‘Chopped’ Creator Linda Lea Renovates and Flips Sunset Strip Property
By Mark David
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – In addition to being a food-centric reality TV creator and producer, Linda Lea is also an accomplished real estate investor and budding flipper of high-end homes. Over the summer of 2017 the “Chopped” creator/producer, who now produces the quirky Quibi cooking competition “ Dishmantled ,” shelled out exactly $2 million for late actor Doris Robert’s longtime home in L.A.’s Hollywood Hills that she quickly gussied up in high style and, after initially listing it at close to $4.4 million and then slicing the price by $400,000, sold in late 2018 for $3.8 million . The following year Lea set her real estate sights on a spectacularly sited but down-on-her-heels mid-century pavilion at the end of a winding cul-de-sac above the Sunset Strip that she scooped up for not quite $4.1 million and, after an extensive and no doubt expensive transformation, flipped back on the market this week with John Galich at Sotheby’s Int’l Realty with a price tag a smidgen shy of $9 million.
Set behind an imposing gate hung between slender spikes of steel, and nestled privately against a steep hillside on more than an acre of land with glittery, canyon framed city views, the low-slung residence strikes an easy-breezy balance of quintessential mid-century modern style with up-to-date creature comforts. There are polished concrete floors and bright white walls throughout the roughly 3,700-square-foot home that effortlessly connects to the outdoors through numerous banks of floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors.
The spacious combination living and dining room features a simple fireplace set into a whitewashed cinder-block wall with a daringly cantilevered hearth, and two skylights fill the sleekly renovated kitchen with natural light. Marble countertops compliment light oak cabinetry and a full wall of windows retracts in to the walls to fully and intimately expose the room to a lushly planted graveled patio that surrounds a classic kidney-shaped swimming pool and spa.
Each of the three guest bedrooms benefits from a private and updated bathroom, while the master suite provides a comfortable haven with a fireplace and an ample lounge area with open city view. A custom-fitted walk-in closet is lined with lighted shelving and the spa-style bathroom offers a cantilevered double-sink marble vanity, a freestanding egg-shaped soaking tub and an open shower area demarcated only by a revealing floor-to-ceiling sheet of glass.
The televised cooking competition veteran has parlayed her professional success into a portfolio of properties from coast to coast that includes two luxury condos in the same mid-century waterfront complex on Miami Beach’s Belle Isle, one bought in 2012 for just over $450,000 and the other snapped up in 2017 for a bit more than $1.5 million. In New York City’s trendy Soho neighborhood she owns a two-bedroom loft-style condo that she picked up in 2007 for $1.16 million and has several times made available as a rental, most recently in 2018 at $17,000 per month. And, finally, out in a woodsy area of the swanky seaside community of East Hampton, N.Y., she owns a gorgeously remodeled four-bedroom contemporary that she acquired in 2003 for almost $700,000 and currently has available to rent at $15,000 per month.
