Hancock Park House Sells for $19 Million, Shatters Neighborhood Record
While 2019’s first half was an especially sluggish period for L.A.’s luxury real estate market, the rear half created for its wildest year up to now, bowing out having three $100+ million trades and tallying no fewer than 17 additional bargains of $30 million or more.
And 2020 already appears on track for much more of the same. Last month, a Hollywood Hills chemical went to get an unparalleled $75 million, and today another album sale has been consummated. In late January, an imposing red-brick Tudor dwelling in L.A.’s historical Hancock Park neighborhood quietly moved off-market to get a fairly shocking $19 million, easily the largest place trade ever notched.
Sold by Nickelodeon president Brian Robbins and his wife Tracy James, the hulking structure was initially constructed in 1925 and sits to the highest block of what’s arguably the area’s greatest road. In 2007, the land has been acquired by prolific TV producer John Wells, who maintained the old-world structure intact however added more modern conveniences to the interior. About two decades back, he sold the estate to Robbins and James for a comparatively paltry $12.4 million.
Along with also the $19 million bargain easily blows off the area’s previous-record holder, the 2015 purchase of Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas’s storied Isidor Eisner estate, which went for $15. 95 million into Netflix COO Ted Sarandos along with his Beverly Hills-bred spouse Nicole Avant.
What is more eye-popping relating to this latest trade, however, is that the Isidor Eisner estate contains a far bigger home — greater than 15,000 square feet of living area, per tax documents — about a double lot spanning over 1.5 acres of flat land. The Robbins real estate, by contrast, makes do a comparatively small. 85 yards of elbow space.
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It remains uncertain exactly what — if any — modifications Robbins created into the property past the cosmetic alterations average at the price point, although the much-increased pricetag suggests some extensive interior renovations were undertaken. But in the time the few obtained it, in overdue 2017, the home sported 9 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms in roughly 9,600 square feet of living area. There are (or were) a proper north/south-facing tennis court, several bedrooms, a double-height foyer, a eat-in kitchen with designer appliances, glistening hardwood floors, manicured grounds, a gazebo and two-story pool/guesthouse with attachment living quarters.
The record-busting buyers, businessman Thomas J. Swan III and his spouse Joe Townley, formerly owned another Hancock Park house that has been bought for $11.3 million in 2015 by legally-embattled programmer Robert Quigg, who famously fled the country soon after.
Back in 2016, Swan advised the Larchmont Chronicle the Quigg house was, essentially, a wreck; there were problems with the HVAC system, the garage door motors, wiring and chimney flues. Records show he sold that land late last year, in a different off-market price, for only $9.2 million into a Oaktree Capital managing director — a hefty $2.1 million loss before taxation, taking costs and real estate fees.
However, any previous superior issues and multimillion-dollar monetary gut punches certainly did not dissuade Swan and Townley from increasing their investment from the area. The couple’s new mansion, largely hidden from passersby behind rigorously manicured decorative hedges and closely pruned trees, is located on the exact same tree-lined road as the houses of Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, Mercury Insurance founder George Joseph and celebrity Max Greenfield.
Robbins and James have proceeded on to some brand new new Paul McClean-designed modern house in Beverly Hills they picked up last week, paying $16.8 million. In addition they continue to keep a stunningly scenic $7 million ranch up north in Carpinteria, Calif., obtained by Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi past summer.
