Although Rick Caruso’s many major shopping centers suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic (The Grove, Palisades Village, Glendale’s The Americana at Brand, etc), it doesn’t appear he is worried about 2020 anymore. In Orange County’s posh Newport Beach community, the high-flying real estate developer has paid $18.6 million for the house right next door to his two-property compound.
Located on Balboa Peninsula, directly overlooking the billionaire playground of Newport Harbor, this property boasts one of the largest and deepest lots on the Harbor — spanning more than a third of an acre. In addition to its gated entryway and tall palm trees, the grand estate also includes a motorcourt, a rarity in tightly packed Newport Beach, and a four-car attached garage.
A long colonnade leads to the front door of the house, flanked by a grassy lawn and a swimming pool, respectively. Despite being built in 1972, the 8,500-square-foot mansion appears to have undergone extensive renovations within the last 15 years, thanks to its non-famous previous owner — the interior is awash in Old World-style luxury, with limestone floors, ornate fireplaces, and faux-exposed rustic beams.
This eat-in kitchen has an eye-catching marble backsplash and a glass-fronted SubZero refrigerator, making it more modern. There are also a sumptuous billiards room, a subterranean movie theater, a wine cellar with hundreds of bottles, a detached guest/staff apartment, and 7 bedrooms and 8.5 baths in the main house.
However, the estate’s true value only emerges once you step outside one of the many balconies or open the matching French doors. The grassy backyard includes heated loggias and a BBQ — ideal for al fresco entertaining — and big views of Newport Harbor. Sadly, the 75-foot boat dock at the house isn’t big enough for Caruso’s floating mansion — his 216-foot superyacht Invictus — but it will do for the mother-in-law boat.
At the time of Caruso’s acquisition, he owned a 6,000-square-foot, ’70s-era mansion on the next-door property. The home was subsequently razed and today the place is little more than a vacant lot. His other real estate holdings include an oceanfront mansion on Malibu’s La Costa Beach as well as his main residence, a multi-acre compound in L.A.’s Brentwood Park neighborhood that has become famous for its extravagant holiday displays. Caruso also owns a third adjacent property, this one with an East Coast-style traditional house.
