The Biggest House in Los Angeles is Now Underway in Bel Air

Work is already underway in Bel Air on a megacompound that will include the largest single-family house in *LA County (not the US!). The enormous project, at the dead-end of Airole Way above the Bel-Air Hotel, comes from megamansion developer Nile Niami, and is slated to total 85,000 square feet with a 70,000-square-foot main house. (That'll pretty handily beat out a 60,000-square-foot house also in Bel Air that's now finishing up construction.) The LA Business Journal qualifies that building officials think only 55,000 square feet will be "livable" space, i.e., actual living quarters. A permit was issued in late March to demolish the existing two-story house, other structures, tennis court, and swimming pool on the property, and to begin prepping the site for the new compound; grading has now begun. An environmental doc filed with the city late last year says the project will include a two-story, 70,187-square-foot house with basement, a guesthouse, a cantilevered tennis court, "and other appurtenant structures." Permits appear to call for five swimming pools, including one in the basement and one on a second-floor roofdeck.

Niami was last seen selling a 30,000-square-foot house in Holmby Hills with dental offices and an operating room in the basement. He also developed the house that Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss own in the Bird Streets.

With a project this enormous, you'd have to expect some NIMBY opposition from the richies who live around here, and it looks like a group of neighbors appealed the plan for removing all the dirt that's going to need to be trucked off the site (39,805 cubic yards), but the City Council denied that appeal in January.

The LABJ guesses America's newest mega-megamansion will be listed "in the $150 million-plus range."
· Here Comes L.A.'s Biggest Residence [LABJ]
· Los Angeles's Biggest House Is Under Construction In Bel Air [Curbed LA]