Toronto Socialite Spends $32 Million on Nile Niami-Designed Estate
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A striking residence in the Beverly Hills Flats neighborhood recently sold for about $32.3 million, one of the most expensive transactions ever recorded in that perennially desirable pocket of the 90210. Set on a particularly prestigious street lined with stately homes, the pricey property borders the notoriously clannish Los Angeles Country Club and was designed by Nile Niami, arguably L.A.’s most famously prolific developer of outsized megamansions.
Originally built in 1950, Niami radically expanded and renovated the estate in 2013, culminating in the result posted in gallery images — the property’s current glammed-out mansion is perhaps most accurately described as a neoclassical French villa with a trendy contemporary twist.
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In April 2015, the house was sold for $28 million to businessman Gyorgy Gattyan, one of Hungary’s wealthiest men and the founder of adult entertainment/webcam website LiveJasmin. Gattyan, who owns several other properties in the area, only held onto the estate for four years before flipping it at a $4+ million profit before taxes, maintenance and hefty realtor fees are considered.
The buyer, records reveal, is socialite Persia Vlessing Dime, a Toronto-based fashionista and frequent attendee of high-nosed charity galas and fashion shows the globe over. Dime’s longtime husband, Canadian industrialist Charles Dime, is a founder of Toronto Research Chemicals (TRC), a leading manufacturer of synthetic biochemicals for the pharmaceutical industry. Three months ago, TRC was acquired by a subsidiary of investment giant KKR for an undisclosed sum.
Dime’s billionaire-worthy new estate is partially shielded from the street by rows of mature olive trees and a front hedgerow. Behind double gates, an enormous motorcourt has space for a couple dozen vehicles, plus there’s a so-called auto gallery — essentially a fancy garage — and plenty of convenient street parking for large events.
The white-walled, black-roofed manor house spans more than 10,000 square feet of living space, most of it done up in cool, decidedly restrained neutral shades. There are light-colored hardwood floors throughout, soaking walls of glass, a state-of-the-art kitchen with mammoth marble island and custom cabinetry, formal dining room and a sun-drenched living room with views over the gardens and one of the largest residential wet bars this author has ever clapped eyes upon.
A sculptural staircase leads upstairs, where there’s a secondary living area, a long art gallery-like hallway and six family/guest bedrooms — all of them ensuite, naturally. The master retreat offers a semicircular bedroom with dual marble-swaddled baths and dual closets/dressing rooms.
The resort-style backyard is primed for entertaining with a full outdoor kitchen and cabana, an extra-long firepit and a negative-edge swimming pool with inset spa. Emerald green lawns shaded by more olive trees sprawl around the nearly one-acre flat lot, which is mostly bordered by golf greens. At the southwest corner of the property is a guesthouse that opens to formal gardens and a stunning reflecting pool with inset firepit for maximum visual drama.
Jon Grauman and Mauricio Umansky at The Agency held the listing; James Harris and David Parnes, also at The Agency, repped Dime.
Launch Gallery: Socialite Persia Dime Waltzes into Snazzy New Beverly Hills Mansion
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