Kunal Nayyar Lands Sophisticated Hancock Park Estate
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Kunal Nayyar, one of the stars of the astronomically successful sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” and, hence, for several years running one of the highest earning actors on television, has plunked down a hefty $7.5 million for a stately English Tudor manor house in L.A.’s historic and historically hoity-toity Hancock Park neighborhood.
Well below the last ask of almost $8 million and even more substantially under the original price tag of nearly $9 million, the sale price is most notably $200,000 less than then $7.7 million the seller, prominent music lawyer Aaron Rosenberg, paid for the .8 acre estate in late 2014.
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Built in the mid-1920s on a heavily trafficked corner of the otherwise genteel neighborhood, the multi-structure spread was once owned by Nic Cage, who bought the property in 2001 for $2.7 million. So the scuttlebutt goes, the house was acquired for the exclusive use of Christina Fulton, Cage’s former girlfriend and mother of his eldest child. Unfortunately for Fulton, the famously spendthrift movie star, once one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood who at one time owned more than a dozen homes, fell on difficult financial times. Cage sued his accountant, the accountant sued him, they settled on confidential terms in 2010 and the property was sold out of foreclosure in 2011 for a bit more than $2.6 million to a savvy investor who gave the property a sophisticated, state-of-the-art overhaul before it was sold at a hefty profit to Rosenberg. Marketing materials indicate there are a total of five bedrooms and seven bathrooms spread throughout the almost 7,100 square foot main house and two detached guest units, the larger 960 square feet and the smaller 480 square feet. A fitness pavilion adds another 625 square feet.
A grand, double-height foyer and stair gallery with glimmering, diamond-pane leaded glass windows give way to baronial formal living and dining rooms, the former with French doors on either side of a carved wood fireplace and the latter wrapped in a slender strip of faux-bois wallpaper above head-high custom paneling painted a fetching shade of azure. A paneled library painted a rich cordovan oozes aristocratic elegance with floor-to-ceiling bookcases; The light-filled family room has a traditional fireplace on one wall and a huge, thoroughly modern built-in television in another; And, arranged around a huge, marble topped island with snack bar, the high-end, family-friendly kitchen incorporates top-grade appliances and includes a built-in dining banquette set into a windowed bay.
Guest bedrooms in the main house are comfortably proportioned, while the sumptuous master suite pampers with an adjoining nursery or office, two fitted walk-in closets and two fireplaces, one in the spacious private sitting room and the other in the glammed-out marble and mirror bathroom. Open brick terraces and a deep covered porch overlook a manicured, park-like sweep of tree-shaded lawn crisscrossed by flagstone pathways that lead to the swimming pool and spa, both guesthouses and the fitness pavilion.
The listing was held by Aaron Kirman and Dalton Gomez of Compass, the buyers were repped by Cristie St. James and Markus Canter of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California and the sale was first revealed by the eagle-eyed property gossips at the L.A. Times.
For now, the London-born Indian-British actor and his wife, actress/model and former beauty queen Neha Kapur remain the owners of a Tuscan-inspired villa secreted up a discreet canyon lane in the Nichols Canyon area of Los Angeles they scooped up in early 2012 for $2.9 million.
Launch Gallery: Kunal Nayyar Buys Hancock Park Mansion Once Owned by Nic Cage
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