A couple of weeks ago—on Christmas Eve, to be exact—Your Mama whispered to the children that word on the real estate street in Los Angeles was that L.A.-based billionaire hedge fund fat cat Howard Marks and his social wife Nancy had inked an off-market deal to off-load their sprawling, bluff top Malibu estate for an ear piercing $75,000,000, give or take a few million.
Then, if y'all recall, a few days ago we relayed information tantalizingly tattled to Your Mama by several sources who speculated—based on what they were hearing slide down the gossip grapevine—that the buyers were a couple of young Russians with, as one put it, "suitcases full of cash."
Despite a report just yesterday by the property gossips at the Wall Street Journal that described the buyers as "A Russian billionaire couple," Your Mama conferred yesterday and today with two of our better connected informants from deep inside the Platinum Triangle real estate game—let's call them Ben d'Yerear and Lotta Scoop—who now tell us the Platinum Triangle real estate scuttlebutt has shifted away from the Russians. Now, according to Ben and Lotta, there are two decidedly non-Russian names being batted about as the possible (and still alleged) new owner of the Marks' Malibu spread.
Mister Jannard isn't on our list of hardcore L.A. based real estate ballers but he does own at least two other pricey properties in Los Angeles, both of them in the back in vogue and shockingly expensive Trousdale Estates neighborhood that runs up into the rugged canyons on the far eastern edge of Beverly Hills.
In October 2010 Mister Jannard dropped $5,200,000 on a 5,128 square foot single-story residence privately situated down a long, gated driveway at the tail end of a little lauded cul-de-sac and the previous December (2009) Mister Jannard picked up a very famous, crab-shaped mid-century modern masterpiece for which he paid $19,900,000 according to property records (and previous reports). The house is often attributed to Hal Leavitt but we hear from someone who knows about these things that the house was actually remodeled by Leavitt for the seller, entrepreneur William Hubner.
Did y'all catch the past tense up there? That's because, much to the chagrin of lovers of low-slung, crab-shaped mid-century modern masterpieces the world over, Mister Jannard has torn down the house down and is mid-way through the erection of an all knew residence that's more to his liking. Anyhoo...
Your Mama knows who we think bought the Marks' house but since we're not 100% sure so we'll just leave all the children to hash out all the possibilities. 1, 2, 3...Go!
aerial image (Trousdale Estates): Google
