Disgraced Music Mogul Russell Simmons Quickly Sells Sunset Strip Spanish
By Mark David
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Though he’s awash in at least a dozen allegations of sexual assault , including rape , which he’s staunchly denied, disgraced music mogul Russell Simmons nonetheless got hit with the real estate lucky stick and lickety-split sold his home just above Los Angeles’s Sunset Strip after just one month on the market for $8.125 million. The once omni-powerful hip-hop impresario, serial entrepreneur and social activist, co-founder of Def Jam Recordings as well as several streetwear fashion brands including Phat Farm, turned a hefty profit on the property he scooped up just over five years ago for $5,877,500 . Built in the 1930s on a one-third of an acre street-to-street parcel, secured behind gates and hidden behind a double row of towering hedges, the updated 6,085-square-foot Spanish-style residence, with myriad Balinese-inspired decorative accents, contains five bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms plus a detached guest suite.
Formal living and dining rooms, the former with a fireplace and the latter with a gigantic arched window, flank a slender entrance gallery that leads to a double-height rotunda with soignée, wrought iron railed curved staircase. The kitchen opens to a family room anchored by a fireplace and lined along opposite walls with French doors while a secret entry leads to a 1,500-bottle wine cellar and cigar room with humidor. A main floor bedroom is easily repurposed to a home office, staff suite or fitness room and there are three more en suite guest and family bedrooms on the upper level along with the master suite that includes a fireplace, terrace, walk-in closet and updated bathroom.
The somewhat compact backyard is cleverly arranged to accommodate: a built-in grilling station and dining terrace; a trellis-covered lounge with a massive, tile accented stone fireplace; an outdoor movie theater with a drop down screen opposite a viewing patio on the other side of the swimming pool; and a detached poolside pavilion that comprises a loggia that features a massive fish tank and en suite guest bedroom with exterior entrance.
Simmons stepped down from all of his positions with his various businesses late last year and, according to his own press release, planned to take some time to “rededicate” himself to “spiritual learning.” Part of that process, apparently, involves a substantial thinning of his costly to keep up residential real estate portfolio; Earlier this year he hung a $9.925 million price tag on an almost 7,200-square-foot duplex penthouse in downtown New York City’s Financial District that he’s owned for more than a decade and comprises four en suite bedrooms plus a staff bedroom and bathroom, three planted terraces, two kitchens and an itty-bitty screening room off a humongous living room that all by itself spans almost 1,100-square-feet.
Listing photos: The Agency
