the new poverty suffered by the rich... August 21, 2008 Downsizing in Los Angeles: Mansion to Condo By MIREYA NAVARRO
LOS ANGELES — Candy Spelling, widow of the television producer Aaron Spelling, is downsizing. After nearly 20 years in The Manor, a 56,500-square-foot French chateau-style home known for its size and extravagance — it includes a wine-tasting room, a bowling alley, a silver room, a china room and a well-known gift-wrapping room — she says she is ready for the next trophy property: a condominium. "People say, How can you move from The Manor? There's no place like it," Mrs. Spelling said, sitting in the library with leatherbound scripts of every episode of Mr. Spelling's shows, from "Charlie's Angels" to "7th Heaven." But a condo, she said, "is no different than a house, maybe even better." Mrs. Spelling is the most conspicuous buyer in an ultraluxury condo market that is new in the sprawl of Los Angeles, where wealth and fame have usually spelled out "estate," not apartment living. But real estate experts say a New York-style luxury high-rise lifestyle is creeping into the wealthiest echelons, fed by trends like people looking to own more than one home, foreigners drawn by the weak dollar to invest in Los Angeles, and new residential buildings being designed by celebrity architects like Robert A. M. Stern, Richard Meier and Jean Nouvel. Mr. Stern designed The Century, the 140-unit building under construction where Mrs. Spelling recently bought the top two penthouse floors — 16,500 square feet — for $47 million. That's $2,848 a square foot, if you're counting. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/us/21condo.html [the article doesn't say when and where she's selling the surplus furniture. Or is the Salvation Army getting a bonanza?] -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
