Home sells in off-market sale for $29 million
By Dolores Quintana
Entertainers and top-of-the-line house flippers Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi have stepped back into the Los Angeles area market after focusing their efforts in Montecito for some time. The Dirt.com reports that a trust connected to the couple purchased the Brown Sydney House, which was designed by Richard Neutra, in Bel Air. This off-market deal cost the trust $29 million and the seller was hedge fund trader Adam Levinson who purchased the home from fashion designer and film director Tom Ford.
No one really knows what the inside of the estate looks like and no pictures exist online since the home hasn’t been on the open market for fifty years. According to The Dirt.com examination of tax records, the home has three bedrooms, and six bathrooms in a 3,795 square foot house and the property’s cabana near the pool. The home was originally built in 1955 with a sweeping driveway, hedges and an imposing steel and glass structure.
Tom Ford made it his business to restore and carefully renovate the estate with assistance from the architecture firm Marmol Radziner. Radziner’s website does have some photos from the home and says, “Our restoration of Richard Neutra’s 1955 Brown House, located in the neighborhood of Bel Air, encompassed construction and landscape architecture to provide a comprehensive update to the original design of the home. A palette of muted browns and grays, including dark brown casework throughout the home unifies the interior spaces outfitted with modern amenities.”
Not much is known about the purpose that DeGeneres and de Rossi have for this grand and historic home so it remains to be seen what they will do.
