Mission Hills Masterpiece

by | Jan 26, 2020 | Historic Homes, Interesting Houses, Jim's Take on the Market, Local Government | 3 comments

On Friday we closed escrow on another sale of a Lloyd Ruocco classic – two in a row!  This one was 20 years older (1947) and in Mission Hills with a panoramic view of the city, ocean and bay.

MISSION HILLS MODERN! Architect Lloyd Ruocco’s Keller Residence is one of the first post-War modern homes in all of San Diego! Enjoy views of Downtown & Point Loma to the Coronado Islands and beyond. Contemporary finishes blend seamlessly with original, vintage design as the interior blurs with the exterior landscape. Retreat to this culdesac location and enjoy an incomparable setting of privacy amidst the urban landscape. Historically designated, incredible Mills Act tax savings conveys!

It’s rare to get a 15-page history on a house – this goes back to the beginning:

History of 1433 Puterbaugh

James Don Keller was the district attorney of San Diego between 1946-1971 (and probably knew my grandfather who was district attorney of Alameda County in 1947-1969).

The house on Puterbaugh was the second house designed by Ruocco for the Kellers – the first was in National City, and the third was 9405 La Jolla Farms Rd.

Papa Doug

by | Jan 20, 2020 | Historic Homes, Interesting Houses, Jim's Take on the Market, La Jolla

You may have seen the Wall Street Journal’s feature on Papa Doug’s listing that he’s hoping to sell for $10 million more than he paid in 2015.  The Reader picked up a few more details – an excerpt:

Manchester finally managed to untie the knot with first wife Betsy, whom he married in January 1965, in 2013. During the couple’s contentious four-year-long divorce proceedings, Betsy unrolled a bevy of anecdotes about her husband’s over-the-top lifestyle.

“As an example of the standard of living that DOUG and I enjoyed during our long marriage, in 2007, we threw a birthday party for DOUG at the Manchester Grand Hyatt,” wrote Betsy.

“There were over 220 guests, and the party alone cost more than $200,000. We then flew to Costa Rica on a private Gulfstream IV jet and went on a week-long cruise in Costa Rica aboard a chartered 165-foot private yacht. After the cruise, we returned home on the Gulfstream IV jet.

“The Costa Rica trip cost in excess of $350,000.”

Manchester married Geniya the weekend before Christmas 2013 in similar style, causing one neighbor to complain on Twitter, “Did Papa Doug Manchester have to disturb all of Carmel Valley with his marriage fireworks last night? My dog barking like crazy.”

Then followed a merry-go-round of high-society party life and eight-figure residential real estate deals, including the purchase in 2015 of the historic Fairholme estate in Newport, Rhode Island for $15 million, which he flipped for a reported $16.1 million in February of 2016

Also, in 2015, Manchester picked up Foxhill, the sprawling La Jolla estate of the late Union-Tribune publisher Helen Copley, from the estate of her son David for about $27 million. He subsequently sunk additional millions into the property for extra bedrooms and other accouterments to accommodate his wife and the couple’s three young children.

Now, with his latest try at homespun marital bliss history, per the court filings, Manchester, father of a total of eight children and grandfather of thirteen, has placed the real estate on the market in two parcels, asking $37 million for both.

“Mr. Manchester’s spokeswoman said he is selling to ‘ downsize,’ reports the Wall Street Journal, which also offers a description of what it calls “an elaborate French chateau-style estate” equipped with “its own four-hole golf course.”

“The estate is about 27,000 square feet and has historic flair, with four-poster beds, gilded detailing, original moldings, wood paneling, chandeliers and stained-glass windows,” according to the account.

“A billiards room is outfitted with plaid carpeting; lampshades have fringe details topped with gold fox ornaments. One of the bedrooms has blue coffered ceilings, blue patterned carpeting, and gold-and-blue curtains with ornate tassels.”

Link to Full Article Link to Zillow Listing

Historical Photos

by | Jan 2, 2020 | About Kayla, About the author, Historic Homes, Jim's Take on the Market, Local Flavor | 1 comment

More historical photos seen over the last year – this is San Diego in 1892:

Del Mar in 1895:

Mission Valley in 1891:

San Diego Bay in 1932:

North Island in 1936:

The Mission Bay Bridge in 1914 with roller coaster in background:

Ocean Beach and Mission Beach in 1930:

Pacific Beach in 1945:

Sail Bay in PB around 1960 – not a house on the La Jolla hill yet!

Downtown Carlsbad….in the 1940s?  There were only a handful of oceanfront homes!

La Costa in 1967 with the resort in the middle and nothing to the west of it:

Us at the Rose Bowl yesterday – the first time we’ve gone to an Oregon bowl game that they won!

Bigger Bomber in the OC!

by | Dec 17, 2019 | Historic Homes, Interesting Houses, Jim's Take on the Market | 1 comment

Hat tip to SM for sending in this article:

Out with the big, in with the bigger.

Bulldozers were seen recently reducing the walls of a standout hilltop mansion in Yorba Linda to rubble as a demolition team makes room for a larger estate.

The nine-bedroom, 19,700-square-foot home was recognizable to 91 Freeway commuters with its brilliant white walls and two-story windows.

The property, which was completed in 2004 and named Satsang for an Indian philosophy, was purchased earlier this year for $9.8 million by consumer product entrepreneur Loksarang D. Hardas.

He plans to demolish 80% of the structure and transform the property into a seven-bedroom, 29,300-square-foot residence with a new two-bedroom, 1,200-square foot guest house, according to documents filed with the city.

Hardas, chief executive of Awesome Products, a household chemicals maker based in Buena Park, bought the home early this year for $9.8 million. The sale price broke a record for Yorba Linda real estate, but was less than half of the $20 million asked when the property hit the market five years ago.

The previous owners were Mahesh Vyas, an allergy and immunology specialist, and his wife Jayshree Vyas, an obstetrician and gynecologist.

They raised their family in the home, but the property also entertained some big names.

Jennifer Lopez starred in a shampoo commercial at Satsang. Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Marvin Jones had his wedding reception there.

The Ennis House Sells

by | Oct 24, 2019 | Historic Homes, Interesting Houses, Jim's Take on the Market

Hat tip to Susie for sending in the article about the Ennis House selling for $18 million:

Link to Article

Since last week, when Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Ennis House sold for a record-shattering $18 million — far and away the most ever paid for a Wright-designed home — curious minds have wondered who would buy such an idiosyncratic and outrageously high-maintenance compound for such a lofty sum.

Perhaps surprisingly, property records have now cleared and they show the house was acquired by an entity easily linked to a seasoned former PR executive named Cindy Capobianco and her environmentalist/philanthropist husband Robert Rosenheck, the founders of marijuana juggernaut Lord Jones, a luxury beauty brand that sells cannabis-infused body lotions, gels, gumdrops, bath salts and cosmetics.

Two months ago, after just four years in business, Lord Jones — which was the first cannabis brand to be sold in Sephora, Equinox and other high-end locations — was acquired in a $300 million deal by the publicly-traded Cronos Group.

After receiving that mega-millions business lottery win of sorts, Capobianco and Rosenheck wasted little time in investing a portion of the big score into their cinematic Mayan Revival new residence. Designed by the elder Wright and built by his son in 1924, the internationally famous structure was hewn almost entirely from 27,000 decomposed granite blocks and has been featured in numerous Hollywood productions — perhaps most notably, in 1982’s “Blade Runner.”

The Ennis House endured severe structural damage during the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and it slipped into a state of disrepair that continued until 2011, when it was purchased for $4.5 million by supermarket billionaire and noted architecture preservationist Ron Burkle, who commenced a years-long renovation and restoration of the premises. Last summer, amid a massive wave of publicity, the upgraded property was put up for sale with a sanity-defying $23 million pricetag.

Although marketing materials stated that Burkle invested “nearly $17 million” into renovations for the property — meaning the $18 million sale price represented a multimillion-dollar financial loss to his pocketbook — a Burkle associate clarified to Dirt that the $17 million figure included $6.4 million in a FEMA grant and a $4.5 million construction loan received by the Ennis House Foundation to fund structural stabilizations. In actuality, it would appear Burkle walked with a substantial profit on his labor of love.

Guests to the Capobianco-Rosenheck-Ennis House can light up in either the monolithic masterpiece’s main house or its detached guesthouse/garage combo, which total up to more than 6,000 square feet of living space. From its vantage point high in the Los Feliz hills, the compound sports jetliner-like views over the basin below, and head-on vistas of the Downtown L.A. skyline.

Link to Photos

Shulman Exhibition

by | Sep 26, 2019 | Historic Homes, Interesting Houses, Jim's Take on the Market, La Jolla, Local Flavor

Architectural photographer Julius Shulman (1910 – 2009) shot over 200 projects in San Diego.

His clients were architects, publishers, construction companies, and developers, and included notable San Diego architects Lloyd Ruocco, Sim Bruce Richards, Henry Hester, and Frederick Liebhardt. Shulman’s work, spanning seven decades, documented the region’s evolving 20th century architectural landscape, and he played an instrumental role in sharing California’s unique post-War modernism with a wide audience.

This exhibition presents selected photographs from Julius Shulman’s projects in La Jolla, represented in both vintage and contemporary prints, and ephemera that contextualize this historically significant work.

Date And Time

Fri, September 27, 2019

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM PDT

Location

La Jolla Historical Society

780 Prospect Street

La Jolla , CA 92037

Free Show – Register Here

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