Actor Mark Wahlberg has paid $8,250,000 to purchase a 6.14-acre, vacant lot in Beverly Hills, Calif.'s Beverly Park neighborhood.
As we continue our recent catch-up work in writing about celebrity real estate transactions and listings that others have written about but not yet us, we wanted to make sure our readers knew about the fine scoop by our friends over at the Real Estalker a few weeks back. Your Mama did a great job of sussing out all the details about Wahlberg's purchase of the vacant lot (PIN # 4386-013-020) from controversial developer Robert Bisno's 71 Beverly Park LLC company. Indeed, records show that Wahlberg's Movilla Realty Trust closed on the purchase of the lot, which fittingly enough is at 71 Beverly Park Terrace in the gated community, on April 24. The deal was recorded with Los Angeles County on May 6.
Now, it's safe to assume that Wahlberg (shown here with baby momma and apparent fiancee Rhea Durham) is preparing to erect a mansion on the property, which has 2 flat buildable acres and plans available for a Mediterranean villa-style mansion of up to 30,000 square feet. Recall that Wahlberg in October 2008 listed his 8,932-square-foot mansion on Oak Pass Road in Beverly Hills (or rather, the Beverly Hills Post Office, or the BH PO) for $15,900,000. He later pulled the house off the market, and we suspect will remain in it until his dream mansion in Beverly Park is completed. In addition, public records show that Wahlberg refinanced his Oak Pass Road house (taking out a $6,375,000 loan) on the exact same day that he purchased the vacant lot in Beverly Park (and also recorded that refinancing on the exact same day that he recorded the Beverly Park purchase). Make of that what you will.
The seller of the vacant lot, Bisno, has one heck of a backstory, as we have documented in the past. The Real Estalker excerpted most of the best bits of the Bisnos' Beverly Park saga (in short: the Bisnos own the mansion across the street, have tried to sell it for a long time, have been sued by their own neighborhood association for allegedly sexually suggestive topiary designs, and originally purchased the lot they've now just sold to Wahlberg with an eye toward building an even bigger mansion). New information that we can provide, however, is the fact that Bisno paid $10,550,000 for the lot back in April 2006.
The lot originally was listed by the Bisnos for $18 million, and later was reduced to $9,950,000. We'd say that Wahlberg got himself a reasonable deal, all told.
Interestingly, despite being in celebrity-studded Beverly Park, Wahlberg's new lot itself doesn't adjoin any true "celebrities." The house to the south, 70 Beverly Park, is owned by a couple who are not celebrities, while the house to the north, at 72 Beverly Park, is owned by Norm Zada, who formerly published the porno magazine Perfect 10. And the land directly to the west is vacant territory that is owned by the association.
The Bisnos' mansion, on 5.133 acres at 66 Beverly Park, remains on the market for $22,500,000. Their mansion measures either 11,894 square feet (per assessor; PIN # 4386-008-012), or 16,800 square feet (according to listing information). We exclusively had written about the Bisnos' listing of their mansion back when it hit the market last November for $29,500,000.