Once owned by legendary Hollywood actress Claudette Colbert, the property is now home to a modern showpiece boasting a movie theater and roof deck.
A recently built spec mansion has Һit the market in a prominent Los Angeles neighborhood originally home to Claudette Colbert. The $45 million asking price is $37 million higher than the March 2019 sale of the Holmby Hills property to a development firm.
The stately house, completed this year, is on 1930s celebrity property. Colbert commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright’s son Lloyd Wright to build her a stunning Colonial-style mansion on a 4-acre hilltop estate with beautiful gardens, where she lived until the 1960s with her husband Dr. Joel Pressman, UCLA’s Neck & Hand Surgery Department head.
A vintage souvenir postcard published circa-1941 from the “Homes of Movie Stars in California” series shows a view of Claudette Colbert’s Holmby Hills mansion.NEXTRECORD ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
Later owned by retired Northrop Grunman chairman and CEO Kent Kresa, and subsequently occupied by businessman Juan Villalonga, the house sold in 2014 for $7.3 million to a real estate developer who razed Colbert’s home and subdivided the surrounding land into smaller lots. An original piece of the property was next snapped up in 2019 for around $7.6 million by Kohen Development Group, who went on to design and construct a sleek architectural-style home boasting six bedrooms and 12 baths filtered across a little more than 17,600 square feet of three-level living space.
Tucked away behind a gated driveway and high hedges, on nearly three-quarters of an acre near the prestigious Harvard-Westlake Middle School campus, the contemporary showpiece is centered around a mature olive tree that’s encased by glass walls and sits amid a water feature on the basement level.
A dining area with a floor-to-ceiling wine display connects to a glass-lined living room overlooking the grounds.CHRISTOPHER AMITRANO/CS8 PHOTO
Other highlights include a living room flaunting a soaring two-way fireplace clad in stone and dining area sporting a glass-encased wine display, along with a family room that adjoins a gourmet kitchen outfitted with top-tier Miele and PITT appliances, a couple of mini-wine cellars, dual eat-in islands and a secondary prep kitchen. A movie theater with blackout shades flows via pocketing doors to a bar holding court outside, and there also is another bar in a nook off the family room, plus two laundry rooms, an elevator and office space.
A sumptuous upstairs master retreat features a private balcony, fireplace, hidden ceiling TV, and double walk-in closets and lavish baths, while the aforementioned basement level comes complete with a gym, sauna, and steam and massage rooms; and outdoors, the manicured grounds host a hоt and cold plunge pool, circular infinity-edge pool and spa flanked by a sundeck, built-in barbecue, and several spots ideal for al fresco lounging and entertaining. There’s also a roof deck and two-car garage.
The listing is shared by Mauricio Umanksy and Zach Goldsmith of The Agency, and Aaron Kirman, Bryce Lowe and Kirby Gillon of AKG | Christie’s International Real Estate.
