AndyRoddick

We knew tech billionaire Larry Ellison was into yacht racing but he is also a tennis enthusiast. This week he announced that he bought the ATP-WTA Indian Wells Masters event and the stadium where it is played. The tennis event will be held this year from March 8-21 in the Californian desert. Ellison bought the tournament and its grounds at Rancho Mirage from owners and founders Charlie Pasarell and Raymond Moore, former players and principals of PM Sports Management. He may have spent as much as $100 million on the facility. In a press release Ellison said he loves tennis and looks forward to being in Indian Wells each March to host the tournament.

According to an article in The Desert Sun, Indian Wells city officials are happy that Ellison is on board and hopeful that he will turn the Indian Wells Tennis Garden into a premier entertainment venue. There is also hope that the project will be beneficial to the entire Coachella Valley and that the stadium will become more than a one-event venue. The Indian Wells Tennis Garden opened in 2000 and has also hosted concerts including Eagles, Tom Petty and Andrea Bocelli and an annual Phoenix Suns NBA preseason game. Last year's BNP Paribas Tennis Tournament at Indian Wells was won by Rafael Nadal.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Brooke Shields and Chris Henchy are buying a Greek Revival townhouse on West 10th Street.. The townhouse currently has four apartments with 18 rooms total and had a $5.6 million asking price. The listing is here.
--Director Ang Lee has been spotted checking out a a building in Chelsea with a $5.195 million asking price. The listing is here.
--Joy Behar has bought one apartment at Astor Court on the Upper West Side for approximately $3.5 million and is selling another unit in the building.
--Donald Trump has already dropped the rent on the $200,000 a month penthouse apartment rental/sales listing on Park Avenue. Trump has lowered the price to $175,000 a month but the for sale price is still $45 million.
--Neil Simon's wife, Elaine Joyce, has just bought an apartment at the new Platinum condo complex at Eighth Avenue at 46th Street. She is said to be paying approximately $1.8 million for a mid-floor two-bedroom apartment.


From The Wall Street Journal Online's Private Properties:
--It's looking more and more like movie producer Sidney Kimmel has sold his Palm Beach, Florida house for a number close to the astronomical $81.5 million asking price.
--Meanwhile in Palm Beach, Donald Trump has finally dropped the asking price for his Palm Beach spec house to $100 million.
--British music producer Nellee Hooper has relisted his former London house for £2.6 million (about $5.2 million). The listing for the 1,400-square-foot, 19th century carriage house is here.
--In Santa Barbara County, an 80-acre ranch has sold for $21 million, more than 10 times what the sellers paid in 1993.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Tennis player Andy Roddick has just bought his first Manhattan apartment, a condo, at East 22nd Street near Gramercy Park, which was listed for $1.195 million.
--Princeton alum Naomi Waletzky (class of '98), who sings as Muffy Nixon and is Laurence Rockefeller's granddaughter has bought an apartment at 40 Bond which cost $9.25 million. There is no record of a mortgage so she may have paid cash.
--Art collector Adam Lindemann and his wife, Amalia Dayan have bought a slim townhouse at 64 East 77th Street for $5.2 million.
The 12.5-foot-wide brick-front house was bought for Ms. Dayan's private art dealership.
--Brazilian Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil have bought a new two-bedroom condo at the A Building on East 13th Street for $1.34 million.
--Laura Blankfein, the wife of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has paid $701,000 for Suite 807 (a staff apartment) at 15 Central Park West. The Blankfeins closed on a 16th-floor duplex condo in the building back in January.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Dr. Phil McGraw has paid $2,560,000 for a two-bedroom contemporary-style house in the Hollywood Hills. it may be a house for a member of his family.
--the Los Feliz area home that was Gwen Stefani's house until last year is back on the market for $4.885 million. The listing is here.
--A Hollywood Hills that former NFL quarterback Cade McNown had owned until last year has come back on the market for $3.595 million. The property website is here.
--A Los Feliz home the was owned by the late actor Paul Winfield until his death in 2004 has been listed for $4.295 million. The property website is here.
--Richard Dreyfuss has paid $1,500,000 to purchase a home in Encinitas, Califorina and has listed his Carlsbad home for $1.1 million. The listing is here.
--Shannen Doherty has listed a five-bedroom house in Malibu for $4.4 million. The listing is here.

From the Real Estalker:
--Olivia Newton John has dropped the price on her Malibu home from $14 million to $12.95 million. The listing is here.
--The price on the large home in Holmby Hills that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner were spotted checking out has been reduced to $19.5 million. The property website is here.
--Orchestra conductor Jonathan Sheffer has put his shingled Hamptons compound on the market for $18.5 million. The listing is here.
--Reese Witherspoon has bought a Wallace-Neff-designed country retreat in Ojai. The home which belonged to designer Kathyrn Ireland was listed at $6.95 million.
--Actress Khandi Alexander has reduced the price on her Hollywood Hills home to $3.495 million. The listing is here.
--Chris Tucker has put a Tarzana home on the market, it's our estate of the day later today.
--via the Nashville Post, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban paid $3,470,000 for a 10,925 square foot house in a gated community in Nashville, Tennessee.
--Rumor has it that Dr. Phil McGraw may be putting his huge Beverly Hills mansion on the market for around $15 million.
--The old Cecil B. DeMille estate in Laughlin Park has hit the market for an astounding $26.25 million. The listing is here.
--Sean Hayes has already dropped the asking price of his Hancock Park home from $8.95 million to $7.45 million. It was our estate of the day back in March.
--via the Daily Mail, Heather Mills has been looking at apartments in New York City and is reportedly checking out One Jackson Square.

From the London Times:
--Designer Patrick Cox is selling his selling his London home for £2.25 million.

From the Sun:
--English soccer player, Peter Neville has put his Versace-decorated 18th century Grade II listed home in Lancashire on the market for £4million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have bought a $7-million, contemporary-style home in Brentwood. Turns out this one wasn't true, Kidman is still house hunting.
--Coco Crisp, center fielder for the Boston Red Sox, has purchased a $3-million getaway in a gated Rancho Mirage community.
--The former Los Feliz home of Universal Studios staff composer the late Herman Stein and his wife, Anita, has come on the market at $1,049,000. The listing is here.
--A 10,000-square-foot French Regency-style compound on a 1.5-acre ocean bluff in Malibu has been sold for $14 million.