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A spec home that was dreamt up as one of the grandest to ever hit the City of Angels has come to a halt, following Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings by the project’s developer, Mohamed Hadid, The Wall Street Journal has reported.
The 27-acre project site, which was set to host a home spanning 100,000 square feet with 19 bedrooms, has now hit the market for $68 million. All proceeds from the sale will be used to pay back creditors, according to turnaround specialist J. Michael Issa, who now manages Treetop Development, the company through which Hadid owned the property.
Aside from his notoriety as a developer, Hadid is also the father of supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid.
Gene Bush and Jade Mills of Coldwell Banker Realty are representing the listing.
Rendering of 9650 Cedarbrook Dr, Beverly Hills | Zillow
“This was supposed to be [Hadid’s] jewel,” Bush told The WSJ.
The megamansion was initially envisioned as a response to Nile Niami’s “The One,” the 105,000-square-foot spec mansion in Bel Air that had at one point asked $500 million, but ultimately sold at auction last spring for a mere $126 million, Bush said.
Hadid’s Treetop purchased the super-sized Beverly Hills Post Office site in 2018, according to records. The lot features views of the Pacific Ocean, downtown LA and surrounding canyons.
The ambitious building plans included a roughly 78,540-square-foot main house and a 24,300-square-foot guesthouse, both of which featured bowling alleys. The four-story main house was to include a 36-person home theater, a Turkish bath, a wine cellar complete with tasting room, a hot yoga room and staff quarters. The garage, built for car aficionados, would have included two car turntables. Enormous floor-to-ceiling windows and doors would open out to patios, decks and infinity pools, showing off the spectacular views.
Rendering of 9650 Cedarbrook Dr, Beverly Hills | Zillow
Permit applications had been filed to include a third structure on the site, but have not yet been approved.
The bankruptcy filing by Hadid follows another recent concession. The developer had been working on another grandiose spec home in LA’s ritzy Bel Air neighborhood — set to ask up to $100 million — until a judge ruled that the house had been constructed larger than permitted by the city’s Department of Building and Safety. Neighbors had also expressed concerns that the mammoth structure could potentially slide down the hillside on which it was perched.
Hadid was ultimately forced to demolish the property.
The Beverly Hills Post Office site was originally listed in 2021 for $250 million completed, or $92 million if a buyer was interested in finishing the property’s construction themselves. At that point, Hadid had not begun construction on the site’s structures, but had started creating a long driveway. It was then that one of Hadid’s creditors tried to foreclose on the property’s assets, after which, Hadid filed a Chapter 11 petition.
Despite its somewhat sticky history, the site presents an opportunity for the right investor or developer since the permits that have already been acquired for the property would be much more difficult to get today, given changing guidelines on megamansions.
“There’s been a crackdown with these big mansions,” Bush told The WSJ. “And this property is fully grandfathered in, which makes it something very special.”
Bush and Mills said the L.A. spec home market isn’t as hot as it once was — potential buyers take more time and consideration when buying one of these over-the-top properties compared to tendencies to snatch them up in years gone by.
“We’re still showing properties to buyers in that up-to-$100 million range,” Mills said, “but there’s no urgency.”
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