In his regular feature on celebrity real estate news posted in Variety, Real Estalker Mark David wrote yesterday that fashion designer and Juicy Couture's co-founder, Pamela Skaist-Levy, with her director-producer husband Jeff Levy, now want to quietly offer to qualified buyers their Beverly Hills estate for $50 million.
The stone manor house set behind imposing gates, as David describes, was built in the 1930s by developer Burton Green, who also built the Beverly Hills Hotel. It was Greene's daughter, Liliore Green Rains, who first occupied the mansion until her death in the mid-1980s, when the property was sold to media mogul Merv Griffin. Skaist-Levy acquired the three-acre property in February 2005 for $17.5 million from former Ticketmaster Chief Executive, Fred Rosen.
The property, which also appears on the local register of historic properties, measures around 10,500 square feet. Christine Lennon wrote in an article in C Magazine, which featured Skaist-Levy and her 1930s home, that the designer infused some much-needed levity and playful irreverence to her historic Beverly Hills estate. Lennon quoted Skaist-Levy on how she initially found the place, "I was so scared of this house. It was so dark and intimidating. There were three layers of curtains on every window. And it was in Beverly Hills." Skaist-Levy then worked with designer Peter Dunham for the decoration, and in a manner described in Lennon's same magazine article as "Duchess of Windsor-meets-Iron Maiden," the ideas of the two designers blended well to come up with how the mansion looks today.
It has eight bedrooms and ten bathrooms and includes an oval entry with inlaid marble floors, a sweeping staircase, fireplaces in its baronial living and dining rooms, a paneled den with multi-paned bowed windows. Going to the estate's exterior, the grounds cover a vast front lawn, a swimming pool, and a tennis court separated by a substantial pool house. There is also a rose garden where, as was told, Nancy Reagan used to pop by and clip blooms during Griffin's residency. At the back of the estate, tucked in a dense stand of pine trees, is a rustic deluxe redwood cabin which is original to the property.
