The Lima Peaks Ranch sits at the base of the impressive 11,000-foot Lima Peaks Mountains in Dillon, Montana. The ranch is located 15 minutes from an airstrip and includes an 9,880 square-foot residence that overlooks a private lake. The property has a variety of ranch buildings including a handcrafted log home, custom indoor horse arena, manager's home, private lakes and a fish hatchery. The property includes deeded, state of Montana, BLM land and adjoining Beaverhead National Forest grazing allotment for a total of 19,522 acres so that it can operate as a large ranch. Gorgeous land, great views and a home that is full of rich wood, graceful curving lines and large windows to take in the grand expanse. It is listed at $17.9 million.
Today's home is located in Beverly Park, a gated community in Beverly Hills that has some of the most extravagant homes in the Los Angeles area and is home to celebrities including Denzel Washington, Sylvester Stallone, Magic Johnson, Samuel L. Jackson and Rod Stewart. This castle-like home is 27,000 square feet and is on two acres. It has never been lived in but has been built with the most lavish tastes in mind. The home was designed by architect Richard Landry and has ten large bedrooms, fourteen bathrooms, and an incredible office. The most appealing feature to my eye is the circular library with a glass oculus that peers into the circular brick 2500- bottle wine cellar below. The home also has a large home theater, upstairs and downstairs bars, laundry rooms and kitchens and a grand ballroom. In the basement you will find a full marble spa with wet/dry massage rooms, indoor pool, and indoor Jacuzzi, and large gym with an outdoor patio. Outside there is a large outdoor pool with fountains, an infinity Jacuzzi, and a barbeque area with all the appliances installed. It first hit the market for $45 million but is now listed at $39.9 million.
This Tudor style home in Atlanta, Georgia goes by the name of Rossdhu. It was built in 1918 and sits on 4.47 acres. The property includes a carriage house with two apartments, six garages and a lighted tennis court. The main home has been restored with a modern kitchen, luxurious master suite with his and hers dressing rooms and baths, exercise room and a wine cellar. The home's heavy paneling does make it a bit dark and the current level of clutter makes it hard to appreciate the fact that the interior spaces are actually pretty grand. At $14.5 million it's priced near the top end of the Atlanta real estate market but there aren't too many homes like this in the area.
We've covered Florida's Indian Creek Island before. This private enclave in Miami-Dade County is one of the most exclusive communities in America. It is home to just 33 homes, each on the water on the edges of the island while a 180-acre golf course and the Indian Creek Golf Club make up much of the real estate in the middle. The island has its own 24-hour police force and marine patrol. This level of security has attracted many celebrities including Julio Iglesias. Today's home has six bedrooms and is located on an enviable two-acre landscape plot with 234 feet of deep bay frontage and view of downtown Miami. The style of the home is a bit staid with a reliance on draperies and traditional furniture but the location couldn't be better.
I mentioned this estate earlier this year when the Wall Street Journal reported that Florida car dealer, Terry Taylor has listed his Palm Beach, Florida home for $72.5 million which is almost three times what he paid in 2003. Over the last year so so Palm Beach real estate has remained strong (the Kimmel estate sold for $81.5 million in April and Trump had his $100 million sale in Palm Beach in May) while the rest of Florida has plummeted but this one hasn't been snapped up yet. It certainly is a Palm Beach prize, the main house was built circa 1924 and designed by veteran Palm Beach architect Addison Mizner. It has nine bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, a movie theater with a ticket window and concession stand, an exercise room, a wine cellar, pool, large pool house and two three-car garages, each with a second-floor guest apartment. The deliciousness here is in the details, in the moldings and finishes and classic lines that could give you neck strain from craning your head around to take it all in.
The Taylors have made updates, renovating the kitchen and restoring most of the leaded-glass windows as well as repainting the home but much of what makes this home beautiful is that it has stayed as true to the way it was built as possible. This home is in move-in condition and has 268 feet of ocean frontage. It may remain on the market a little while longer but I would guess it will sell for fairly close to the exorbitant $72.5 million asking price. After all, there are only so many Palm Beach Mizners to go around.
Today's estate is a rather fancy new home in the Highland Park area of Dallas. The home was designed by Richard Drummond Davis and built by Sharif-Munir to be the height of faux-French lavishness. The chateau-like home has an ironwork doorway that opens to an impressive two-story foyer. Extravagant details include high ceilings with carved wooden coffers, an imported 18th century French marble fireplace, inlaid wood floors, and custom plaster ornamental detailing. The master suite has a fireplace and an additional sitting room as well as his and hers bathrooms with marble details. An additional l private residential suite with full bath and sitting room is located in the basement and there are six bedrooms total. Outside there is a deep outdoor living loggia that overlooks the pool with fountains and spa below. This home is one of several elaborate new homes in the area built on a grand scale and priced at the top of the market. Doubtlessly planned in more exuberant times I wonder how they will fare in this market. This home is listed at $11.25 million.
The listing proclaims it as "hilltop villa for the 21st century" but I'm not sure I'd be quite so kind. The Pinnacle does command an enviable 60 acres in Chappaqua, New York but the interior decor seems trapped in the 1980s despite the fact that the home was built in 1993. The bright white modern home is over 16,000 square feet with high ceilings, curved walls and huge windows. The main living areas open to wraparound terraces. The home could use a bit of color the main spaces are done mostly in black and gray. And I'm a bit confused by the Jacuzzi tub which is accented with huge perfume bottles. But you certiainly would have room to roam, the home has six bedrooms and the property includes a pond with a fountain, a pool, hool house, tennis court, baseball field, restored 18th century farmhouse, a small antique winery and a two-bedroom caretaker's apartment. It is listed at $15.75 million. Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.
Real estate agents Hall and Hall usually specialize in ranches across the West but the 5,000-acre Flying G Ranch is located near Okeechobee, Florida, about 60 miles northwest of West Palm Beach. The Flying G is a 5,000+/- acre shooting/working cattle ranch located about eight miles north of Okeechobee City, Florida, the beef capital of Florida and it can hold 1,000 cattle. There's a five-bedroom lodge and cottages for guests and employees. The Wall Street Journal's Private Properties reports that one co-owner is Tucker Frederickson, the top NFL pick in 1965 and the other owner is real-estate developer Stephen Myers. There are areas for quail shooting and the land includes deer, turkey and wild hog populations. Other features include a six-stall horse barn, fire pit and barbecue which will accommodate 30 people. The property also includes a five -stand clay course, rifle and target range, bass pond and 400' zip line, dog kennels, bird flight pens and a helicopter pad. All yours for $50 million.
Former quarterback Michael Vick's infamy certainly isn't helping his real estate sales. Vick, who is currently serving a prison sentence for his role in a dog-fighitng ring, can't seem to sell his Atlanta home. As the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties column reports, he has cut the price of his luxury Atlanta home to $4.1 million, from $4.5 million after it has sat on the market for a year. The eight-bedroom home in the Sugarloaf Country Club in Duluth, Georgia has lake views and a grand look with two-story foyer with a curved double staircase and dome, a two-story study, a home theater, wet bar and a gymnasium. The only sign of VIckness is that big number seven set into the den floor. Vick bought for 3.78 million so even if he sells for the $4.1 million listing price he won't be making a lot of money.
Vick's even more infamous piece of real estate, the home which was the site of the dog kennels, is up for auction yet again, this time for $590,000 on December 12. Developer Wilbur Ray Todd Jr.bought the home for $450,000 from Vick last year and wanted to sell it for over $1 million originally.
As we mentioned recently, a wine collection, Vicktory Dogs, raises money for the rehabilitated dogs who live at an animal sanctuary in Utah.
Like her former rival in pop princessdom, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera isn't having the easiest time selling her home. Aguilera first put her architecturally splendid West Hollywood home on the market in April after she and her husband bought the Beverly Hills home of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. The four-bedroom home was listed for $7.995 million but so far no takers and so as the Real Estalker reports, she has cut a quick million off the property reducing it to $6.995 million. There's much to love here, a sumptuous theater room, shiny stainless steel kitchen, beautiful pool area and great space for entertaining. However the home is not family friendly which may be why she is selling and why the home is lingering on the market. Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.
Actress CCH Pounder and her husband, an anthropologist, have put their home in the West Adams area of Los Angeles on the market. According to the Real Estalker, Ms. Pounder, perhaps best known for shows like Law and Order: SVU and The Shield purchased this 1915 house with her husband in 2004 for $602,000. The home is located in the West Adams Terrace Historic Preservation Overlay Zone which means that the neighborhood is protected from dramatic alterations which could change its charming look. The three-bedroom home is fairly small by Hollywood standards but does have beautiful vintages fireplaces, an antique chandelier in the dining room and a lovely vintage feel with gleaming dark wood floors. It looks like Pounder and spouse are quite the collectors and the home is full of artistic treasures. It is listed at $1.25 million. Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.
In New York City it seems that the the big listings just keep coming. Sure an $80 million penthouse at 15 Central Park West came off the market late last month and Martin Zweig's $70 million listing at The Pierre is finally off the market but right behind the pair $75 million townhouses on the market come what the New York Observer's Manhattan Transfers column has dubbed the most expensive apartment listing in New York, a 78th-floor penthouse at the Time Warner Center listed at $65 million. Max Abelson of the Observer points out that the monthly maintenance fees are $13,361 and the monthly taxes are $16,332, which means it costs an extra $356,316 per year to live there outside of the huge mortgage.
There are amazing views from this full-floor apartment though and the penthouse does have 14 ft. ceilings throughout. A master bedroom suite offers an office, his and her dressing rooms, gym and his and her bathrooms. The 41 ft.-long living room has floor to ceiling windows has the most incredible view of Manhattan and the red lacquered corner library/office offers a secluded place to read and think. The dining room has views of the Hudson River and there is also a chef's kitchen and pantry, a full laundry center, four full bedrooms with en-suite baths and a screening room. The building's luxury amenities include white glove concierge service, access to the gym, spa and pool of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, private screening room and a discrete basement garage, to the outdoor roof deck, children's playroom, board room with Park views, private storage and ballroom. Records suggest the apartment was sold for less than $30 million two years ago so someone seems to be looking for a big payoff on their investment.
A desirable piece of land often has a long history and such is the case with 19 East Battery in Charleston, South Carolina. The property's enviable waterfront location meant that it was pressed into service as a fort. It was the site of Fort Darrell during the Revolution and later named Fort Mechanic, for the mechanics of the city who gave their labor to build it in 1794 when a French naval invasion was expected. It was then home to the Holmes House before the present yellow brick mansion was built around 1919 for Julius M. Visanka and was designed by architect Albert Simons. When it was built it was one of the grandest homes in the area and it has been in the same family for 66 years. It has panoramic views of Charleston Harbor. The home has a Renaissance style and the interior includes four bedrooms, a formal living room, study, formal dining room, eat-in kitchen, walk in pantry, second floor office and an elevator. The home has plenty of outdoor space including a rear garden with a large in-ground pool. The property includes a detached two car garage with space above for a guest house. This home is listed at $7.3 million.
I've mentioned this one earlier but I hadn't given it full estate of the day treatment. Even in New York City, land of pricey real estate, a $75 million listing stands out. This Upper East Side neo-Italian Renaissance mansion was commissioned in 1922 by Julius Forstmann, a prominent German merchant and designed by famed C.P.H. Gilbert whose name was associated with so many of the great mansions of New York. It has a limestone façade and is composed of five floors with an additional garden level and a full sub-basement for a total of approximately 21,000 +/- sq ft. The foyer leads to a reception hall and the rooms are done on a grand scale and include many original moldings and details. However like another $75 million listing in New York, it will take a bit of work to turn this into a family home again. As the NY Times reported earlier this year, this home was in use by Lawrence Salander's Salander-O'Reilly Galleries which rented it for a steep $1.8 million a year. But the gallery is now in bankruptcy court, amid charges of fraud, and the building's owner, Aby Rosen, has put it on the market. Rosen also held his birthday party at the mansion earlier this year. Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.
It's hard to feel sorry for the hedge fund managers. They not only have lavish New York apartments they also often have sprawling Hamptons vacation homes. Today we consider the case of John Paulson, founder of Paulson & Co. In January, he plunked $41.3 million for a Southampton estate known as Old Trees. Of course this meant selling his existing Southampton home. Paulson bought the home for $12.75 million in 2006 so when he put it on the market in April he priced it at $19.5 million, anticipating a tidy profit. No takers so in late August he dropped the price to $16.9 million. In October he finally got a nibble but he had a buyer with a signed contract walk away from the deal. Paulson really needs to unload this puppy so now it is down to $13.9 million which means he resigned himself to not making a huge profit on the sale. What do you get for your money? The 6,8000 square foot cottage has seven bedrooms and an enclosed pool with a sauna room. It is on three acres and has a private master suite with a sitting room and two separate baths and has a charming cottagey decor.
