Seven is a magical number for one of Bel-Air’s priciest spec homes.
The glass and marble palace located at 777 Sarbonne Road in Los Angeles hit the market last month with an asking price of $87,777,777.
The triple sevens in its address and price tag are just the beginning. Many of the home’s architectural details were designed in measurements that are multiples of seven.
There’s a giant front door made of glass that stands 14 feet tall and the ceilings in the massive living room are 21 feet high. At the end of the driveway, three oversized sevens measure 7-feet, 7-inches tall.
The seven-bedroom, 11-bath residence is owned by cosmetic surgeon Dr. Alex Khadavi.
“Seven is a number and theme that has affected me in every important aspect of my life,” Khadavi said in an interview, “from the age I came to America, to the floor level of my condominium.”
Khadavi, who came to the United States in 1979 from Tehran, is 48.
And notably, the home has been seven years in the making, and its dramatic before-and-after photos reveal a startling transformation.
CNBC first reported on the property in 2014, when the site was home to an outdated stucco mansion purchased by Khadavi for $16 million. The doctor’s real estate broker, Aaron Kirman, told CNBC that a couple of months after Khadavi bought it, he received a $24 million offer from a developer who was looking to buy the unimproved property to tear down the old home and build a new one in its place.
Instead of accepting the offer, which was an $8 million profit from his purchase price, Khadavi decided to develop it himself. He hired Ali Rad Design and began a seven-year journey to give the old mansion a facelift.
“Facelift is an understatement, but yeah, seven years and so many millions, I don’t even want to know how many,” said Kirman, who now co-lists 777 Sarbonne with Mauricio Umansky of The Agency RE.
The mansion makeover was nearly a total teardown, its owner said. Only one wall from the old house is still standing. It’s in the modern home’s new living room.
Gone is the red paint and black wrought iron walkway. Now, it’s sleek white walls, polished Carrera marble floors and a 21-foot-tall wall of glass that opens to jaw-dropping views of Los Angeles.
Khadavi also built a secret into the living room that’s designed to dazzle guests. With the touch of a button, a portion of the floor that is hidden beneath a rug can be set into motion. It instantly begins rising toward the ceiling. Mirrored steel supports, powered by an industrial-strength hydraulic lift, push the marble 7 feet into the air. Within a few seconds, a sleek DJ booth and dance platform — previously hidden in a subterranean level of the home — take center stage.
Hidden underground below the rising party platform is a vault, a red wine storage area, and the electronic brains of the house that control everything from sound systems to projectable nonfungible tokens. Khadavi said he plans to project the digital art over the pool and feature NFTs on monitors throughout the house.
Further above the hydraulic DJ booth, and seemingly floating over the living room, is a dramatic glass bridge that leads to the owner’s suite.
The owner’s sleeping quarters feature a white marble-clad fireplace and a wall of glass doors that slide open to a marble and glass terrace overlooking LA.
The owner’s bath is also covered in white marble. The bookmatched Italian stone meets at its center where an oval-shaped bath and gold-colored designer chandelier are the focal point.
Along the bath’s glass wall is a double shower that runs the width of the room. And if you’d rather not shower in front of all of Los Angeles, the touch of a button can instantly fog the glass for privacy.
The bedroom includes a massage room and two identical walk-in closets, each with a skylight and another golden chandelier dangling at its center.
Two garages on the property look more like luxury car showrooms. One is covered in white marble and the other in black. Above the noir parking area is a separate two-bedroom guest house.
One side of the main residence’s exterior walls have been lined with faux plants to create an always green courtyard that frames a modern koi pond.
An infinity-edged pool in the back of the house offers a front-row seat to panoramic skyline views.
The vista is protected by a view easement that cost the prior owner $500,000, Kirman said. The easement prevents the neighbor below from building a home or even growing a tree that will obstruct the view at 777 Sarbonne.
“It’s a huge important aspect of the sale of this house,” Kirman said. “I think they got away light paying $500,000 because this house is all about the view and the view speaks for itself.”
Khadavi accented those views with fire features and plenty of spots to sit back and take it all in.