Unique Properties
Frankie Boy’s Mansion Sells Quickly
Sinatra’s LA estate was bought in less than one month.
By Lauren Varga King
No landmark listing with class and grace is going to sit on the market and become stale; it will simply see a few jaws drop and then welcome its next owner.
Such is the case with the acclaimed Frank Sinatra estate in Los Angeles, Calif., which was on the market for less than one month before selling at $18.5 million.
“It is the pure essence of Southern California’s unique lifestyle,” says former listing agent Ron de Salvo of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. “The location is the best of the best.”
de Salvo and Sinatra (presumably) were not alone in thinking this mansion possesses the ultimate locale in its repertoire. Names such as Rod Stewart and Disney have called this star-studded street in Southern California home as well.
According to de Salvo, he focused on marketing the former celebrity estate to a “buyer who has been waiting to acquire a property in the finest location in Southern California.”
Offered for the first time in 50 years, the residence offers more than a prime address. The private and secluded estate evokes Old Hollywood with an original screening room and a large pool set away from the California hacienda. Built in 1936 with the utmost architectural integrity, the home is accented with four bedrooms, two libraries and a garden room. Stone walls, tiled loggias, vaulted ceilings and top-of-the-line detailing complement the home’s 8,500-plus square feet of living space on 2.3 lushly landscaped acres.
The new homeowner and de Salvo may agree with Sinatra that a home can be defined by its location, but that location isn’t “New York, New York,” it’s the 300 block of Carolwood Drive.
The Sinatra estate, adds de Salvo, “is truly one of the most magical residential properties to be offered in a very long time.”
Bell Ranch fetches $83 million cash
As we celebrate farms, ranches and country estates in this issue, we thought it would be a great time to look back at the highest profile ranch sale of the past year. Bell Ranch in San Miguel County, N.M., sold for $83 million cash in August 2010.
Occupying 290,100 deeded acres 150 miles east of Santa Fe, the property — according to C. Patrick Bates, President of Bates, Sanders, Swan Land Company — was marketed to buyers worth at least $1 billion, and were either in the cattle industry or had a strong desire to enter the industry.
The sale of Bell Ranch was not only focused on who the buyer should be, but how the property would be pitched. Bates focused on three main selling points: “Enormous size, remarkable history and ease of operation,” he explains.
With nearly 300,000 acres, 453 contiguous square miles of productive grasslands, 12 miles of Canadian River flow and 13 miles of Conchas Lake frontage, the grand scale of this property can not be questioned. And, without doubt, the property’s cattle operation, which held 5,000 head of cattle under one brand and fence, was well structured.
“The Bell Ranch was, in the truest sense of the word, absolutely singular — nothing like it on the market,” he explains.
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