The legendary Wallace Neff-designed house perched high above Beverly Hills was purchased by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen 25 years ago for $20 million by the legendary cofounder. Screenwriter Frances Marion and her silent screen star husband Fred Thomson owned the Spanish Colonial-style building in the 1920s, which featured 20 rooms, horse stables with mahogany floors, tennis courts, Italian gardens, and an aviary.
After razing the estate, the tech billionaire reportedly planned to construct an extravagant compound of his own design. This plan never came to fruition, and the estate remains vacant to this day. He died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma complications in 2018, leaving the house up for grabs along with several other enormous properties, including his palatial, multimillion-dollar estate high above Beverly Hills.
Originally listed for $150 million and later dropped to $110 million, the vacant property is one of the largest private estates in Los Angeles, spanning 120 acres in total. In early 2020, Jeff Bezos made a $90 million offer for Enchanted Hill, but he abruptly canceled escrow at the last minute, ending the sale.
Eric Schmidt, an avid trophy property collector, has now added the spread to his collection after it was relisted for $95 million. According to The Wall Street Journal, he paid a discounted, but still huge, sum of $65 million for the former Google CEO.
The sprawling development site consists of five separate lots, including a 4-acre parcel that could accommodate a megamansion-sized main house, and is accessible via a private 1-mile driveway minutes from the Beverly Hills Hotel and Rodeo Drive. Allen also improved the property with infrastructure for utilities, and there are two guarded entrances off Benedict Canyon Drive and Angelo Drive, respectively, so there are sweeping city, ocean, mountain, and canyon views from all the lots.
Though there is no word on what Schmidt plans to do with the land, listing materials suggest that possible development opportunities include building a main residence at the top of the hill, with several guest houses, a fitness and wellness center, an entertainment complex, and equestrian facilities on the remaining four lots.
Aside from his latest purchase, Schmidt owns well over $200 million worth of luxury real estate. He owns a $61.5 million Holmby Hills estate owned by Hilton and the traditional 1970s house next door. Further, he owns a $22 million mansion in Holmby Hills, a $31 million Santa Barbara estate, a $20 million Montecito compound he acquired from Ellen DeGeneres in 2007, a $27.5 million Manhattan penthouse, and a $15 million New York apartment. His primary residence remains a multimillion-dollar compound in the posh Silicon Valley town of Atherton, California.
