Bezos, the richest man in the world, purchased the Jack Warner Estate for an eighth of a percent of his net worth, which is an estimated $131 billion.
He purchased the property from David Geffen, a businessman, producer, and film studio executive, whose net worth is an estimated $9 billion. Geffen bought the property in 1990 for $47.5 million, which would be approximately $92.9 million in 2020 values.
The most expensive Los Angeles property record was previously held by the Chatwell Estate in Bel Air, which was purchased by media heir Lachlan Murdoch for $150 million in December 2019.
The Warner Estate is a historic mansion built for the Hollywood studio mogul Jack Warner, who founded Warner Bros. with his brothers Harry, Sam, and Albert. The estate was completed in 1937 after a decade of construction and was famous in the 1930s and 1940s for parties attended by Hollywood A-Listers.
According to Architectural Digest, which featured the Warner Estate in 1992, the nine-acre lot features a “13,600-square-foot Georgian-style mansion, expansive terraces and gardens, two guesthouses, nursery, and three hothouses, tennis court, swimming pool, nine-hole golf course, and motor court complete with its own service garage and gas pumps”.
As well as purchasing this estate, Bezos also purchased a plot of land from the estate of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for $90 million. Bezos and his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, had reportedly been browsing Los Angeles real estate for a while before deciding on the Warner Estate.
The estate and plot of land are just the latest additions to Bezos’ property portfolio, which already includes two L.A. homes, a mansion in Washington D.C., a ranch in Texas, an estate in Seattle and three adjacent apartments in New York City worth around $80 million combined.
