The latest issue of The Hollywood Reporter takes a detailed look at the boom of developers, architects and realtors in Los Angeles dedicated to building and selling “mega mansions on spec,” and prominently showcased in the article is The Agency’s listing at 1232 Sunset Plaza, a 13,000-square-foot California modern stunner designed by Hagy Belzberg and developed by Brad Blumenthal and Leo Hauser.
THR spoke with The Agency’s Billy Rose on the topic, and in particular, how the spec home market has evolved.
“It used to be 5,000 to 6,000 square feet was about as big as you got with these kinds of homes,” says Rose. “Now 13,000 square feet is sort of the entry level for spec homes, and we’re routinely trading at $2,000 a square foot. That, by the way, came out of nowhere. It started the last quarter of 2012 and is now the going rate.”
Prior to becoming a realtor, Rose was an entertainment lawyer-turned-movie agent-turned-developer who built a dozen spec homes himself between 1998 and 2011.
“Back when Megan Ellison bought [designer] Steve Hermann’s place on Nightingale in 2008, that was considered to be the pinnacle of the spec market — $12.5 million for 5,500 square feet in the Bird Streets? It’s not like it
was Carbon Beach.”
Read more about the new breed of spec homes fueling LA’s high-end real estate market here.
