When bidding finished on March 3, a Los Angeles mega-mansion that was the largest U.S. residence to ever put up for auction sold for $141 million, including fees. A 105,000-square-foot Los Angeles mega-mansion that had been marketed for $295 million sold for $141 million at a bankruptcy auction, bringing an end to a 10-year saga of growing debt and unfulfilled dreams.
The $295 million hilltop house, dubbed “The One,” has 21 bedrooms and 49 bathrooms. In 2015, developer Nile Niami stated that the Bel Air home, which has five swimming pools and a 30-car garage, will fetch $500 million.
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Nile Niami’s ‘The One’ : The largest new mansion in America sells for $141 million at auction.
“The bigger they are, the harder they fall,” goes the old adage, and that definitely applies to Nile Niami’s colossal mega-mansion, “The One,” which has gone into receivership after amassing millions of dollars in loans and obligations.
The 105,000-square-foot Bel Air behemoth, billed as “the world’s largest and most expensive urban property,” was commissioned almost a decade ago by the producer turned developer. It was originally valued at $500 million, but a court-ordered sale is currently underway to reclaim funds owing to lenders.
The home, called “The One,” was auctioned off on Thursday night March 3, with the top price of $126 million. According to Laura Brady, CEO of Concierge Auctions, which auctioned the mansion, the total transaction price would be $141 million, including the buyer’s premium.
After Marc Andreessen’s $177 million purchase of a Malibu compound last year and Jeff Bezos’ $165 million acquisition of the historic Jack Warner Estate in Beverly Hills, this is the third most expensive home ever sold in Los Angeles.
The One is also the most expensive residence ever sold at auction in the United States and the world, surpassing a mansion auctioned in Beverly Park last year for $51 million.
“It was a very competitive bidding process,” Brady added “We had a strong field of bidders, with bidders from multiple countries.” Brady said, declining to comment on the buyer, who is anticipated to be identified in the coming days to the bankruptcy court.
The sale brings one of the most controversial high-end real estate projects ever to a finish, at least for the time being. Nile Niami, a charismatic and ambitious former Hollywood producer who went on to create some of the most extravagant residences in Beverly Hills and Bel Air to sell for profits, designed it. Niami promoted The One as his “life purpose” and “the biggest, most costly mansion in the urban world” when he first started construction more than a decade ago, with an eventual asking price of $500 million.
The One, which lies on 3.8 acres and has 21 bedrooms and 42 bathrooms, rises like a spaceship from the manicured hills of Bel Air. The Pacific Ocean, downtown Los Angeles, and the San Gabriel Mountains can all be seen from here. There are seven water features on the site, including a large moat that runs around the perimeter. A nightclub, a full-service beauty salon, a wellness center, a 40-seat home theater, a bowling alley, a 10,000-bottle wine cellar, a 30-car garage, and a 400-foot private outdoor jogging track are among the amenities.
However, when construction prices increased, so did the difficulties. Niami’s debt had risen to over $190 million. Last year, the property was placed in receivership and ultimately declared bankrupt. It was advertised for $295 million as part of a bankruptcy arrangement and placed up for auction if no buyer could be found.
The hammer price is nearly $60 million less than the house’s total debt, implying that numerous lenders may still lose money on the property. Don Hankey, a subprime banking giant from Los Angeles, was the project’s largest lender, lending more than $125 million. Hankey, who could have used his loan to “credit bid,” according to people familiar with the deal, was not the ultimate buyer.
Anyone who buys The One will also have to deal with a complexity of prospective upgrades and legal difficulties. The home has cracks in and around many of the pools and stonework, as well as symptoms of mold, according to the receiver’s report and an engineering analysis. It has multiple outstanding building and occupancy licenses, and its construction is being challenged by a local homeowner’s group.
According to real estate experts, the buyer could be another developer who intends to improve and remodel the property, obtain the necessary permissions, and then resell it.
Inside ‘The one’ Bel Air Mansion
According to the listing agents, the property includes “views from every room,” numerous kitchens, a 10,000-bottle wine cellar, gym, sauna, salon, bowling alley, movie theater, nightclub, five pools, and a moat.
The property, which took nearly a decade to build, stands atop a hill in Bel Air with views of the Los Angeles basin. According to a two-part home tour broadcast on YouTube in April, the huge property has 20 bedrooms, including eight bedrooms for the employees and a three-bedroom guest house, approximately six elevators, a library, cigar room, and confectionery room.
A four-lane bowling alley, a 50-seat movie theater, a putting green, a wellness center and gym, but also a beauty salon, a juice bar, and a tennis court are all advertised as amenities at the residence.
However, while the mansion was formerly advertised as the largest in the country, it is no longer the case. The Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, with 178,926 square feet, takes first place, followed by New York’s own Oheka Castle, with 109,000 square feet.
The house is also “poised to create history as the most expensive home in the world ever to sell at auction,” according to marketing materials.
Even if the spread sells for its original $500 million asking price, a New Yorker realtor-turned-Italian princess is auctioning a Roman villa this month for $534 million, which is sure to be met.
Furthermore, even though ‘The One’ already finds a buyer, they are unable to dwell there at this time. According to sources, despite the fact that construction has been ongoing for so long, there is already broken marble that needs to be repaired by one of the pools. (“They’re extremely close to receiving the certificate of occupancy; the city and the Bel Air homeowner’s association are still negotiating; it’s all about money at the end of the day,” a source said.)
Niami, the mega mansion’s developer, assisted in the mega mansion’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last year. A planned foreclosure sale was temporarily halted as a result of the action. Niami told reporters at the time that he was working on a deal. It entailed living in the mansion and holding boxing fights and charity galas in which celebrities such as Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston would perform via hologram. That, however, never happened.
Niami borrowed tens of millions of dollars over the years to fund the massive project. The One has been placed into receivership by the Los Angeles County Superior Court, with more than $165 million in outstanding loans and bills, in an attempt to get Niami’s creditors paid. Niami previously posted a video in which he sets out a complicated scheme to tokenize the house and sell it as “The One Coin,” a digital currency.
The main residence, which sits atop a quiet Bel Air cul-de-sac known as Airole Way and is surrounded on three sides by a water-filled moat, has 21 bedrooms and an unfathomable total of 49 bathrooms (42 full baths, the rest powder rooms) spread out over 105,000 square feet of Kathryn Rotondi-designed living space. There’s also a three-bedroom guesthouse and a seven-bedroom staff quarters with panoramic views of the ocean, city skyline, and San Gabriel Mountains.
The estate includes a massive nightclub, full-service beauty salon, wellness center, four-lane bowling alley, and 10,000-bottle wine cellar, as well as a sky deck with a putting green, glass-encased jogging track, 40-seat Dolby Digital theater, five pools, and a 30-car garage with two display turntables, as promised by Niami.
A 5,000-square-foot master retreat with its own pool, as well as a two-story library/office with a balcony, LED and black hand-lacquered built-ins from Italy, and water features, are among the other attractions. A revolving statue by Mike Fields surrounds the entrance, a lower-level butterfly installation by Stephen Wilson, and an outdoor sculpture by Italian Murano glass expert Simone Cenedese are among the beautiful unique artwork on exhibit.
This isn’t the first time that a Niami mega mansion has run into difficulties. He got off to a good start, selling P. Diddy’s $40 million Holmby Hills mansion with an underwater tunnel. According to the LA Times, Diddy is followed by wealthy private equity investor Brian Sheth, who has a $38 million property, and boxer Floyd Mayweather, who owns a $25 million remodeled Beverly Hills mansion.
However, as Niami’s hopes and dwellings grew, so did his losses. His $100 million house, called “Opus,” was eventually evaluated at $38 million and sold for an undisclosed sum.
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