Los Angeles condo sells for $2,848 (per square foot)
Candy Spelling's penthouse in Century City will have a $47-million view. By Roger Vincent Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 22, 2008
The top two floors of a Century City residential tower still under construction have been sold for a record $47 million to Candy Spelling, the widow of TV mogul Aaron Spelling.
A $47-million price tag may seem like an enormous sum, but this is all about downshifting in the fast lane.
After all, the 62-year-old heiress with a reputation for embracing opulence will be moving out of Los Angeles County's largest home -- a 123-room, 56,500-square-foot mansion on six acres in the Holmby Hills neighborhood off Sunset Boulevard.
Her new home will be less than a third the size of the old one -- just 16,500 square feet -- but with a killer 360-degree view spanning the horizon from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Catalina Island. The condominium building called the Century is going up next door to the Century Plaza Hotel on Avenue of the Stars and will be completed in late 2009.
"She will be moving into it, though it won't be up for a year or so," said Spelling's attorney, Stephen Goldberg, who confirmed the sale Monday.
At a time when headlines are focusing on plummeting home prices, foreclosures and bad loans, the sale highlighted the vast differences in the region's housing markets.
There are still wealthy buyers keeping the very top end in play -- often at ever higher prices. The price of $2,848 per square foot paid by Spelling at the Century is a record for a Los Angeles condo. The old record of $2,700 was set in February -- at the same building.
It is hard to compare the new and old. Spelling's current home has 11 bedrooms and 16 bathrooms, and then there's the one-lane bowling alley, the gift-wrapping room, a screening room and a doll museum. But what's in store for her new digs is still a question that may tantalize the curious.
Building developer Related Cos. of New York said Spelling would work with her own architects and designers to customize her space on the 41st and 42nd floors. But a few of the details have been negotiated.
The lower floor will have a living room with two working fireplaces, a dining room for 25 guests, and staff quarters. The top floor will house the bedrooms including a 4,000-square-foot master suite, a massage room, an exercise room, a conservatory complete with rose garden, and a swimming pool and deck. [.....]