Editor's note:After more than 1,300 columns, this is Ruth Ryon's last installment of the feature she created in 1984. Hot Property was kicked off on Nov. 25 of that year with an item on Johnny Carson's purchase of a Malibu home for $9.5 million, a record setter at the time. Times staff writer Ann Brenoff, who will continue the column, contributed to this report.
Johnny Depp had a lofty notion, and now actors John Stamos and Frankie Muniz are following in his footsteps.
All three have an interest in the lofts in the Art Deco Eastern Columbia Building in downtown Los Angeles, according to area real estate agents.
The 13-story tower, designed by Claude Beelman in 1929 and developed as lofts by the Kor Group, is sheathed in turquoise-colored tile. Kelly Wearstler Interior Design created the common areas and some loft interiors, including one with three floors and two master suites.
Prices for the lofts on the penthouse floor, where Stamos and Depp are reported to have purchased, range from $1.4 million to just under $2 million. Stamos bought his unit directly from the developer.
Among its amenities, the tower has a rooftop pool deck and a fitness studio.
While building a house in the Los Angeles area for himself, Muniz, of Malcolm in the Middle fame, has reserved a two-bedroom, 2,900-square-foot loft at close to $2.9 million, real estate sources said.
PALM SPRINGS HOMES
OF SHELDON FOR SALE
Bestselling author Sidney Sheldon didn't publish his first novel until he was in his 50s, and then he wrote all 18 in his Palm Springs compound.
No wonder the estate, listed for sale at $6.45 million, was his favorite home in the desert.
Sheldon and his wife, Alexandra, owned many homes when he died in 2007 at age 89. By putting two in Palm Springs on the market, his widow plans to simplify her life, said Scott Palermo, one of the three listing agents. Both homes are in the Old Las Palmas part of town.
The author's favorite, designed by Arthur Elrod, includes a contemporary-style main house, a casita with seven bedrooms and 8 ½ bathrooms, and a guesthouse with six bedrooms and 8 ½ bathrooms. The 14,000-square-foot estate, with two pools and a pool house, is on roughly 1.5 acres that are walled and gated but have a view of the San Jacinto Mountains.
The second home for sale is across the street from the compound. The Sheldons called the house Running Water. It is Spanish modern in style, surrounded by a private desert park with ponds, streams, desert plants, walking trails and an American Indian-style palapas, for outdoor entertaining, in gardens designed by Alexandra.
The house, priced at close to $4 million, was rebuilt in 1991 and has five bedrooms and 6 ½ bathrooms in 5,797 square feet. There are four fireplaces and a private patio. The master bathroom has a spa tub and a sauna. The pool and spa have a waterfall and mature landscaping with ponds and a fountain.
CHESNEY CHANGES
MIND ON MALIBU
Kenny Chesney must have gotten word about the Malibu dress code: It's baseball caps, dude, not cowboy hats.
What other possible explanation is there for the country music legend to have bought a house in the Carbon Canyon neighborhood for $7.4 million in February and then promptly relisted it for sale at $7.95 million?
The home, which was listed at $7.5 million when Chesney bought it a nanosecond ago, has expansive ocean views. There's a large farmhouse kitchen and oversized open living areas, surrounded by outdoor verandas. The property includes an outdoor Italian oven and barbecue and a vineyard -- all the better to keep the large temperature-controlled wine cellar filled.
Lush gardens and lawns surround the mosaic-tiled infinity pool, and there are two guesthouses.
According to the Multiple Listing Service, the home has five bedrooms and five bathrooms in 3,723 square feet -- plenty of room for Chesney's signature blue armchair, had he wanted to move it in.
Just a few days before closing escrow in late February on the Malibu place, Chesney listed one of his properties on the U.S. Virgin Island of St. John at $14 million. Built in 1979, the Stoneridge House includes a 10,657-square-foot masonry main house with oversized windows providing sweeping views of Caneel Bay and the island's north shore.
It has seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms and sits on 1.7 acres. There is a pool, hot tub and a 9,157-square-foot deck.
Chesney married actress Renee Zellweger in May 2005 on a St. John beach. The marriage was over by the end of that year.
HAIR STYLIST BUYS
IN BEVERLY HILLS
Celebrity hair stylist Ken Paves has purchased a home in Beverly Hills for nearly $2 million.
Paves, who has created do's for at least half a dozen young actresses, bought a Cape Cod contemporary-style house designed by Robert Byrd. Perched on a ridge, the renovated 2,700-square-foot house has city views and a split-level living room with vaulted ceilings, a wet bar and French doors opening to an expansive deck.
There are three en suite bedrooms, four fireplaces, a newly built kitchen, 3 ½ new bathrooms and parking for up to 11 cars.
Paves started working with high-profile clients in the 1990s.
GOVERNOR BUYS
TRACT AT RANCH
How's this for adding some cachet to a housing project: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, have bought a 25-acre tract in the Rancho Monte Alegre project in Santa Barbara County -- spending about $4.7 million for the land, public records show.
The Carpinteria project is transforming a historic 19th century California ranch that had several thousand acres of lush canyons, waterfalls and ocean views into an enclave of 25 private estates. About 2,800 acres of the original ranch land were dedicated to the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County for preservation and will remain untouched.
Only 25 home sites have been designated in land parcels ranging from 20 to 720 acres.
This clearly isn't a development for the faint-of-wallet, even in Grey Poupon country.
The Governator's homesite permits a house of up to a relatively modest 8,500 square feet; nothing smaller than 4,500 square feet is allowed in the development, and only one homesite permits a 12,000-square-footer. The 99 pages of project design guidelines determine in what style a home may be built (in general, a Mediterranean), what kind of plants may be used in landscaping (think native) and pretty much every other detail of construction.
