The $165,000,000 Mega-Estate of Leonard Ross

SELLER: Leonard Ross
LOCATION: N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: $165,000,000
SIZE: 20,570, 9 bedrooms, 15 bathrooms (main house as per assessor)
DESCRIPTION: "The Beverly House Compound." The most spectacular estate available. Located 3 blocks north of the Beverly Hills Hotel on approx. 6.25 acres of land and approx. 75,000 sf of living space of all structures. Legendary and incomparable history, formerly owned by William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies, Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy honeymooned there, never before has this estate been available. Shown to pre-qualified clients only.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama is one lucky bitch, because the other day we received a stupendous cache of photographs from a gentleman we'll call Sneaky Pete. The photos, of attorney and financier Leonard Ross's $165,000,000 house in Beverly Hills, include snaps of the exterior and the deliciously and obscenely lavish interiors. Like we did with the photos of Miz Suzanne Saperstein's $125,000,000 pile in the Holmby Hills, Your Mama is going to post a few snaps each day for the next few days so that all the children are not overwhelmed by the over the top interiors and the outrageous opulence of the grounds.

What can Your Mama tell the children about this staggeringly expensive Beverly Hills estate that has not been said a thousand times before? Certainly everybody already knows that the house was built in 1927 for Milton Getz and designed by the same engineer who designed Hoover Dam and the Greystone mansion, one of the other famous and vast estates in Bev Hills.

And of course everybody already knows the house was once owned by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Heart, who purchased the house in 1947 for his long time mistress Marion Davies. Hearst, who filled the house with life sized portraits of his lady friend, met his maker in 1951 in this very house, and Your Mama would not be surprised to hear that his corpulent ghost still roams the hallowed halls of the colossal crib.

Just weeks after Mister Hearst met his maker in 1951, Miz Davies married and moved in her own side action lover Horace Brown, who inherited the property when Miz Davies met her maker in 1961. Talk about a sugar mama. Brown subdivided the property and sold off the parcels in 1966, but it wasn't until 1976 that Lenny Ross bought the big house and started buying up the subdivided parcels.

According to listing information and a myriad of reports, the 6.5 acre estate now comprises 4 residences (plus an apartment and security cottage), three swimming pools, two tennis courts, 29 bedrooms, 40 bathrooms, and extravagant gardens that Your Mama imagines cost more to water every year than some small countries' gross national product.

Property records on file with the assessor show the big house, which Hearst dubbed "Beverly House," measures 20,570 square feet with 9 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms. Which seems a mite smallish considering all reports and listing information for the property state there is an outrageous 72,000+ of combined square feet under roof on the property.

Seventy-two thousand square feet. Lahwd children, there are some hotels with less square footage. Imagine the number of full time staff people and cleaning gurls it takes to keep this behemoth from turning into a West Coast version of Grey Gardens.

Not a single fancy schmancy real estate professional that Your Mama has spoken to thinks this collection of residences will sell for more than $100,000,000, let alone the $165,000,000 asking price. But prospective buyers should know that at least a couple of the properties can be used as high income producing rentals to offset the huge mortgage.

All the reports say that the Ross property includes several residences, but Your Mama was surprised to learn that two of the residences are currently available to lease? One property, sprawling across three-quarters of an acre, includes a single story 3,476 square foot 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom house with swimming pool and tennis court and can be had for the multi-millionaire only price of $45,000 per month.

A second property, a two-story 6,365 square foot house on just under an acre, includes 7 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms and a large kidney shaped swimming pool. This house can be had for $57,500 per month (unfurnished), or $65,000 per month furnished on a long term lease or $75,000 per month furnished on a short term lease.

Your Mama imagines that when you've got a gargantuan house with a dozen bedrooms or more, it's really not necessary to also maintain and additional 10,000+ square feet of housing with another dozen bedrooms and bathrooms.

Stay tuned kiddies, we'll have some gorgeous pictures of the interior spaces in the next couple of day.