8899 Beverly Developers Now Want More Than $100 Million for the Penthouse

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A rendering of the penthouse at 8899 Beverly Blvd. (Binyan Studios)

If you’d been thinking about making a bid for that $85 million condo on the top floor of the building at 8899 Beverly Blvd., you’ve missed your chance. Townscape Partners, the developer, now is contemplating putting it on the market for $100 million.

Or maybe more. The Wall Street Journal reports today that Tyler Siegel, one of the Townscape Partners partners, says the 20,000-square-foot unit will list for “nine figures-plus.”

“Whether that’s $100 million, $125 million or $160 million, I just don’t know right now,” Siegel said.

According to the Journal, the penthouse’s size would make it the largest single-floor apartment in the world. The Journal’s story notes that the proposed price would make it the most expensive Los Angeles condo ever. By comparison, Candy Spelling’s penthouse in Century City cost $35 million.

A story published by WEHOville last October cited the then-rumored $85 million price in stating that the 8899 Beverly penthouse would put West Hollywood, a city founded on the concept of keeping housing affordable, in competition with New York City in ranking first in a listing of the “Most Expensive Condos in America.” The new proposed price puts WeHo far ahead of the Big Apple.

Rendering of the 8899 Beverly Blvd. building by Olson Kundig architects (photo courtesy of M18 Public Relations)

Other new housing in West Hollywood is less expensive, but still way beyond the means of the average resident in WeHo, where the median income for a single-person household is $66,198 and only six units were available last month for the thousands of West Hollywood residents on the city’s affordable housing wait list.

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Condos at The Harland at 702 N. Doheny Drive are on the market at prices ranging from $2.4 to $4.9 million. Prices for the 40 Pendry condos on Fountain Avenue at Olive Drive, where construction is closed to complete, start at $3 million and go to $30 million for the largest unit. Some condos to the rear of the Edition West Hollywood at 9040 Sunset Blvd. have been sold in the $20 million range.

Townscape’s project converted the office building at 8899 Beverly between Robertson and Almont into 52 condominiums and 15 apartments for low- and moderate-income people. The proposal has been controversial because it almost doubled the size of the existing 90,000-square-foot building and changed the use of a building that already didn’t conform with the city’s General Plan or the zoning for the site. The project also includes construction of nine single-family houses behind the building.

The City Council approved the project in a three-to-two vote in August 2015, with Council members John Duran, John Heilman, and Lindsey Horvath voting for it. Council members John d’Amico and Lauren Meister opposed it. Townscape’s partners and their family members and lobbyists and lawyers were among the biggest donors to City Council members’ election campaigns while they fought for approval of the project.

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no info
no info
4 years ago

building has 15 low income units. they should have had more for such a big building.

Tom
Tom
4 years ago

I can’t see how they can ask that price without making the Dr. Evil pinky to the lips face…

Concerned Citizen
Concerned Citizen
4 years ago

So much for the city founded by citizens group Coalition for Economic Survival.

Michael Grace
Michael Grace
4 years ago

The Townscape 3! Three of the most corrupt politicians in Southern California. John heilemann, John Duran and Lindsay Horvath. Street walkers for the enemy. And that enemy are greedy outside developers. The only way to break up the Townscape 3 Cabal is to vote the two old John’s out of office permanently in November.

Jonathan H. Dowling
Jonathan H. Dowling
4 years ago

If $100 million condos piss you off, then vote out John Duran and John Heilman in November. One only needs to look at their campaign finance filings to know they have been bought and paid for by real estate developers. Sadly, the more people who enter the race, the greater the likelihood one or both of them will get re-elected with 15% of the vote. West Hollywood needs to amend the city charter to ban political donations from people residing outside the city, and implement a runoff election to ensure the folks representing us are truly the choice of a… Read more »

David Reid
4 years ago

Wonder what the HOA will be? (Condo dues/HomeOwnersAssocaition)
Property taxes are based on sale price so this will be a boon for WeHo.
That $220M park won’t pay for itself.

Concerned Citizen
Concerned Citizen
4 years ago
Reply to  David Reid

The city has to pay their staff and pensioners $34,000,000 Million) somehow.

David Abrams
David Abrams
4 years ago

How do they get to build a 20,000 SF unit? I thought the WeHo limit was 1,200 SF?

Meister4Weho
4 years ago
Reply to  David Abrams

David, not in mixed use projects/projects in commercial zones. I brought forward an item for a zone text amendment to require a maximum average square footage like we have in residential zones, but my colleagues did not support it. Most mixed use projects have units similar in size to residential. But then there’s 8899…

Observer
Observer
4 years ago

An utter, complete and perfect example of developer greed. It’s obscene.

D Donelly
D Donelly
4 years ago
Reply to  Observer

Developer greed or stupidity of those paying for it?

Jonathan Simmons
Jonathan Simmons
4 years ago

What a bargain!

michael
michael
4 years ago

Well, there are small houses for sale in the Norma Triangle going for 1 to 2 + million dollars. The same houses that were built back in the 1920’s for workers employed by the light-rail yard that used to be on SMB and San Vicente.

Vigilant
Vigilant
4 years ago

It’s simply an ego trip for publicity. Developers do it in Manhattan on 57th. Jeff Hyland perpetually uses this overused technique in Beverly but allows Great Landmarks to be torn down, while promoting himself as a Historic Preservationist. Puff, Smoke, Fakery and almost forgot the Hadid character. All the same. Actually the 8899 Beverly Project had good design. Good for the architect Olson Kundig, hope he gets paid with a bonus while other architects are ripping off his designs poorly on some Sunset Blvd. spaceship with living fringe which is ripping off another architect Mark Rios from the ICA Building.… Read more »

Alan Strasburg
Alan Strasburg
4 years ago

Will the Townscape 3 get special pricing in the building?