suzanne saperstein

Fleur de Lys Named World's Most Expensive Estate

Filed under: Estates

Forbes has named Fleur de Lys (above), the lavish Beverly Hills estate featured in this week's Classicist column, as the world's most expensive house currently on the market with its $125 million pricetag. The palatial mansion beat out Leona Helmsley's Dunnellen Hall in Greenwich, Conn., which had been listed at $125 million as well, but saw its price cut by $30 million back in October (Forbes has not yet registered the change). Fleur de Lys has been on the market since 2007, but unlike some other major property owners, billionaire's ex Suzanne Saperstein has yet to slash the price. In compiling its list of the world's 10 most expensive estates, Forbes culled from property listings, high-end brokerages and conversations with real estate agents. "We include only publicly listed properties," they note. "In Europe, especially, estates and luxury residences that might qualify are shopped privately for undisclosed prices." You can see a slideshow of the list here.

Gallery: Fleur de Lys

Tags: Beverly Hills, BeverlyHills, Dunnellen Hall, DunnellenHall, Fleur de Lys, FleurDeLys, Forbes, suzanne saperstein, SuzanneSaperstein

The Classicist: Legendary Estates of Beverly Hills

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Books, The Classicist, Wealth

Times being a trifle tough these days, that $100 million mansion in Beverly Hills may be a bit beyond your reach. The next best thing has got to be Jeffrey Hyland's new 400-page volume The Legendary Estates of Beverly Hills, a meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated history of 50 magnificent estates in three world-famous enclaves of the ultra-wealthy - Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, and Holmby Hills. The $250 tome is a definitive history of the area's most famous estates - "the architecturally spectacular homes and lavish grounds that have been home to countless celebrities and the world's richest families for almost a century."

Aside from the purely visual pleasure of the photographs both old and new, Hyland explains the history and architectural importance of each estate, and tells the fascinating stories of the many famed owners, from their "passionate involvement in the design of these costly properties, to their intrigues, triumphs, calamities, and romances." The estates run the gamut from historic Beverly House, the sprawling 1920s Mediterranean estate inhabited by William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies and briefly listed a while back at $165 million, to modern classics like the notorious Fleur de Lys in Holmby Hills (above).

The 15-bedroom Fleur de Lys, which is currently on the market for $125 million, was built by Texan billionaire David Saperstein and is now owned by his ex-wife Suzanne - whom he ditched for the childrens' hot Swedish nanny. The five-acre estate is home to a 41,000-square foot French limestone mansion inspired by France's magnificent Vaux le Vicomte palace outside Paris. Surrounding the mansion are rolling lawns, ornamental gardens and mature trees, a 3,000-square-foot manager's house, staff quarters for ten people, a spa and pool with a pavilion and its own kitchen, a championship tennis court, and a lavish garden folly.

Gallery: Legendary Estates of Beverly Hills

Also featured in the book: Bellagio Road in Bel-Air, built for studio mogul Sol Wurtzel in the 1930s along the lines of the villas found on the hillsides near Florence, Italy; Casa Encantada in Bel-Air, a "modern Georgian with Grecian influences" built in the 1930s by a former nurse from New York who married a much-older multimillionaire glass manufacturer, then took up with her chauffeur after he died; and the storied St. Cloud Road estate which was owned by a string of luminaries including It Happened One Night director Frank Capra, Warner Bros. stars Dick Powell and Joan Blondell, director / producer Mervyn LeRoy, and MGM founder Louis B. Mayer. See the gallery for pix.

Tags: Bel-Air, Beverly Hills, BeverlyHills, Fleur de Lys, FleurDeLys, Frank Capra, FrankCapra, Holmby Hills, HolmbyHills, Suzanne Saperstein, SuzanneSaperstein, William Randolph Hearst, WilliamRandolphHearst

Hummingbird Nest Ranch, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

The Wall Street Journal's Private Properties and the Real Estalker both recently reported that Metro Networks founder David I. Saperstein is asking $75 million for Hummingbird Nest Ranch, an equestrian estate in Simi Valley, California. Yes, the same Sapersteins who are selling Fleur-de-Lys, the $125 million palace in Beverly Hills. The now ex-Mrs. Saperstein, Suzanne, is an avid rider and the couple bought the 123-acre ranch in the 1990s and turned it into an elaborate showplace. The ranch includes a 12,500-square-foot, Mission-style main house, six guest houses (one of which is a brick beauty from the 1920s known as Sitting Bull) and 10 factory-built homes for staff quarters. There is also a a roughly 20,000-square-foot barn with 37 individually heated stalls and an automated horse watering system, three show rings, a veterinary clinic and of course a helipad.

If you are a fan of the television show, The Biggest Loser, then you have probably various portions of this estate. The first few seasons of the show were filmed here (plenty of room for all that exhausting hiking around). The ranch is a functioning business hosting equestrian events, all sorts of filming, and boarding horses. The main house has a Moroccan feel with lots of beautiful tile details, heavy iron chandeliers and rustic wood beams. It's huge but still has, as the Real Estalker Mama notes, a certain coziness. The estate is listed at $75 million. After the jump., can you imagine the water bill for keeping all that green during a Southern California summer?

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Tags: california real estate, david saperstein, estate of the day, hummingbird nest ranch, HummingbirdNestRanch, luxury real estate, simi valley, suzanne saperstein

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