Smizing 1990s supermodel turned talk show host and reality TV mogul Tyra Banks seeks to substantially downsize her substantial real estate load, listing two of the three multi-million dollar homes she owns in the exorbitantly expensive yet still unpretentious Los Angeles, Calif., seaside community of Pacific Palisades. The larger of the two homes is priced at $9.25 million while the smaller carries a $4.25 million price tag.
The smaller residence, a sleek, two-story contemporary Banks acquired in the fall of 2014 for $3.25 million, has four bedrooms and five bathrooms in about 3,700-square-feet. Adjoining, open-plan living and dining spaces share a three-sided, wood-clad fireplace and open through walls of glass sliders to a petite, grassy backyard with a free-standing, glass-walled pavilion perfectly suited as a home office, fitness room or art studio. Open to the dining area, the center island kitchen is sleekly appointed with lustrous white cabinetry and a glass-railed floating staircase climbs to the second floor where a couple of guest bedrooms are joined by a master suite complete with fitted walk-in closet and two bathrooms, “his” with a steam shower and “hers” with a two-person soaking tub under a picture window.
Banks, host of “America’s Got Talent” and founder of the eponymous, ecomerce cosmetics brand Tyra Beauty, purchased the larger residence not even two years ago, in August 2016, in an off-market deal from former Xerox executive Bernard Kinsey for $7.35 million. Designed by architect Douglas Breidenbach, the charcoal-colored, three-story post-modern residence sits behind gates and high on a .4-acre bluff-top parcel with panoramic ocean, coastline and mountain views. There are five bedrooms, including a ground floor staff suite and a master bedroom that occupies the entire top floor, and a total of five full and two half bathrooms in 6,135-square-feet.
An exterior stairway leads from the gated driveway and two-car garage to voluminous, open-plan spaces with honey blonde hardwood floors and expansive, art-friendly white walls offset by generous banks of wood-trimmed windows and doors that fill the house with natural light and cool sea breezes. A double-height entry with open-tread floating staircase flows into adjoining living and dining rooms that share a double-sided fireplace sheathed in beige stone while the spacious kitchen is arranged around a doublewide center island and the neighboring family room is anchored by a monumental fireplace sheathed in a watery grey stone. The family room opens to a stone-paved dining courtyard with outdoor fireplace and outdoor kitchen, a flag-stone terrace the house runs along the back of the house at the bluff’s edge with open, cross-canyon views and a rooftop terrace offers a wet bar and wrap around mountain and ocean views.
Banks, a property gossip staple who sold her long-time Beverly Hills home in 2016 for $6.33 million, briefly owned a two-bedroom and 2.5-bathroom townhouse-style condo in Pacific Palisades she surreptitiously picked up in the spring of 2017 for $1.355 million and sold earlier this month for $1.475 million. And, for now at least, she still owns a five-bedroom and 5.5-bathroom triple-story contemporary just outside PacPal’s downtown shopping and dining district she snatched up earlier this year for $6.995 million and she additionally keeps a suburban mansion sized duplex apartment in New York City’s Battery Park City that she’s tried several times over the last few years to rent and to sell. Last year the 7,000-square-foot city- and river-view spread was unsuccessfully marketed at $17.5 million.
Listing photos: Sotheby’s International Realty
