No longer the priciest listing in the United States, the Bel Air spec mansion known as “Billionaire” is nonetheless gaining plenty of attention from real estate professionals.
An open house held Tuesday for brokers and luxury agents drew such an enormous crowd that the police shut down the event less than three hours in due to the resulting traffic congestion, as reported by the Real Deal.
Agent Shawn Elliott of Nest Seekers International, who is listing the property with Rayni and Branden Williams of Hilton and Hyland, estimates that the event drew more than 1,000 guests.
“It was a social media frenzy,” he tells Curbed.
Elliot says he was flattered by the turnout, but disappointed that the unusually extravagant open house had to end early.
“We had runway models serving champagne and artisan sushi,” he says. “To be shut down after two hours when it was supposed to be a five-hour event was frustrating.”
The home first hit the market in early 2017 with a $250 million price tag—the highest in the nation at the time. Measuring in at 38,000 square feet, it was built by developer Bruce Makowsky, who in 2014 sold a similarly luxurious home in Beverly Hills to Minecraft creator Markus Persson.
The house was de-listed last summer, and Elliot says the property was in escrow before a deal broke down. That sale, he maintains, would have been close to the current asking price of $188 million. Elliot says multiple offers have come in since the home reappeared on the market, and that he expects more to come in this week.
When it does sell, Elliot says, “there’s no question it will be the highest priced home sold in the United States.”
That record is held by a Hamptons estate that fetched $147 million in 2014.
Equipped with amenities like a (decorative) helipad and the chopper from Airwolf, a four-lane bowling alley, and a James Bond-themed movie theater, the home may have added mystique for buyers given its sheer size. A recent city crackdown on mansion development in tony hillside communities like Bel Air put new restrictions on enormous homes like this one.
“You can never build this house again,” says Elliot. “I call it the eighth wonder of the world.”
Clarification: This article has been updated to reflect that the open house was called off due to traffic concerns.
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