America’s priciest palace – a 105,000-square-foot Bel-Air megamansion with five swimming pools, a 30-car garage, a bowling alley and a ‘philanthropy wing’ for charity galas – has been put on the market for a whopping $295 million.
However, the infamous White Elephant estate – which took eight years to build and was once priced at $340 million – has been a titanic money pit since going on sale and falling into foreclosure last year, and will be put up for auction in February if it doesn’t sell quickly.
If sold for the asking price, the opulent property, garishly branded ‘The One,’ would boast the biggest price tag in U.S. history, surpassing the cool $238 million hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin dropped on a Manhattan penthouse in 2019.
But if sellers fail to hock the mega-house by next month, it will likely end up going to the highest bidder, sellers say – which could leave the man behind the mammoth manse in the red.
‘It’s a modern masterpiece,’ said Branden Williams, of The Beverly Hills Estates, who is shilling the property along with Aaron Kirman of the Aaron Kirman Group at Compass.
‘It’s four acres at the top of a mountain in Bel-Air, and it can never be built again,’ the seller asserted as the property was listed for the second time on Friday.
With that said, Hollywood producer-turned-developer Nile Niami, 53, who set out on building the house in 2013 with the help of 600 contracted workers, probably wishes it never was.
During its construction, the home was billed by Niami as the ‘biggest and most expensive modern home in America.’
What’s more, the ex-Hollywood exec reportedly was convinced he could secure an asking price of $500 million for the impressive estate – a prediction that would leave the the producer of films like The Patriot and Point Blank hopelessly disappointed.
Niami hired renowned architect Paul McLean and interior designer Kathryn Rotondi to bring his vision to life on five acres in the hills overlooking Los Angeles, but cost overruns left him in massive debt to the tune of $180 million.
Niami, known as ‘The King of LA mega-mansions,’ filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for his Crestlloyd company in October, after he defaulted on a $106 million debt owed to Hankey Capital.
The palatial estate was subsequently placed into receivership – a form of foreclosure – last year after being listed for $340 million in January of that year. At that point, the home was pulled from auction, after ten months on the market.
Following the foreclosure, the sale of the home was subsequently blocked until November 29. It finally made its return to the market on Friday – with its price slashed by $45 million.
Now, insiders familiar with the court proceedings say it will have to sell for at least $200 million just to cover the costs.
If the newly listed property fails to collect that price, lenders will either be forced to sell below the asking price and take a loss or direct the property into further foreclosure proceedings.
It is currently being shown by court-appointed receiver Ted Lanes, who now controls the property and is in charge of finding a buyer and paying off the lenders and other creditors.
With that said, lenders and brokers say that the property’s second listing Friday comes at an ideal time, with luxury real estate in Los Angeles currently a hot commodity.
Sales of properties priced at $10 million or more doubled in 2021 compared to 2019, prior to the pandemic, with a total of 312 sales, according to real estate appraiser Miller Samuel.
And the home itself, boasting 21 bodacious bedrooms and 42 bathrooms, is nothing to sneeze at, even by luxurious LA standards.
Designed by architect Paul McLean and decorated by interior designer Kathryn Rotondi, The structure is surrounded by a moat on three sides and ‘appears to float above the city,’ Architectural Digest wrote last year in a profile of the contemporary castle.
The mansion even possesses its own beauty salon, which boasts bright red walls and opaque shampoo stations.
Despite the opulence, McLean and Rotondi, who were enlisted by Niami to construct the structure, said that wanted to create a house that was light, bright, and low fuss.
‘We wanted to provide that quintessential L.A. living but on a bigger scale. To allow the home to feel livable,’ McLean stated last year.
Interior pictures show the home features floor to ceiling windows letting in the California sunshine.
The home has been completed with simple, functional furniture and eye-catching contemporary artwork.
With that said, the property’s defining feature is its 360 degree views, which stretch all the way out to the Pacific Ocean in the west and the San Gabriel Mountains in the east.
The entirety of Downtown Los Angeles can also be seen from the mansion’s 10,000-square-foot sky deck.
‘This project felt exciting and simultaneously intimidating,’ McClean told Architectural Digest.
‘It was approached with excitement and was thrilling to create, but I don’t think any of us realized just how much effort and time it would take to complete the project.’
Only time will tell if their efforts will pay off, however, as the clock continues to tick on the already foreclosed property’s prompt sale, with February rapidly approaching.
Niami first purchased the land where ‘The One’ now stands in 2012 for $28 million from Rita Kogan, the late video game heiress and daughter of Space Invaders creator Michael Kogan.
The former producer reportedly took out millions of dollars in loans to fund the lavish project.
Now, more than a hundred million of dollars and a decade later, the home is still unfinished, and a buyer would need to cough up millions – and likely spend months mired in construction – just to make property livable.
If such a buyer does not surface in the next month, bidding is already slated to take place beginning on February 7, via real estate company Concierge Auctions’ online marketplace.
