Estate of Late Space Invaders Heiress Lists Three Brentwood Ranches
By James McClain
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Three separate ranch properties, all of them located on the same cul-de-sac in the bucolic, equestrian-friendly, and extraordinarily expensive Westside L.A. enclave of Sullivan Canyon, have popped up for sale with a total ask of nearly $19 million. All three were long owned by now-deceased video game heiress Rita Kogan, the only daughter of Mikhail “Michael” Kogan, the Russian Jewish entrepreneur who founded Japan’s Taito Corporation.
Taito began in the 1950s as a vodka distiller and vending machine operator, but eventually became best-known for manufacturing the revolutionary “Space Invaders” video game in the ’70s and ’80s. Within four years of its release, Space Invaders had grossed a nearly unfathomable $3.8 billion — adjusted for inflation, the shoot-’em-up franchise reportedly remains the highest-grossing video game of all time.
Kogan, who was married to Academy Award-winning “Star Wars” special effects cinematographer Richard Edlund until her recent death, acquired the Sullivan Canyon properties in three separate transactions between 2006 and 2009, for a total outlay just south of $15.2 million.
All three ranches are currently listed with real estate agent Dan Beder of Sotheby’s International Realty. The priciest of the three, currently asking $8.75 million, was the main residence of Kogan and Edlund from 2006 until her death. The property features a sprawling ranch of nearly 5,500 square feet that “needs work,” per the listing. There’s a central courtyard, off-street parking for at least a half-dozen vehicles, several horse stables, and a pool tucked into a far corner of the .65-acre lot. The heavily secured estate is invisible from the street out front, secreted behind a camera-watched gate and a towering hedge.
The two more modest properties — one situated immediately next door to and the other directly across the street from the main estate — are listed at $3.5 million and $6.75 million, respectively. Kogan bought both homes as “buffer properties” — for the purpose of gifting her main residence more privacy — as such, both have been vacant for the past decade and their pricetags reflect land value only. All told, the three-parcel compound totals approximately 2.3 acres of prime Westside land.
Sullivan Canyon, set on the border between Brentwood and Pacific Palisades, has long been a celebrity draw and current residents include — but are hardly limited to — Diane Keaton, Christian Bale, and Ryan Murphy.
As for Kogan, her estate still owns other pricey L.A. properties. In addition to the three Sullivan Canyon ranches up for sale, her trust additionally owns a fourth ranch in the neighborhood — this one located on a heavily-wooded 1.58-acre lot just around the corner from the other three. (For whatever reason, the fourth property is not currently available on the open market.) Her trust also continues to own four contiguous mixed-use properties in nearby Santa Monica.
And way back in 1995, Kogan paid exactly $5 million for an enormous modern compound located on a prime Bel Air mountaintop. For whatever reason, she apparently never moved into the multi-acre spread, instead opting to leave it vacant for nearly two decades. In late 2012, she quietly sold the neglected estate to megamansion developer Nile Niami, who quickly razed the existing structures and replaced them with ” The One ,” the $500 million, 100,000 sq. ft. contemporary complex still under construction.
