Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, has just set a real estate record with the purchase of the most expensive property in Los Angeles for a whopping $165 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Bezos bought the estate from another incredibly well-to-do man, the media mogul David Geffen, who purchased in 1990t for $47.5 million. The property in question is the historic Warner Estate in Beverly Hills, designed in 1930 for the former president of Warner Bros, Jack Warner. Spreading out over nine acres, the glitzy estate has guest houses, terraces, a tennis court, and a golf course. The estate, featured in a 1992 Architectural Digest, has also a Versailles-inspired living room, a restaurant-sized basement and an elaborate dining room with seating for dozens.
The mansion was a place to be for the rich and famous of the Hollywood golden age according to The Guardian. “I remember one New Year’s Eve party in 1939 or 1940,” Olivia de Havilland recalled her experience at the abode in Architectural Digest. “All the men were glorious in white tie. Errol Flynn was behind the bar, Howard Hughes was my date, and Jimmy Stewart was seated on a stool. Just the four of us having our first drink of the evening. All those beautiful women dressed in wonderful elegance. Dolores Del Rio in a white satin gown that contrasted her dark hair and dark eyes. Ann Warner, herself a striking presence. Those beautiful women, looking marvelous in this wonderful setting.”
Bezos, who currently holds the record for the world’s richest man, with a net worth of $131 billion, has recently gone on a real estate buying spree, buying a $90 million undeveloped land in Los Angeles from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, three apartments in New York worth $80 million combined, according to The Wall Street Journal. Amazon’s CFO also owns the largest house in Washington, D.C. ( the man is obviously fond of breaking records ) and two other multi-million dollar properties in L.A.
Bezos’ most recent purchase of the lavish Warner mansion set a residential record as the most expensive property in Los Angeles. Before Bezos, the record for the priciest L.A estate belonged to Lachlan Murdoch, an heir to the News Corp. empire who bought the Chartwell in Bel-Air in December for $150 million.
According to the real estate news website, there were no agents involved in the negations.