Update 4:26 pm: According to a press release that's just hit the inbox, Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House in Los Feliz has sold to billionaire supermarket magnate Ron Burkle for "just under $4.5 million." Despite a big restoration, the 1924 house still needs lots of expensive restoration work, which the press release says Burkle will continue. The release also says that "As part of the transaction, Mr. Burkle will provide some form of public access to the house a minimum of 12 days per year, according to the terms of a conservation easement held by the Los Angeles Conservancy. The easement stipulates this access for future owners of the home as well." The Ennis House Foundation, the nonprofit that owned and ran the site until now, put the house up for sale in June 2009, originally asking $15 million (we toured the house back then). The Ennis suffered several price chops, down to its most recent asking price of $5.999 million. According to an August 2010 LA Times article, Burkle guaranteed a $4.5 million construction loan on the Ennis. Update: Ennis House Foundation Chair Marla Felber tells us in an email "Mr. Burkle did pay $4.5 million and did not receive the house because he had guaranteed the loan."
· Ennis House Archives [Curbed LA]
· Curbed Inside: Touring Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House [Curbed LA]
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