Good things sometimes do come to those who wait. And, for the financially well endowed, at least, that goodness sometimes comes in the form of a multimillion-dollar real estate discount. In late 2018, boutique hotelier Edward Slatkin, whose portfolio includes the celeb-favored Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica, made his Tinseltown-tinged estate in a one of the plummiest pockets of Beverly Hills available in a blaze of publicity at an attention getting, but in-hindsight too boldly optimistic $36 million. The price tag eventually fell to $29 million before it was sold earlier this month, according to tax records, for $27.5 million, almost 25% under the original ask. According to a handful of plugged in Platinum Triangle property snitches, the buyer who benefitted from the notably discounted deal is Ari Emanuel, Endeavor’s powerful and famously brash CEO.
Once owned by Barrie Chase, an actress best remembered as a frequent dance partner of Fred Astaire, the just shy of two-acre estate was acquired by Slatkin and his wife, Dana Slatkin, in the late 1990s for an unrecorded amount. The Slatkins told The Wall Street Journal back in 2018 they were “drawn to the estate for its manageable scale”. Of course, manageable, like a bargain, is a somewhat relative thing depending on your financial resources.
Listings jointly held by Sharona Alperin at Sotheby’s Int’l Realty and Ron de Salvo, until recently at Coldwell Banker, now with Compass, show the pristine, high-maintenance estate’s stately main house, designed by illustrious architect Sumner Hunt and completed in 1925, measures in at nearly 7,900 square feet with four bedrooms and four full baths, plus three powder rooms. A careful parse of marketing materials indicates two guest cottages and a two-story poolside pavilion add about 3,500 square feet with two more bedrooms and four more bathrooms.
Great wrought iron gates hung between towering concrete pillars enveloped in curvaceous towers of sculpted hedges swing open to a graveled drive that makes an elegant, tree-shaded swoop up to the front of the beautifully vine-encrusted and by-any-standard baronial French Normandy manor house. Restored and updated for the Slatkins by designer Thomas Beeton, the main residence’s sumptuous living spaces encompass a spacious entrance gallery with coffered ceiling, a ballroom-sized living room with antique carved stone fireplace and an opulent dining room with a shimmering silver-toned ceiling. Terra-cotta floor tiles give the kitchen Old World patina, while an expensive array of premium-quality culinary equipment brings it squarely into the 21st century and a built-in dining banquette creates a relaxed environment for casual meals. Elsewhere, a fireplace warms a roomy den with wet bar and a glass conservatory spills out to a large terrace for alfresco dining and lounging alongside an outdoor fireplace. The second floor’s four en suite bedrooms include the deluxe main suite, which comprises a private sitting area, a terrace and a double bathroom. The third floor attic is finished as additional, flexible living space.
It may be cliché to say, but the estate’s ample, sylvan grounds, hidden from the street behind a tangle of high hedging and dense foliage, are truly park-like with lush cutting gardens and great sweeps of evenly mown lawns that stretch out in the cool shade of mature specimen trees. The swimming pool sits in a sunny, tree-ringed clearing surrounded by grass. The estate also offers a greenhouse, garage parking for five cars (plus off-street parking for dozens more), and a second, gated entrance for family and staff around at the back of the house.
Emanuel, upon whom the “Entourage” character Ari Gold is said to be based, is certainly no stranger to property gossip columns. In 2015 he ponied up $16.55 million for a sprawling contemporary home inspired by Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta in the tony Mandeville Canyon area of Los Angeles. Fun fact: prior to Emanuel’s ownership, the estate was leased for a short time by comedian Chelsea Handler.
A few years later, in 2018, the high-powered entertainment industry mover-and-shaker dropped another $11.5 million for the house next door, an unremarkable 4,300-square-foot home built in the mid-1970s next to a pill-shaped swimming pool. The plan, presumably, was to combine the properties, but alas, that’s not what happened. Last year Emanual sold the larger house to a low-profile hedge fund tycoon for $19.375 million, a bit more than its $19 million asking price. The nearly $3 million return on his investment was more than eroded, however, when he sold the smaller house earlier this year at a staggering $4 million loss in an off-market all-cash deal for $6.5 million to an unidentified buyer.
Emanuel, whose older brother Rahm Emanuel is the former mayor of Chigaco, was a founding partner of Endeavor Talent Agency before it merged with the William Morris Agency in 2009. In addition to representing a who’s who of entertainment industry heavy hitters, Endeavor also leads consortiums that own the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the Miss Universe pageant. Known as an authoritative dealmaker who once had reality TV star turned U.S. president Donald Trump as a client, Emanuel recently aligned Endeavor with the #ChangeHollywood initiative that aims to address racism in Hollywood.