A-Rod Lists Celeb-Pedigreed Sunset Strip Contemporary
By Mark David
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Former Major League slugger Alex Rodriguez is looking to slide out of his Los Angeles residence, listing the architecturally significant and celeb-pedigreed Sunset Strip contemporary for $6.5 million. The 2009 World Series champion, now a sports broadcaster as well as what might be described as a money mentor on the CNBC reality series “ Back in the Game ,” hopes to realize a substantial profit on the clean-lined and crisply maintained property he picked up just over four years ago for $4.8 million from Oscar collecting actress Meryl Streep.
Originally designed by Honnold & Rex and built in 1954 as part of Architectural Products magazine’s “Research Houses” program, the concrete, wood and glass residence was later re-worked L.A.-based designer/builder Xorin Balbes. A quick comparison with marketing materials from the time of Rodriguez’s purchase indicates the approximately 3,700-square-foot, four-bedroom and four-bathroom house, purchased by A-Rod with every stick of furniture in place, is all but unchanged over the last four years but for a few insignificant knickknacks and paddywhacks.
Integrated, open-plan living spaces with imported Italian marble floor tiles and towering walls of glass include a double-height lounge with a massive masonry fireplace and an adjoining dining room that will easily seat ten or twelve under a lower, more intimate ceiling. With two ovens and two refrigerators plus a full height built-in wine fridge, the sleek kitchen is arranged around an island with an integrated dining table and open to a second TV lounge with built-in media cabinet. A secondary den, also with a built-in media cabinet, has floor-to-ceiling glass sliders to a walled courtyard with a small, zero-edge swimming pool and spa along with extensive terracing, a lounge area with fire pit and at least three televisions hung along the courtyard’s perimeter wall. Additional amenities of note include a two-car garage with a custom ventilation system and a comprehensive, state-of-the-art security system.
Rodriguez, who custom built a sprawling contemporary mansion in Coral Gables, Fla., featured in the June 2016 issue of Architectural Digest , presumably no longer needs a home of his own in Los Angeles since he’s reportedly cohabitating with superstar entertainer Jennifer Lopez who owns a much larger and more secluded, eightish-acre compound in Bel Air she snapped up in 2016 from actress Sela Ward for $28 million .
J. Lo also maintains a big spread in the Hamptons as well as a 6,500-square-foot duplex penthouse in New York City’s Madison Square Park area that’s been on the market for just over a year at $26.95 million and earlier this year the high-octane couple together shelled out more than $15.3 million for a three-bedroom and 4.5-bathroom condo on the 36th floor of a spectacularly slender, 96-story high-rise on Midtown Manhattan’s perennially posh Park Avenue.
Listing photos: Westside Estate Agency
