mansion another music industry executive, Freddy de Mann, sold to H. Ross Perot Jr. earlier this year for $18,000,000. Just around the bend one way is Michael Eisner's long-time estate while just around the corner in another direction is the newly re-worked estate of Terry Semel whose across the street neighbor is (charity-oriented lady-who-lunches) Alexandra Dwek who bought her big house in 2011 from Giannulli Mossimo and Laurie Laughlin for $16,600,000.

So the reportage goes, Mister Grey and his younger, fashion-oriented second missus have decided to custom build a brand spanking new contemporary residence designed by Napa Valley-based architect Howard Backen on a mostly flat and superbly located 2.3 acre parcel in the heart of the Holmby Hills 'hood that Mister Grey purchased in late 2010 for $18.5 million and where the couple hosted their glitzy, star-studded nuptials in the spring of 2011. The property, directly across the street from the former Walt Disney estate that private investor and Houston Dynamo co-owner Gabriel Brener has made available as an off-market listing with a hair-straightening $90 million price tag, once had a elegant and beautifully proportioned if somewhat shabbily maintained hacienda-style Monterey Colonial on the property that once owned by Frank Sinatra. Alas, after failing to flip the fixer-upper in 2011, when he put it up for sale for $23,500,000, Mister Gray opted to raze the 8,613 square foot red brick residence* and then—once again in vain—tried to sell the newly vacant parcel for $20,000,000.

Mister and Missus Grey also own a 3,000 square foot, full-floor spread in the tower section of the perfectly swellegant (if a mite stuffy) Carlyle hotel and residences in New York City that they bought almost three years ago for $15,500,000.**

*For better or worse, depending on your point of view, the house was not protected under any historical statute or designation.

**The provided floor plan for Mister and Missus Grey's New York City pied-a-terre was retrieved from still available digital listings as it was organized at the time of their 2011 acquisition. For all Your Mama knows, they've radically rearranged the layout. 

listing photos: Everett Fenton Gidley for Westside Estate Agency

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

What is going on with the Nicolas Cage house? Google Maps images show it under some sort of renovation.

Your Mama forgot the ever elusive 60,000 square feet Château des Fleurs.

The house has been finished for a while now, but hasn't popped up anywhere.

Anonymous said...

"the formal living room so the glammed-up salon can do double duty as a de riguer screening room"

$27 Million for 10,616 square feet with only 5 bedrooms ... and there's not enough space for a dedicated screening room? What? Is there an undisclosed basketball court or some such thing that eats it all up?

Anonymous said...

Do the Los Angeles architects pay attention to the positioning of a house?

For example, the front facade of the Brad Grey house looks south-east.

I would've thought it much wise to move the pool where the front court is so that it isn't in the shady northern side. Maybe it would be weird to have the ex-Nicolas Cage house look southwards and this one northwards so perhaps that's the reason.

The most glaring example of silly positioning is Ronald Tutor's house in the community of Beverly Park – one elevation points straight towards to the hedges instead of the view downstream from the canyon above which it stands.

Anonymous said...

The pool couldn't be any more optimally positioned. It's bright all day way back there. If the pool were up front, there would be shadows from the hedges lining the street.
Actually, the entire house is perfectly positioned for all day daylight.

Nic Cages house looks like it lost it's recording studio/pool house and all that sad ivy that covered the red brick.

I'm more interested in that new house on Stone Canyon that backs up to the Drysdale house on Copa de Oro.

Anonymous said...

But it is on the northwestern side. The astronomical calculations show that that whole page is all day in the shadow.

Anonymous said...

This house is called Birch Rise.
The floorplan is in one of Manions books and it's pretty much perfect.
The interior remodel is sort of like "hi nick/Christian Candy! Nice silver velour couches, huh? Wanna buy this place?"

JGV said...

Yep floorplan is available.
Love mansions, but I need a floorplan to judge any of them. Bad location of dining room? Lack of closet space? Inconvenient lay-out of bathrooms? You need the floorplan.

Birch Rise is indeed pretty much perfect. Much of Manion is. Look it up at google books, there is a preview available.

Or look here:
http://avdmansions.blogspot.nl/search/label/Birch%20Rise

Anonymous said...

Thanx JGV for the link!!!

Anonymous said...

Commentator Vincente Minnelli on Curbed LA says it's a copy of another Los Angeles house:

“This house was actually copied from another house , at 1100
Stone Cyn. (at Dolcedo), which was 'attributed' to Paul Williams
design - even though the original was torn down, and an almost duplicate, put up in its place, in 2002. A (now ex) friend of the owner loved that re-build, had a photographer come in and take tons of photos, then re-created this house on a much more expansive, and flat lot (Dolcedo is all hill) - and this house, and grounds, are much more grand. The Stone Cyn. home owner was (allegedly) so upset with Miss copycat, she's never spoken to her again. Nothing like taking one's idea, elaborating on it, making it better, then turning around, and selling at a great profit. ”

Anonymous said...

Nah, it's bright as hell over there. That yard is huge, that pool is uninterrupted.

Anonymous said...

Why is everyone forgetting William Hablinski?

Or he took no part?

He must have since it is also on his website:

http://www.williamhablinski.com/project-details.php?id=66&p=r

Anonymous said...

So, JGV, Manion, Hablinski, Landry, Richardson Robertson III, Biglin, Appleton, KAA Design Group, Rob Sinclair, Steven Giannetti, Tichenor & Thope, Bob Offenhauser?

John Finton, Peter McCoy or Sebastian?

The house behind the Drysdale residence has been mentioned in the comments on this blog and if I remember correctly, it belongs to some Iranians?

Anonymous said...

Our Mama is in fine form with her three End of Week Pick Up Shticks. Nevertheless, the Rabbi observes Greek- as well as Georgian-influenced architectural design on the Grey residence facade. However, the Rabbi is puzzled with the prevailing inclusion of complete suites of seating within master bedrooms. She queries of the Kinderlach if it is again fashionable, as during the reigns of Marie Antoinette at Versailles and Madame Helena Rubinstein of Park Avenue, to grant audiences within bed chambers following morning toilets?

Most inquisitively yours,
Rabbi Hedda LaCasa
Sent via her (xylo) phone

Anonymous said...

Rabbi: I think because the bedrooms are so damn large, they have to fill them with something. I guess couches and chairs are better than anything else I can think off. Personally, I hate these large houses. They look like hotels and not homes. But alas, I realize mine is a minority view.

FrenchGirl said...

the interior is very grey or silver and a home staging decorator worked on the house before the sale

Sandpiper said...


From my far-far-far less grand ivory tower ...

Based on the this home's investment in quality fit and finish, I was surprised to learn how recently it was built. Architectural period integrity has not been compromised, even to the detriment of retaining slightly downsized windows. It is those nuances, and more, that combine to create such a special property. Lovely!

Small aside: I caught Mr. Grey's recent interview by Charlie Rose. He was so unpretentious and grateful for his opportunities to succeed. Clearly wasn't coached. Humble and very nice man it seemed.

Anonymous said...

Low ceilings for a bel air new build.

Anonymous said...

Todah rabbah (thank you very much) for the links JGV and Anonymous 8:43 a.m. The primary level floor plan approaches perfection, and the bedroom level features a generously sized and separated maid's room. Nevertheless, the family room in the earlier photo series contained a common decorative lighting faux pas: A hall lantern was hung in this room, suggesting a chilly environment for socializing. Kinderlach, glass enclosed fixtures are designed to prevent candle flames from self-extinguishing in drafty halls, and should be unnecessary in drawing, dining, and family rooms, and libraries, breakfast rooms, and bedrooms. Along with Sandpiper, the Rabbi was surprised in regard to the recent construction date of this home, as the exterior is of pleasing proportion, form, and architectural integrity. The newer listing photos, however, capture the mother of all potracks and the mac daddy of all home gyms. Both must terrify Mama, to whom the Rabbi accordingly offers to extend shnaps and sedative-related spiritual support.

Dr. Rabbi Hedda LaCasa

Anonymous said...

Brad Grey is exactly the opposite of a "very nice man". DON'T let him fool you.

lil' gay boy said...

Good God, even his name lacks color...

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Anonymous said...

The big question, what mega mansion will Brad Grey buy once he sells the current one?

stolidog said...

it's very g(r)ay.

Anonymous said...

He can't be that nice if he demolished the former Frank Sinatra estate. Just another selfish rich person ambivalent to history.

P K Gupta said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.