Apart from being the world's richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has just set a new record in California. The billionaire businessman just set a new home sale price record in the state by paying $165 million for a massive estate in Beverly Hills.
According to real estate sources with knowledge of the matter, Bezos purchased the famous Warner estate from David Geffen. The amount of money paid by the billionaire is the most ever paid for a home in the state of California, beating the previous record.
The $165-million sale is the fifth time since 2016 that the state's price record had been broken. Since 2016, the record was held by the $100-million sale of Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion. It was then broken in 2018 when natural gas billionaire Michael Smith bought the home of Hard Rock Café co-founder Peter Morton for $110 million.
In 2019, the daughter of Formula One billionaire Bernie Ecclestone, Petra, bought a home in Holmby Hills for $119.75 million, setting a new record. It was then broken just months after when Lachlan Murdoch purchased the Bel-Air's Beverly Hillbillies mansion for $150 million.
Bezos' new swanky home is situated on a nine-acre lot. The mansion on the property was originally designed with a Spanish Colonial Revival theme but was later redesigned as a grand Georgian mansion by architect Roland Coate for the infamous movie mogul Jack Warner in the 1930s.
Geffen purchased the home from the Warner estate in 1990, paying $47.5 million for it in cash. Bezos' purchase of the property meant that Geffen essentially tripled his investment in a span of 30 years. According to the book "David Geffen Builds, Buys and Sells the New Hollywood," the Warner estate featured eight bedrooms, an indoor movie theater, a card room, and a domed bar. Warner's office had been left alone during renovations and is still fully intact.
The rest of the property features a series of gardens, fountains, and sculptures, as well as a golf course, a tennis court, and a pool. The 300-foot driveway is lined with trees and ends in a circular motor court.
Apart from the recent purchase, Bezos also owns other expensive properties in Beverly Hills. In 2007, Bezos purchased a Spanish-styled two-acre estate in Beverly Hills for $24.45 million. A decade later, he purchased the property beside it for$ 12.9 million.
The billionaire, which is currently worth around $131 billion, also owns dozens of other homes in states such as Washington, Texas, and Seattle. Bezos' last massive purchase was made last year after he paid about $80 million for three adjoining apartments in New York.
