Earlier this year, a striking modern on the “view side” of a street that’s long been considered one of the best in the Birds sold for an A-list-style $16,335,000. The new owner took title under a mysteriously-named trust, so Yolanda initially figured it was a celeb. But, as is occasionally the case, we weren’t able to tell just who it was.
That is, until just last week, when we casually mentioned the house to someone we’ll call Ally Oxenfree, who quickly whispered in our big ol’ ear that the new owner was not a big-name Hollywood celebrity at all but rather a medical doctor originally from Toronto, Canada.
Well, we didn’t believe that at first. But after some snooping around, we now know that Ms. Oxenfree was not fibbing. A Canadian physician named Greg Bailey really did spend more than $16 million for this place.
Dr. Bailey seems to keep deets of his personal life on the down low, so Yolanda is unsure if he’s married or not. But we did manage to snag his resume, which is about as eclectic as they come. We’ll give you the condensed version: Dr. Bailey was practicing emergency physician for 10 years. He became involved in real estate investing, then switched to high finance / investment banking. He co-founded several companies — some based in Canada, some based in the US, some in London — and he has served on the board of directors at 16 different public firms.
Dr. Bailey’s longtime partner in business has been billionaire investor Jim Mellon, who is often referred to as the “British Warren Buffett“. Mr. Mellon and Dr. Bailey co-founded and currently Mediqventures, a “biotech merchant bank and investment firm” that apparently finances new tech in the life sciences sector of the healthcare industry.
Interesting, eh? But we digress. We’re here to discuss the real estate.
The house was spec-built in 2010 by real estate investor Mauricio Oberfeld of the Dugally Oberfeld firm and designed by noted architect Zoltan Pali. If the name sounds familiar, it may be because he also designed the larger home next door — Mr. Oberfeld’s main residence and the house we just discussed last week.
Mr. Pali is responsible for many other residential structures and commercial buildings around LA, including the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, a revitalization of area surrounding the old, historic post office building.
See the family resemblance?
Mr. Oberfeld first put the newly-completed slab-sided structure on the market in November 2010. Unfortunately, it took years and several significant price chops before he finally managed to unload it in April 2013 for $12,450,000. The buyer was a private equity guru (and Tom Gores associate) named Alex Soltani and his wife Sandra.
For whatever reason, the Soltanis didn’t stay in their Zoltan Pali house very long. Less than two years later, in January 2015, the couple shelled out a brazen $32,000,000 for a much-larger house in the Bird Streets that was sold by none other than Dr. Dre.
Although reports at the time stated that the Soltanis planned to raze Dr. Dre’s old party house, they must have put their plans on hold (or something) because Yolanda happens to know they are currently living in that particular casa.
Back to Dr. Bailey’s new pad. The extra-broad and flat-faced house, with its nearly windowless front facade, will for sure make an impression on the guy delivering your Mr. Chow takeout. A gated front courtyard sports a moat-like water feature and a front door that opens directly into the home’s upper level, which sports rift oak floors and ebonized wood cabinetry.
The master suite has commanding views out to the Pacific ocean, although the bathroom has some tall outdoor shrubbery partially blocking the scenery. If this were Yolanda’s house, we’d chop all that hooey right down. Come on now. If you’ve got it, you’d damn well better flaunt it.
Watch The Shining at midnight with the twinkling carpet of LA as a backdrop. What could be better?
The pool is raised but not infinity-edged. There’s a dog-run-sized grass patch and enough terrace space for smallish parties. Nice sunset, too.
As we’ve previously highlighted, Dr. Bailey’s new abode is located on one of the priciest Bird Street streets. Just two doors away is the oddball house that James Wan just sold to Steve & Debi Wisch for a sum in excess of $13 million. Then there’s the Oberfeld residence right next door, which is probably worth well over $20 million. Just around the bend is the old Megan Ellison compound, one piece of which was sold for $20.5 million to Ted Waitt (as a teardown). The other two slices went to Ashley Tabor for $26.25 million (also as teardowns).
Mr. Bailey also maintains a compact three-floor townhome in the high-priced Chelsea neighborhood of London. We assume he also keeps crash pads in Toronto and New York City, but sorry, we have no further details on those.
Oh my. Even Yolanda’s getting a bit exhausted with Birds Week. If you’re not feeling it, sit your butt down and quit complaining. We’ll have a couple more stories from the neighborhood and then it’s back to our regularly-scheduled programming on Monday. Capiche? Good.