If you'd like to live for awhile in the Beverly Hills estate that once housed publishing titan William Randolph Hearst and actress Marion Davies, and also once served as a honeymoon spot for John F. Kennedy, make sure you can afford the $600,000-a-month lease.
It's situated in a 3.4-acre compound, and the "rent" for the estimated 50,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style house "may be the most expensive lease in the country," Jeffrey Hyland, the home's listing agent representing Hilton & Hyland, told the Los Angeles Times.
The lease price dwarfs the $100,000 Michael Jackson was reportedly paying for his last home in Holmby Hills, Calif.
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Banker Milton Getz built the Beverly Hills house in the 1920s, but it was the home's fourth owner, Leonard Ross, who spent almost four decades upgrading it, adding more than 20,000 square feet of living space throughout four levels.
"It has been a labor of love," Ross said in an interview several years ago. "This is not a spec house."
With a 50-foot entrance hall that overlooks a series of gardens, fountains, and a pool, the house was listed at one point for $165 million. Prince Albert II of Monaco used the 22-foot tall living room for a 60-person sit-down dinner several years ago. It was also once used to film scenes in "The Godfather."
Complete with a two-story library, movie theater, and billiard room, the mansion has 17 bedrooms and 29 bathrooms.
No, Hearst's granddaughter Patty, aka Tania the bank-robbing Stockholm Syndrome victim of Symbionese Liberation Army fame, didn't live there. And it's not to be confused with Hearst Castle, his mansion in San Simeon, about 250 miles north of
Los Angeles.
There must be something in the water on the left coast beause last month
a Silicon Valley estate sold for $117.5 million, making it the most expensive on record for a residential property in the United States.
And, financier Gary Winnick is reportedly putting up his sprawling Bel-Air property for a jaw-dropping $225 million, the Times said.
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