An Epic 60-Room Estate in Los Angeles Gets a Another Big Price Chop
A little over a year after it first hit the market with an eye-popping $250 million price tag—shortly after its longtime owner, billionaire telecom pioneer Gary Winnick, passed away at age 76—the Bel Air trophy estate widely known as Casa Encantada (loosely translated to Enchanted House) has popped up for sale again. After undergoing a dramatic price cut to $195 million last winter, the estate is now being offered at a newly reduced $165 million.
“Casa Encantada is one of the finest residences in the United States,” says Josh Flagg of Compass, who shares the listing with Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency and Drew Fenton of Carolwood Estates. “If this was 2017, the house would be sold by now but given the state of the market, there aren’t buyers lining up around the block for any house over $100 million. With that said, there are people out there that can afford a house like this and it just takes that one person.”
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Originally designed and built in the 1930s by Russian-born architect James E. Dolena at a reported cost of around $2 million for Hilda Boldt Weber—a former New York City hospital nurse who married multimillionaire Cincinnati glass manufacturer Charles Boldt and then inherited a considerable fortune upon his death in the late 1920s—the dwelling was later sold to hotel magnate Conrad Hilton in 1950 for a mere $225,000.
After Hilton passed away in 1979, retired Dole Food Products chairman David Murdock bought the place in 1980 for $12.4 million. He went on to transfer the estate in 2000 for $94 million to Winnick and his artist and author wife Karen, who spent almost two years and tens of millions of dollars extensively restoring the premises in collaboration with noted architect Peter Marino. Notably, the $94 million deal was long a residential record for California but was also a non-standard sale that involved both cash and two large pieces of land.
Hidden away behind walls and gates, amid an elevated 8.4-acre peninsula that juts out into the golf course of the Bel Air Country Club, the H-shaped mansion is fronted by a motor court bolstered by a bubbling fountain. An opulent neoclassical portico entrance leads into the 40,000-square-foot residence, which features seven bedrooms and a staggering 20 baths, plus posh amenities like a pool pavilion that doubles as a movie theater.
A double-height entry foyer displaying a sweeping staircase greets and flows to a grand reception hall resting beneath a 14-foot ceiling. Other highlights include formal and casual dining and living areas, including a den/card room sporting an art-deco lucite wet bar, as well as a walnut-paneled study/office lined with floor-to-ceiling bookcases and a 3,500-square-foot primary suite flaunting dual sitting rooms, closets, and baths.
The property, which has no neighbors on either side, sits atop a subterranean tunnel that connects two holes of the exclusive golf course and overlooks picturesque city, mountain, and ocean vistas. The Benjamin Purdy-landscaped grounds also host rose, herb, and tropical gardens, along with a 60-foot tiled pool, a desirable north/south tennis court with a viewing pavilion, an additional sports court, and plenty of spots for alfresco lounging and entertaining.
In addition to the Bel Air estate, Winnick’s widow still maintains a Charles Gwathmey-designed apartment on the 20th floor of New York City’s iconic Sherry Netherland Hotel that’s currently on the market for just under $3.5 million.
Click here for more photos of Casa Encantada.
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