SELLER: R. Kelly LOCATION: Olympia Fields, IL PRICE: $1,595,000 SIZE: 22,000 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 8 full and 6 half bathrooms YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Word slipped down the Chicago celebrity real estate gossip grapevine this week that native Chicagoan R&B singer/songwriter R. Kelly–née Robert Sylvester Kelly–has officially placed his mega-mansion in suburban Olympia Fields, IL on the market as a short sale with an asking price of $1,595,000. Our brief and entirely unscientific research on the interweb informs us that Mister Kelly has a number of notable professional accomplishments that include three Grammy awards. He has also written and/or remixed songs for a long list of music industry superstars such as Luthor Vandross, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, Usher, Mary J. Blige and the Jennifers Hudson and Lopez. However, iffin Your Mama is being honest–and we always are–we’d confess to the children that we wouldn’t know an R. Kelly ditty if it chewed the leg from our body and, in fact, before this morning just about the only thing we previously knew of Mister Kelly is that some years ago he was indicted on a slew of lurid charges related to a video tape that (allegedly) showed him as he fornicated with and peed on a minor female. Mister Kelly declared his innocence, the young female came out and said the activities were consensual, the case eventually went to trial, and in June 2008 a jury determined Mister Kelly was not guilty on all 14 counts . Case closed. Anyhoo, the affluent Olympia Fields community sits about 45 minutes by car due south of downtown Chicago and a short sale, for any real estate neophytes who somehow don’t already know, means Mister Kelly owes more on the property than it’s currently worth. Although Mister Kelly only recently put his big ol’ crib on the market he did not just get on this-here real estate merry-go-round. Over the summer (2011) it was revealed a lender initiated foreclosure proceedings after Mister Kelly stopped making payments on a $2,900,000 mortgage he secured with his celebrity-style estate. At the time Mister Kelly it was reported the entertainer’s failure to make mortgage payments was likely an executed strategy designed to induce the lender to renegotiate the loan. We’re not sure if the strategy worked but as far as we can tell Mister Kelly still holds the deed on the property, which indicates the foreclosure was not finalized. Property records and previous reports on the matter indicate Mister Kelly purchased the property in 1997 and custom-built (or custom-finished) the architecturally uncatagorizable stone, stucco and wood-accented mega-mansion. The approximately 22,000 square foot beast–the Cook County Assessor, for what it’s worth, shows it as 11,140 square feet with a 2011 market value of $3,357,700–sits towards the back of six-ish fully-landscaped acres behind towering wrought iron and stone gates and 12-foot concrete-encased fencing. Inside there are, as per listing information, all the expected formal and informal lounging and entertaining areas as well as 4 fireplaces, half a dozen bedrooms, and 8 full and 6 half bathrooms, a count that ensures Mister Kelly requires a full-time minimum wage crapper cleaner. Listing photos that depict the mansion’s vast innards are few (fuzzy and ill-framed) but we do catch a glimpse or two of a rather colossal kitchen complex with u-shaped center island/snack counter, top-grade commercial-style appliances, very ordinary beige tile floors and a soaring ceiling criss-crossed by heavy wood beams coarsely draped with hundreds if not thousands of twinkling white Christmas lights. Listing photos also show snippets of a wood-floored double-height family room with adjoining home theater space as well as a wee-looking wood-paneled room with fireplace which is probably the library but since we don’t see any books (or bookshelves) we can’t say for sure. The humongous but otherwise stylistically ho-hum home’s undisputed defining moment would surely be the truly troubling and
Posts Tagged ‘ mister ’
Chris Brown Snag Sexy New Crib in Hollywood Hills
BUYER: Chris Brown LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA PRICE: $1,550,000 SIZE: 2,473 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Listen chickens, Your Mama wouldn’t know a Chris Brown ditty if it walked up, kicked us hard in the soft of our shin and called us a jive-talkin’ turkey. What little we know about the young R&B/pop musician comes exclusively from what we’ve read on the blogs and in the tabs and gossip glossies, which is to say, what we know ain’t not particularly flattering. We know he smacked (or otherwise assaulted) former gal pal Rihanna a few years ago and we know that more recently he’s worked the last nerves of at least a few of his neighbors at the 7-unit West Hollywood condo complex where in February 2011 he paid $1,600,000 for a penthouse pad with 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. A few minutes research on the interweb turns up various and scads of stories about young Mister Brown (and/or his guests) parking their luxury automobiles in two of the building’s underground parking spots marked for use by handicapped folks. However, for the record, his big-name legal man Mark Geragos claims Mister Brown’s deed shows the two handicap parking spots belong to his penthouse and in September (2011) 95 of 117 pending parking tickets incurred by Mister Brown were dismissed after the a court determined the parking spaces were indeed assigned to Mister Brown’s penthouse. Mister Brown’s neighbors’ complaints do not, alas, end with the in-the-end not-illegal parking matters. They also say he and his entourage blast music at all hours of the day and night, race dogs in the building’s corridors–What?!?–and over the summer the po-po were summoned to the premises after it was reported someone carved the initials “C.B.” into the elevator doors. Mister Brown alleges it was one of his disgruntled neighbors who carved on the elevator doors in order to make him look bad. Could be. Stranger things have certainly happened. Whatever the case, Mister Brown was clearly not well liked by his neighbors and smartly opted to get out of Dodge, or out of West Hollywood anyways. The tatted-up 22-year old was widely reported to have vacated the premises in early November (2011) and in mid-November it was reported by Radar Online he’d “bought a swanky Hollywood Hills Mansion for a cool $1.5 million.” Your Mama would surely have looked right on past Mister Brown recent real estate activities–he’s not really in our orbit of interest–were it not for the rather surprising number of queries we’ve had about his new digs. It took us a day or two to get things sorted out but after a few queries, a couple of dead ends and a report on The Daily forwarded by Jezebel Justwantstoknow, Your Mama has ascertained that Mister Brown decamped to a fairly recently built and decidedly contemporary crib that clings dramatically to a precariously steep slope in a rugged (and quiet) ravine above Lake Hollywood in a neighborhood known as the Hollywood Dell. Yes, children, there is an actual (man-made) lake in Hollywood . Anyhoo, it’s not entirely clear to Your Mama if Mister Brown leased or purchased the hillside house in question but property records do indicate that a mysterious corporate entity did indeed acquire the residence in mid-October (2011) for $1,550,000. Whether he bought or rented–it does appear to Your Mama, who does not know a gnat from a violin, that he bought the sexed-up residence–Mister Brown’s ludicrously painted Lamborghini Gallardo was reported by The Daily to have been seen parked in the street-level two-car garage that has a clear glass door, which ain’t the best way to keep the prying eyes of anyone from identifying one’s easily identifiable whip, you know? The multi-level residence, designed by noted and accomplished L.A.-based architect Jay Vanos , sits high–very, very high–above the narrow and winding street. One old listing we dug up states that the top of the house soars more than 100 feet above the street, high enough to make someone with even a mild case of acrophobia to sweat like a sow and shriek with anxiety. The main portion of the house is accessible by either a butt-busting exterior staircase or private elevator that more easily whisks residents and guests up from the street level interior entry, past the separate guest quarters atop the garage to an exterior glass-railed bridge that spans a plunge-sized swimming pool and spa below and connects to the main entry to the glassy, multi-story main house. Inside there’s a double-height living room with towering walls of glass with canyon views, fireplace with flat-screen mounted above and ebony wood floors under foot. The living room is open to a sleek Boffi brand kitchen with charcoal-colored cabinetry and what looks to Your Mama like stainless steel counter tops but may very well be something else entirely. Above the kitchen there looks to be a lofted office/sitting room. The top level master suite, separated from the staircase by a glass wall that stretches from wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling, is open completely open to the bathroom that includes a free-standing soaking tub, separate glassed-in shower stall, and long, double sink vanity. It’s all terribly sexy in that Miami hotel suite sort of way but we can imagine it could be awfully annoying for a couple who have different schedules and routines to have to listen and watch their partner do their morning and/or evening ablutions. The custom-designed house is, as per listing information we teased out of the internets, was designed with a green roof and is kitted and fitted with all the latest high-tech electronic gadgetry that includes a Crestron home automation system, state-of-the art audio and video security systems, and LED lighting displays throughout including in the swimming pool and jacuzzi that lights up like a damn disco at the flip of a switch. As far as we know and/or can tell, Mister Brown has yet to lease or list his West Hollywood penthouse although we don’t expect he’ll want to keep it since at least some of the other residents of the complex seem to loathe the entertainer with every fiber of their real estate beings. listing photos: Nicholas Property Group via Southern California Homes Originally posted here: Chris Brown Snag Sexy New Crib in Hollywood Hills
Warren Beatty and Annette Bening Put Bev Hills Mansion Up for Lease
photo: Google OWNER: Warren Beatty and Annette Bening LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA PRICE: $27,500 per month SIZE: 10,594 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms YOUR MAMAS NOTE: It appears that long-married Hollywood honchos Warren Beatty and Annette Bening may have, at long last, moved back to the Beverly Hills (Post Office), CA estate they moved from after the 1994 Northridge earthquake rendered their 9,401 square foot mansion uninhabitable. In 1996, with their third bun in Miz Bening’s oven, they moved about two miles west to a privately situated Mediterranean-style mansion where they lived for 10 or 15 years but recently made available for lease at $27,500 per month. During the late sixties and throughout the 1970s Mister Beatty was at the electric apex of his movie stardom with Oscar nominated roles in Bonnie and Clyde (1968), Shampoo (1975) and Heaven Can Wait (1979). It was during this time the devastatingly handsome Mister Beatty solidified his place among the pantheon of legendary Hollywood actors and notorious Tinseltown cocksman . It was also then, in 1972, that an unmarried Mister Beatty dropped $193,000 on a 3.4 acre celebrity-style estate set above Mulholland Drive with views that stretch–on a clear day–downtown Tinseltown to the Pacific Ocean. A house existed on the property at the time he bought it but at some point Mister Beatty replaced the original residence from 1938 with what has been described at a ” white glass house . By the time the 1994 Northridge quake rocked and knocked Los Angeles to its knees the longtime Lothario, then in mid-fifties, had a few years earlier made an honest woman of Annette Bening, an Oscar nominated actress ( The Grifters , 1991) who would go on to earn three more Oscar nominations ( American Beauty in 1999, Being Julia in 2005 and The Kids Are All Right in 2011) and bear Mister Beatty a total four children. We’re not sure where the Beatty-Benings moved immediately after their Mulholland Drive mansion met it’s quaking fate in 1994 but property records do show that in the months afterward they spent $510,000 to acquire an adjacent 1.107 acre parcel with an existing 1,798 square foot house. Maybe they shacked up there, maybe they didn’t, we don’t know. In February of the following year the Beatty-Benings spent another $175,000 to purchase a second adjacent but vacant 1.205 acre parcel. That brings us back to May 1996 when Mister Beatty and Miz Benning bought the large Mediterranean mansion now up for lease–in Real Estate Speak– at twenty-seven-five per month. The online listing does not provide many juicy details of the house nor any photographs of the house, grounds or interior spaces. What listing information does describe is a large, two-story Mediterranean mansion with 6 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms plus various grandly scaled rooms with high ceilings and “great flow for large scale entertaining.” French doors and windows throughout the house bathe and flood the interior spaces with light. Well, okay, Your Mama don’t know the light actually bathes or floods in, but listing information does state the inside of the house is “Very light.” There’s a sizable motor court at the front of the house, broad tree-ringed lawns that surround it and a swimming pool and spa. Unlike their old (and now new again) estate less than two miles away, this property does not sport a tennis court. photo: Google In April 2004, long after they’d done decamped to the Mediterranean manse they now have up for lease, the Beatty-Benings unexpectedly expanded their former Mulholland Drive compound. Records show they couple paid $2,200,000 for an adjacent, exactly one acre mini-estate that then had and still appears to have a 3,104 square foot house with its own long, gated driveway, detached two-car garage, San Fernando Valley views, and a swimming pool and spa. photo: Google Since 2004 there has been some parcel merging going on at the Mulholland Drive compound, which is way too banal to parse here. Suffice that Mister Beatty and Miz Bening’s old but newly improved Mulholland Drive compound encompasses 6.712 ridge line acres and contains a total of three separate residences including a newly built, V-shaped Mediterranean-style mansion of unknown proportions, swimming pool and tennis court. For all we know the Beatty-Benings have been living up in their new house on their old property above Mulholland Drive for a long time. Whatever the case, we’d like to offer them a housewarming gift and we promise it won’t be a weirdly ironic collection of endangered species erasers or an even more deeply disturbing door draft stopper in the shape of Santa Claus doing the splits . Read the original: Warren Beatty and Annette Bening Put Bev Hills Mansion Up for Lease