One of the biggest mansion stories in Los Angeles history broke this past weekend, when TMZ revealed that the Playboy Mansion is up for sale. For $200 million. And Hugh Hefner is going to keep living there forever. Now a whole lot more information has been revealed and brace: it's all true. The mansion on super-tony Charing Cross Road in super-tony Holmby Hills officially hit the market as of yesterday at an official price of $200 million. And as the press release says, "The Playboy Mansion has been a creative center for Hef as his residence and workplace for the past 40 years, as it will continue to be if the property is sold." (He's 89, though.) AND it gets even crazier. Here's every last weirdo thing you need to know about the Playboy Mansion and its listing:
— The least crazy thing to know is that the Gothic Tudor Mansion was built in 1927 for department store magnate/real estate mogul Arthur Letts Jr. (whose ex-wife built another one of LA's most notorious estates). It was designed by Arthur R. Kelly.
— Playboy Enterprises bought the Mansion in 1971 for $1.05 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. One of the agents says that "At the time Hef and Playboy purchased the home, it was the largest real estate transaction in Los Angeles history."
— Hef's been renting since then at a "small, nominal amount each year." His continued residence there is "nonnegotiable," but specific terms will be up for negotiation.
— The Mansion sits on five damn acres on one of Los Angeles's most expensive blocks (Sean Parker paid Ellen DeGeneres $55 million for the house next door and Jay Z and Beyoncé are paying $150k a month to rent a place a few houses up.) One of the agents tells the WSJ that "the value of the land alone is close to $100 million."
— The house itself is about 20,000 square feet with 29 rooms, including a catering kitchen with walk-in fridge and freezer, a wine cellar that can be accessed through a secret door, theater with built-in pipe organ, gym, tennis court, six bedrooms (including a two-level master bedroom), six full bathrooms, two half-bathrooms, a great hall with 22-foot ceilings and "custom hand-carved oak panels," and four offices.
— But that's just the house. The grounds also have a separate game house with "poker and pool tables, pinball machines, a piano and an old-fashioned Wurlitzer jukebox with jazz recordings"; a four-bedroom/two-bathroom guest house with solarium; a tennis court; and of course the swimming pool and grotto, which Playboy built after buying the property, and which are accompanied by four separate hot tubs, a koi pond, an outdoor kitchen and bar, and a bathhouse with changing rooms, sauna, gym, and "tanning area."
— But the very best feature of the Playboy Mansion is this: "the Playboy Mansion is one of a select few private residences in L.A. with a zoo license" and that license will transfer with the property. Today, Playboy's zoo includes albino peacocks and monkeys.
— While TMZ said the house is a teardown, the brokers disagree. One agents tells the WSJ "The house will require remodeling, for sure … [it is] dated and will need to be remodeled and redesigned."
— If the Playboy Mansion sells for anything even close to $200 million, it will be by far the biggest residential sale ever in Los Angeles. (The record sits at $102 million, which included a lot of extras, like furnishings.) The far more hideous Palazzo di Amore in Beverly Hills was originally listed for $195 million last year, but has since had to pricechop to $149 million.
· Playboy Mansion Sale Is Next Step in Business Transformation [WSJ]
· The Agency And Hilton & Hyland List Playboy Mansion For $200 Million [PRNewswire]
· Holy Smokes, the Playboy Mansion is For Sale For More Than $200 Million [Curbed LA]