Yahoo Finanzas L.A.’s Real Estate Upfronts Reveal Penthouse A at Rosewood Residences Beverly Hills
Timed to coincide with TV’s upfronts in New York, a real estate-focused event that also calls itself the Upfronts — a luxury property reveal thrown by The Society Group — took over The Wallis in Beverly Hills on May 15. Held in the Bram Goldsmith Theater, the confab saw L.A.’s biggest power brokers gather to preview some of the world’s most luxurious listings coming to market.
“This is fun for me because usually I’m sitting in the audience where you’re sitting looking at a performance,” Carolwood’s Linda May noted, “so it’s really nice to look out and see so many friends here enjoying the theater.”
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Despite a few technical AV hiccups, the Upfronts ran like clockwork, with exuberant presenters giving succinct pitches to an involved audience about new-to-market skyscraper penthouses in NYC, $100 million-plus mansions in L.A. and even Hollywood production studios. After his presentation, Fredrik Eklund even joked, “We get a gold star for being on time.”
The Upfronts celebrated the unveiling and opening of sales of Nahla Capital’s Rosewood Residences Beverly Hills, with a special showcase on the sumptuous Penthouse A (to be listed at around $45 million), one of four penthouses in the collection. Designed by Danish-born, New York-based architect Thomas Juul-Hansen, the Rosewood project, located next to the Peninsula Beverly Hills, will begin welcoming residents at the end of the year.
To celebrate the unveiling, exclusive listing agents Sally Forster Jones and Tomer Fridman of Jones Fridman International, and Morgan Ball of the Compass Development Market Group, sabered a bottle of champagne onstage, followed by an exclusive after-party where 200 agents nibbled on food by Wolfgang Puck and sipped from bottles of Coup Champagne. “Upfronts has been such an exciting opportunity to present the penthouse for the very first time to the market,” noted Ball.
Forster Jones agreed. “I think it’s a great event,” she said. “It’s a real estate media event obviously, but it’s really fun, and it’s really exciting to see the best of the best projects coming up.”
With slick promotional films on offer for each property, the Upfronts certainly exhibited L.A.’s importance to the global real estate market. Residential sales director Alex Rusling showcased London’s The OWO Residences, located adjacent to the historic and breathtaking Raffles Hotel, a favorite of Tom Cruise and the royal family, which recently opened inside the city’s Old War Office.
Douglas Elliman’s Fredrik Eklund and Westbank Corp.’s Marko Radovic discussed the new residential tower First Light, Vancouver-based Westbank’s first condo project in Seattle, spearheaded by visionary architect James KM Cheng. Corcoran Sunshine presented two New York properties, 720 West End and the 111 West 57th Street Penthouse.
But it was the L.A.-based properties that drew the most curiosity from the powerful brokers who filled the theater, including Rosewood Residences Beverly Hills, which comprises 17 condos that include all the amenities and services of the exclusive Rosewood Hotels. “It is a boutique project,” Forster Jones noted. “It’s not a high rise. It really feels like a residence and feels like a home. … It’s private, it has security, and it has indoor [and] outdoor living.”
The star at the Rosewood is Penthouse A, a four-bed, four-bath stunner with an approximately 7,300-square-foot interior and 2,800 square feet of exterior living space. Like all homes at Rosewood, it features meticulously sourced materials, including Greek marble. The penthouse places a premium on outdoor living as skylit floating stairs leading to an expansive roof terrace complete with a private pool, spa, outdoor kitchen and California Room featuring a wet bar and powder room.
Carolwood’s Linda May previewed the stunning and pedigreed $150 million Bel Air mansion Villa dei Fiori, the second home ever built in Bel Air and the estate of the late financier and philanthropist Robert Day. “This house was made for entertaining,” she noted, as slides of the elegant property towered overhead. “It hosted parties for presidents, secretaries of state, world leaders, celebrities. The couple that owned the house loved to entertain, put people together, and they did it better than anybody.”
David Simon, CEO and founder of Bardas Investment Group, developer of Echelon Creative Environments, shared his vision for “keeping Hollywood in Hollywood.” Echelon, which has developed creative spaces for both Ryan Murphy and Kenya Barris, currently has nine studios and office projects in Hollywood, including the Seward Collective and a redevelopment of the former Sears building on Santa Monica Boulevard. Simon explained the importance of collaboration between residential mega-agents and commercial developers. “Our livelihood depends on keeping the producers and directors here and living here, producing here and creating here,” he noted. “What we’re trying to do is create the environment, the ecosystem, and reimagine what Hollywood should be based on all the content and the way it’s produced. And, hopefully, that’ll help you guys because the people will really prefer to work and stay and play here.”
Even the elusive Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency, “the king of the off-market,” appeared onstage to present the legendary Bel Air estate Casa Encantada, his $195 million listing once owned by Conrad Hilton. “Most people think this is the finest home in Los Angeles,” he said of the epic estate. “It’s always in the conversation — number one, two or three. It’s sort of like the Michael Jordan, LeBron, Kobe conversation, and whoever is your favorite is your favorite. But this to me is my favorite because it has the location, it has the land, it has the history, and it has the scale.”
Designed by famed architect to the stars James Dolena, the 8.4-acre estate overlooking the Bel Air Country Club has twice established the record as the most expensive home sold in America. Even Hollywood royalty has been duly impressed by its grandeur. “Very famously, Louis B. Mayer was quoted as saying when he went: ‘I never knew in the world a house like this even existed, and I wouldn’t have known it unless I was here,'” said Rappaport of Casa Encantada.
A sense of unreality permeated the Upfronts, given these lofty listing prices. At the end of the night, a raffle drawing for a two-night stay at a Rosewood Hotel was held. Selling Sunset star Davina Potratz’s name was drawn, but she had already left. So, a thrilled Estel Hilton, an agent at The Beverly Hills Estates, received the gift, which she giddily accepted, even giving an impromptu speech. Guests departed, their heads filled with dreams of a potential 4 percent commission (which was announced for a couple of the properties) and hands full of gift bags complete with a complimentary VIP tour by Compass of the Rosewood Residences Beverly Hills.
See more just-revealed imagery of additional units and common areas at The Rosewood Residences Beverly Hills, below.
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