A billionaire is auctioning off his $160 million Beverly Hills estate with no minimum price. Look inside the 13-bedroom mansion that he's been trying to sell for more than 2 years.
Katie Warren
- Hungarian-born billionaire Steven Udvar-Hazy is auctioning off his $160 million Beverly Hills estate, Villa Firenze, after more than two years of trying to sell it, Beckie Strum reports for Mansion Global.
- The bidding starts on January 26 with Concierge Auctions and will last about a week, with no minimum price.
- Udvar-Hazy, who made his $4.1 billion in the airplane leasing industry, first put his 10-acre Italian-style estate on the market in 2018 for $165 million.
- The property includes a lavish 20,000-square-foot mansion, three guest houses, a resort-style swimming pool, tennis courts, and formal gardens and fountains.
A Hungarian-born billionaire is putting his lavish Beverly Hills estate up for auction after spending more than two years trying to sell it, Mansion Global reported.
The nearly 10-acre Villa Firenze estate first hit the market in 2018 for $165 million. Its owner, Steven Udvar-Hazy, amassed his $4.1 billion fortune in the airplane leasing industry. Udvar-Hazy, who's currently the chairman of Air Lease Corp, told Mansion Global he's putting the estate up for auction to speed up the sale of the property, which is currently listed with Hilton & Hyland for $160 million.
Bidding for Villa Firenze, which will be held by digital auction house Concierge Auctions, starts on January 26 and is open for eight days. There's no minimum price, so Udvar-Hazy will have to accept the highest offer.
"Many of the world's most desirable, coveted items are sold at auction - and like these, Villa Firenze is also a work of art in itself," Udvar-Hazy told Mansion Global. A spokesperson for Udvar-Hazy's company declined to offer any additional comment on the sale, instead directing Insider to Hilton & Hyland. Hilton & Hyland declined Insider's request for further comment.
Take a peek inside Villa Firenze, which was assembled from three separate lots into an "Italian Village."
Villa Firenze sits inside the exclusive gated community of North Beverly Park, which a 2013 Forbes article referred to as a "mansion-packed billionaire community."
The community can only be accessed by two guarded checkpoints, and the mansions all sit on large parcels of land surrounded by gates, according to Forbes.
Stars like Denzel Washington, Sylvester Stallone, and Eddie Murphy have reportedly called the neighborhood home over the years.
The estate's owner, Steven Udvar-Hazy, bought the property nearly 30 years ago and built the main residence in the late 1990s, per Mansion Global.
The Hungarian-born airplane leasing billionaire is worth $4.1 billion, according to Forbes. He's currently the chairman of Air Lease Corp.
Udvar-Hazy assembled the current estate from three separate lots, according to Concierge Auctions.
"Over five years in the making, this is truly a masterpiece that is quite possibly impossible to recreate," he told Mansion Global.
Udvar-Hazy first put Villa Firenze on the market in 2018 for $165 million.
After more than two years of trying to sell, Udvar-Hazy has now put the property up for auction with Concierge Auctions, a digital auction house that has auctioned off properties that include villas in Phuket, a historic inn in The Hamptons, and a Malibu waterfront compound.
The estate is being auctioned with no minimum price, so Udvar-Hazy will be obligated to accept the highest offer. The sale opens on January 26 and bidding will close after eight days.
The new owner of Villa Firenze will have their own private sanctuary. The estate is accessed by its own private street, according to the listing. The gates open up to a courtyard that can accommodate 30 cars.
Rick Hilton, co-founder of Hilton & Hyland, told Mansion Global that the property offers its owners "impeccable privacy."
The sprawling home has 13 bedrooms, 17 full bathrooms, and eight half bathrooms.
There are multiple formal and informal gathering spaces, five offices, a craft room, a video game room, and a gym.
The home's ornate details include vault ceilings, marble and stone floors, arched doorways, and multiple fireplaces.
Source: Hilton & Hyland
Villa Firenze's expansive grounds include resort-like amenities such as a swimming pool and pool house, a tennis court, and a two-story guesthouse.
The home was designed by architect William Hablinsky and completed in 1998.
A walking trail surrounds the estate, and the owners can also take a stroll through the formal gardens, which include three formal fountains. Forty-foot Canary Island palm trees dot the grounds.
Villa Firenze's $160 million listing price may seem astronomical. But if it's auctioned off for anywhere near that, the estate would be among a handful of Los Angeles properties to sell around that price range in the past year.
In December 2019, the iconic Chartwell Estate in Bel Air sold for $150 million to Lachlan Murdoch, the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Then in February of this year, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos broke California's record for the most expensive home sale of all time when he paid $165 million for a Beverly Hills mansion previously owned by media mogul David Geffen.
And in September, Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg sold his Beverly Hills compound for $125 million.
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