Eric Smidt Lists

(Village-like)
Beverly Park
Compound

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MARCH 25, 2014 | 03:02PM PT

By Mark David

SELLER: Eric and Susan Smidt

LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: $45,000,000
SIZE: 11,204 square feet (main house), 10 bedrooms, 17.5 bathrooms (total)
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: In early 2005 discount tool tycoon Eric Smidtnot to be
confused, butter beans, with similarly named Google gajillionaire Eric Schmidt*paid
$39,352,500 for a fabled Beverly Hills estate known round the worldor at least
throughout Tinseltownas The Knoll.** Mister Smidt and his wife, Susan, quickly
embarked on a recently completed an full-scale, down-to-the-studs renovation of the
entire property so it comes as no surprise to this property gossipas we first heard from
eagle-eyed informant Bella dBallthat theyve (finally and) quietly pushed their old
compound in the guard-gated Beverly Park development up for sale with an official
asking price of $45,000,000.***
As best as Your Mama can tell for a careful parse of the property records Mister Smidt
and his wife, Susan, acquired the two parcels that make up their five acre Beverly Park
estate in two separate transactions. In July 1995 they paid former professional ice
hockey hunk Wayne Gretzky an unknown sum for the smaller of the two parcels and
several years later (November 1999) they snatched up the slightly larger second parcel
for $3,054,545.
The couple custom-built a sprawling, multi-structure Italianate compound that arguably
has more in common with a Tuscan village than what the less well-heeled hoi polloi
consider a private residence. In addition to a multi-winged main residence that the Los
Angeles County Tax Man pegs at 11,204 square feet, the estate includes two guest
houses, an octagonal pool house, staff quarters, and an at-home office complex with
three offices and a conference room.
A short, tree-shaded drive and massive gates open to a cobblestone motor court with
with central fountain. We counted garage parking for at least nine cars plus extensive
secondary and tertiary parking areas that accommodate, according to listing details,
upwards of thirty cars. All this discrete, off street parking is a bonus when you own an
estate that surely requires a small army of domestic servants, landscape maintenance
workers and personal assistants who would otherwise have to park their Hyundai, Kias
and Hondas on the street for the neighbors to see. While the L.A. County tax man shows
the main house has 7 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, listing information goes one to
reveal there are a total of ten bedrooms and 17.5 bathrooms throughout the property
including a master suite with dual bathrooms and dressing rooms.

A double height foyer with dramatic groin vaulted ceiling and over-scaled chevron pattern
honey-blond wood floors leads to an almost ecclesiastical, step-down formal living room
with marble mantled fireplace, groin-vaulted ceiling, and a trio of wrought iron accented
French doors with massive semi-circular transoms. The groin-vaulted ceiling treatment
extends into the adjoining formal dining room where listing photos show a round, inlaid
marble table surrounded by eight brocade-upholstered chairs. (Your Mama would be
shockedshocked, we tell youto learn this dining room isnt capable of holding a
second, equally sized table so that 16 can comfortably be sat for a sit down dinner.
Online marketing materials go on to mention or pictorially represent a double-height
library (with fireplace), a double-island kitchen flanked by a roomy informal dining area
and a spacious family room, a (probably temperature controlled) wine cellar, and a plush
screening room done in decadent shades of blood. Not shown in photographs but
mentioned in listing descriptions is a coiffure salon because when youre this rich and
pampered you do not hump down the hill to slum it with the hoi polloi at Frederick Fekkai,
you pay extra and dearly to have Fredrick Fekkai come to you and do up your do in your
privacy of your own hair salon, right?****
The lavishly landscaped and painstakingly maintained grounds include numerous hedgelined lawns, vast terraces and shaded loggias for outdoor entertaining, several parterre
gardens with obelisks and fountains, a raised bed kitchen garden and small citrus grove,
a swimming pool, and a lighted tennis court.
Since its inception in the early1990s Beverly Park has been much coveted by celebrities,
foreign potentates and other captains of their industries who have a thing for privacy,
security and palatial mansions. Current residents include (but are far from limited to)
Sumner Redstone, Sylvester Styllone, Paul Rieser, Denzel Washington, (Prince) Alex
von Frstenberg, Haim Saban, Bruce Makowsky, Jami Gertz (and her financier hubby),
Rod Stewart, Ron Tutor, Avi Arad, Reba McEntire, and Eddie Murphy.
There are not, as far as we can tell, any Beverly Park estates currently listed on the open
market although were sure that if you know who to call there are at least several that are
available as off-market whisper listings. This scarcity of available estates is good for the
Smidts but whats maybe not so good for them is that the last few sold for substantially
less than the $45 million price tag theyve slapped on their double-lot spread.
In June 2012 Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Paul Nassif and entrepreneurial former Real
Housewives of Beverly Hills cast member Adrienne Maloofsince bitterly divorvedsold
their approximately 13,000 square foot faux-French chateau for $19.5 million to a U.S.based Pakistani textile tycoon. A few months later producer Lili Zanuckher late
husband was producer Richard Zanucksold her nearly 12,000 square foot red-brick
Georgian for $20,000,000 to a foreign buyer whoweve been repeatedly toldwould
like to knock it down and build something much larger and far more modern.
In June 2012 mid-priced handbag designer turned high end house flipper Bruce
Makowsky paid comedian Martin Lawrence for $17,200,000 for a 13,000+ square foot
mansion that he sold just a year later for $24 million toso the scuttlebutt goesGyrgy
Gattyn, an unusually handsome and often scruffy-faced billionaire who is one of
Hungarys wealthiest men. The most recent Beverly Park sale that this property gossip
knows went down in early March of this year (2014) when former professional
baseballer Barry Bonds sold his 17,000-ish square foot Mediterranean manse for
$22,000,000.
In addition to their pair of high maintenance estates in Beverly Hills and Bevelry Park,
Mister and Missus Smidt also own a contemporary, ocean front compound on Malibus
quickly disappearing Broad Beach that that they scooped up in 2003 for $14,950,000. Its
right next door to Steven Spielbergs even larger ocean front spread and just a few doors
down from Pierce Brosnans Balinese-y beach house-mansion.

Schmidtnot to be confused with Eric Smidtis a software engineer whos

currently the executive chairman of Google who maintains whole bunch of of high
priced homes that include (but may not be limited to) a compound in ber-affluent
Atherton, CA, a stunning, high-maintenance estate in Montecito, CA, that he picked
up in 2007 from inveterate house hopper and chat show host Ellen DeGeneres, and
a large in-town house in Nantucket (MA) where weve been told but cant confirm
Mister Schmidts estranged missus, Wendy, spends a great deal of her time. Then
theres the 6,000 square foot duplex penthouse in Manhattans Flatiron District
he reportedly picked up in mid-2011 for $14.6 million and last month the Mister
Schmidt shelled out $22 million for Gregory Pecks former manse in the Holmby Hills
area of Los Angeles that happens to be just down the street from the A. Quincy
Jones designed house Ellen DeGeneres and Porta Di Rossi DeGeneres picked up a
few months ago for almost $40 million. But we digress
*Eric

**The Knoll was designed by architect Roland Coates and built in the 1950s for oilrich widow Lucy (Smith) Doheny Battson and her financier (second) husband, Leigh
Battson. The 10-ish acre spread was later owed by movie producer Dino De
Laurentiis, country music honcho Kenny Rogers, and the late (and famously rotund)
oilman turned Hollywood power broker Marvin Davis and his philanthropic wife
Barbara. The Smidts hired esteemed architects (William) Hablinkski and (Richard)
Manion to transform the original 27,000 square foot streamlined contemporary
Georgia into a white brick Regency residence.
***Some of the children may recall that Your Mama heard word more than a year ago
that Mister and Missus Smidt planned to slap a forty-or-so million dollar price tag on
their Beverly Park compound.
****Use your noggins, children. Your Mama really has no idea if Mister and/or Mister
Smidt have their hair cut by Frederic Fekkai or any other name brand hair care
specialist but given that they installed a coiffure salon in their home its a pretty safe
bet they do, at least occasionally, bring in professionals people to cut and coiffure
their hair. Anyways
listing photos: Nick Springett for Coldwell Banker
aerial image (bottom): Google