Aussie Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres big players in the California prestige market
Australian actor Portia de Rossi is known abroad not only for her turns on Arrested Development and Ally McBeal, but for her property prowess. With wife Ellen DeGeneres, de Rossi made news last month when the couple purchased the Brody House, a Los Angeles mansion designed by renowned architect A Quincy Jones.
The modernist masterpiece (pictured below) was constructed in 1949, with interiors by Billy Haine and Garrett Eckbo. In October last year, the mansion was updated by designer Stephen Stone to prepare it for market. Rumour has it the property, which has six bedrooms, nine baths and is set over a 4,118 square metre estate, was hardly on the market at all before DeGeneres and de Rossi snapped it up for a reported US$39.89 million (A$44.64 million) sum.
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Photos courtesy of curbed.com
The house was commissioned by the late arts advocate Frances Lasker Brody and her husband, the late Sidney F Brody. After Frances Lasker Brody’s death in 2009, the property was sold for the first time for US$14.88 million (A$16.65 million) in 2010.
Portia de Rossi, legally known as Portia Lee James DeGeneres (born Amanda Lee Rogers), and DeGeneres have been involved in quite a few notable Los Angeles property transactions in recent years. Last year, the couple sold their ranch in Thousand Oaks, California. The 26 acre property was originally listed by the de Rossi and DeGeneres in 2011, with an asking price of US$16.5 million (A$18.5 million). It sat on the market for nine months after being pulled, and was relisted last year.
The eight bedroom, 11 bathroom ranch (pictured below) was reportedly sold for US$10.95 million (A$12.14 million). According to de Rossi, the ranch’s redesign was handled entirely by DeGeneres. In an interview with Elle Décor, the Geelong native said that the original property was a horse facility, with an unsalvageable main house. “I thought it might take five years for Ellen to finish the project,” she told the magazine. “And she did it in one! It was shocking.”
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A number of other high profile properties have passed through Portia and Ellen’s capable hands. They purchased a US$26.5 million (A$29.45 million) 13 acre estate in Montecito (pictured below), just outside of California’s Santa Barbara, in May 2013. Known locally as Saladino Villa, the six bedroom, seven bathroom home overlooks the Pacific ocean.
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The couple also sold their sprawling Beverly Hills estate (pictured below) in 2012 to US television personality Ryan Seacrest, for a whopping US$49 million (A$54.43 million).
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jrichardson@propertyobserver.com.au
