Business

Saturday March 28, 2009

US$150M buys you Spelling Mansion, largest home in LA county


LOS ANGELES: The widow of producer Aaron Spelling is placing "The Manor" in the exclusive Holmby Hills neighborhood on the market for a jaw-dropping $150 million, making it by far the most expensive home for sale in the U.S.

The French chateau-style mansion has 56,500 square feet (5248.98 sq. meters) of space on more than 4.7 acres and is the largest home in Los Angeles County.

Among the neighbors are the Los Angeles Country Club and, not too far away, the Playboy Mansion.

Candy Spelling's late husband produced hit shows such as "Charlie's Angels," "Dynasty" and "Beverly Hills, 90210."

He died in 2006.

"Everything there is glamorous, and is luxurious and it's really great scale," said Sally Forster Jones, an agent with Coldwell Banker Previews International in Los Angeles, which is co-listing the property.

"There really is nothing to compare it to."

Spelling told The Associated Press that she let her dog Madison, a soft-coated Wheaten Terrier, help pick out the best real estate agent for the task.

She had her security bring the dog into the room every time she met one of the candidate agents and watched how the dog reacted.

If Madison didn't like them, Spelling crossed them off the list.

Prospective buyers won't have to worry about passing such scrutiny, Spelling jokes.

"Not at all," she says.

The mansion, built in 1991, is gated and features a winding driveway that leads up to the three-story house, which includes ceilings that reach up to 30 feet (9 meters) high, Jones said.

While some published reports put the tally of rooms in the mansion at well past 100, Jones couldn't provide an exact count.

Spelling says she doesn't know either.

"You're really asking the wrong person," Spelling jokes.

"There's a lot. (The house) has evolved and I actually haven't gone around and counted."

The Spellings found no shortage of uses for the many rooms in the mansion, however.

There's a bowling alley, a wine storage and tasting room, gift-wrapping room, a humidity-controlled silver storage room, China room, library, gym and media room, among many others.

The screening room is one of Spelling's favorites.

"I had some really wonderful times entertaining in that room," she said.

"We showed movies and I still do."

The room features a movie projection system that automatically comes up from the floor at the same time that shades extend over the windows.

It's an idea that came to Candy Spelling in a dream as she sought to avoid having a projection screen open all the time.

"I wanted Aaron to have the best projection room anyone had ever seen, and the biggest, so I came with this solution, not realizing that we had to excavate a lot of dirt to get down that low, to have a special room that housed the screen that was totally dust free," said Spelling, 63.

The Spellings also finished the 17,000-square-foot (5,181-meter) attic that includes a barber shop-beauty salon.

The home also has five fireplaces, four wet bars, and a wing for service staff with seven bedrooms.

Lavish features also can be found outside the house, including a tennis court, fountains, a waterfall, a pool and spa, a reflection pool and a pool house with a kitchen, and 16 car ports.

The estate also boasts 18th century-style gardens with a citrus orchard and a rooftop rose garden.

Prospective buyers won't have to worry much about parking when they host big parties. The property includes a winding motor court with space for more than 100 cars.

Spelling plans to trade her mansion lifestyle for a luxurious, two-story condo atop a residential tower in Los Angeles that she bought last year for $47 million.

"I have a lot of wonderful, wonderful, wonderful feelings about this house and special things that I went through in building it, with a love that you can't even imagine," she gushed.

"Yet I feel like I'm moving on to a new chapter in my life." - AP


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