Bel-Air’s most notorious mansion could be an entertainer’s dream, a fixer-upper or a teardown
Celebrity homebuilder Mohamed Hadid pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges involving a Bel-Air mansion that city officials say was built bigger and taller than allowed.
What happens to the unfinished compound remains unclear. But here’s what we know, based on Times reporting over the years.
The house
This could be an entertainer’s dream home, a teardown or a fixer-upper. It all depends on the fate of this property at 901 Strada Vecchia Road in the heart of Bel-Air.
Specs
- Roughly 30,000 square feet
- Four stories (at least)
- Multiple decks with dramatic views.
- 70-seat IMAX theater
- Swimming pool
- Built into hillside
Price
None listed — because it’s not finished and may never go on the market. It’s far from the largest home in the area, but it has become the most notorious.
Potential comps
Palazzo di Amore, it’s called: Hadid listed a Beverly Hills villa for $195 million in November 2014. That property included a 15,000-square-foot entertainment complex that housed a ballroom with a revolving dance floor. A floating-style glass-floor walkway over pools lined by 70-year-old olive trees leads to the complex, which has limestone floors with marble and maple inlay and hand-painted ceilings. Other features are a 50-seat theater, a bowling alley and a game room. The main residence contains more than 35,000 square feet of living space. Including the detached guesthouse, there are 12 bedrooms and 23 bathrooms.
The most expensive home for sale in the U.S.: In January, a Bel-Air home went on the market for $250 million: a 38,000-square-foot mansion spread across four floors that includes 12 bedrooms, 21 bathrooms, three kitchens, a 40-seat movie theater, an infinity pool with a swim-up bar and 270-degree hilltop views from downtown to the ocean. It comes with a $30-million fleet of exotic cars and motorcycles parked in the foyer, including a custom Rolls-Royce, a Bugatti and a vintage Allard. The four-lane bowling alley has shoes in every size, and the candy room is filled with towering cylinders of sweets. Two wine cellars are stocked with hundreds of bottles of Champagne and wine. There are glass pingpong and billiards tables that were custom-built, and 130 artworks collected from around the world.
Hot Property: Celebrity and luxury homes all over Southern California »
Star power
This property is definitely a talker — but for the right reasons?
Hadid is one of L.A.’s highest-profile real estate figures, appearing on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” His daughters are famous supermodels, and his fiancee stars on an E! reality show about women engaged or wed to wealthy men. His Instagram account, which has more than 600,000 followers, bills him as “Real Estate Developer, Proud Father of 5, Olympian ’92, Artist and Creator of my own Dream World.”
He has insisted the home will be completed. “Demolish this house? Never!” Hadid was quoted in Town and Country Magazine, adding, “This house will last forever. Bel-Air will fall before this will.”
Neighbors take a different view, arguing that the bulk of the house should be torn down. “You still have this horrendous thing hanging over the hillside,” said Joseph Horacek, an entertainment lawyer who repeatedly lodged complaints as the home was under construction. He calls it the “Starship Enterprise.”
Twitter: @shelbygrad
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