Beverly Hills estate of Kirk Kerkorian listed at $22 million

By MARK DAVID, Variety

SELLER: Estate of Kirk Kerkorian
LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: $22,000,000
SIZE: 9,732 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 6.25 bathrooms

YOUR MAMA'S NOTES: Thanks to vigilant informant Lucky Spillerguts we learned that the Beverly Hills estate of the recently deceased self-made multi-billionaire Kirk Kerkorian popped up for sale at $22 million. Property records suggest the hard-charging businessman, the rags-to-riches son of an immigrant fruit merchant in the San Joaquin Valley, purchased the 1.28-acre estate in August of 1998 for an undisclosed amount and current listing details show the double-gated spread has a spacious and most assuredly deluxe if architecturally unremarkable two-story, red tile roofed villa of 9,732-square-feet with four guest bedrooms plus two master suites and a total of 6.25 bathrooms.

Tucked behind a thick and towering hedge and a convenient half a mile up Benedict Canyon from the Beverly Hills Hotel where his grandson's bar mitzvah was held last year at a reported cost of around $450,000, Mister Kerkorian's residence features a double-height foyer and formal living and dining rooms open to the backyard as well as a den, office, and a home theater. Fully landscaped and carefully manicured grounds offer a parking lot sized motor court that orbits around a central fountain, a secondary motor court with access to a three car attached garage, massive water guzzling lawns, and a tennis court overlooked by a two-story guest house. What the estate does not have, apparently and somewhat surprisingly, is a swimming pool. But, of course, a buyer who can shell out $20 or so million for a house can certainly afford another half a million to install a swimming pool worthy of a five-star resort.

Mister Kerkorian previously owned a large but unassuming mansion in a gated community just off The Strip that overlooked the golf course at the Las Vegas Country Club — sold in 2010 for $1.2 million per property records — as well as meandering and mostly undeveloped 30-plus-acre hill-topping compound above Benedict Canyon in Beverly Hills, a bit of which he sold in 1990 for $5.7 million to Sylvester Stallone but bought back in 1997 for just $5.2 million. (No, puppies, that's not a typo, Mister Kerkorian hauled in half a million dollars on that situation.) The sprawling estate, which had an 8,402-square-foot main house, two guesthouses, two swimming pools, two tennis courts, and a putting green, was originally put up for sale at $25 million but the price tag was chopped to $18 million before it sold in 2008 for $14.75 million to real estate developer and occasional movie producer Gary Safady.

A successful aviation entrepreneur in the 1950s and '60s and a pioneering Las Vegas megaresort developer, Mister Kerkorian twice tried to buy Chrysler, once owned six percent of Ford Motor Company and ten percent of General Motors, and, although he reportedly didn't care so much for movies, bought and sold the MGM film studios three times, twice owned and sold United Artists, and made unsuccessful attempts to buy both Columbia Pictures and Disney.

Listing photos: Hilton & Hyland

Launch Gallery: Kirk Kerkorian's Beverly Hills Estate Listed at $22 Million

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