Mohamed Hadid’s controversial and soon-to-be-demolished Bel Air spec mansion has found a buyer after four months on the market.
Developer Bruce Lifton is under contract to buy the home for $8.5 million, court records show. The saucer-shaped home — partially built and pegged at 30,000 square feet — was put into receivership. The New York Post first reported the sale, but did not identify the buyer.
Lifton has developed homes in the Hamptons and flipped homes in Palm Beach, Florida. Messages left with his Southampton-based contracting firm Lifton Green were not returned.
The long and contentious battle that pitted Hadid against his neighbors and the city over the property at 901 Strada Vecchia Road appears to be approaching its end. Lifton signed a conditional contract in February, but bids were still being accepted until Wednesday morning.
In 2019, an L.A. court ordered Hadid to demolish the mansion and put it up for sale, siding with neighbors who alleged the construction — derisively dubbed by some “Starship Enterprise” — violated city codes and was an “imminent” danger to the public. Neighbors worried the whole building could slide down the side of the hill it was being built on.
The court-appointed receiver tried to pitch the property to a neighbor, who declined to pay more than $5 million — about what it will cost to demolish the structure.
The sale is expected to close shortly after July 1, provided the court approves. If the deal falls through, the property could be auctioned off, the receiver told the court.
Hadid — father of supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid — has been embroiled in a legal battle over the development for years. He is estimated to have poured $50 million into its construction and had intended to sell the completed mansion for over $100 million. Hadid could not be reached for comment and messages left with three of his listed attorneys were not returned.
Gary Lincenberg, an attorney for neighbors who filed suit against Hadid, said his clients “look forward to the day when the dangerous, illegal construction is demolished.”
Hadid won’t see any of the proceeds from the sale. Some of it will go toward the demolition cost, and the remainder will settle administrative fees and pay off property liens, according to records.
“Demolish this house? Never!” Hadid said during an interview with Town & Country in 2017. “That would be insane. This house will last forever. Bel Air will fall before this will.”
The post Mohamed Hadid’s Bel Air boondoggle finds buyer appeared first on The Real Deal Los Angeles.
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