For those with the dough to get into the game, high-end real estate can be a great return on a multimillion-dollar investment, particularly over the last handful of years or so when high-dollar homes have been bought and sold across the country with an almost alarming alacrity and eye-popping profits. Emma Roberts pocketed $1.9 million when she sold her house in L.A.’s Los Feliz area last year in an off-market deal valued at $5.9 million; Nick Swisher and Joanna Garcia realized a $4.3 million gain on the sale of a Beverly Hills home they owned just 18 months; And soon-to-be former chat show host Ellen DeGeneres flips prodigiously expensive homes more often than some people wash their sheets.
Not so lucky are married music industry royals and art world go-getters Alicia Keys and Kasseeem Dean, the latter better known as Swizz Beatz. They majorly missed that money-minting boat with the recent sale of their luxury desert getaway in Phoenix, Ariz., that’s been sold, per Mansion Global, for $3.1 million, a pocketbook punishing $700,000 less than the $3.9 million tax records show was paid for the property just over 13 years ago.
Behind custom driveway gates on more than three-quarters of an acre nestled up against the sculptural red rocks of Camelback Mountain, with panoramic views of Echo Canyon, Squaw Peak and Mummy Mountain, the strikingly curvilinear, ochre-colored and stone accented three-story contemporary villa measures in at a roomy but short of conspicuously gargantuan 7,050 square feet with four bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms. Thankfully, an elevator makes hauling groceries, luggage and other heavy items up from the six-car garage on the bottom floor as effortless as the push of a button.
A classically trained pianist who has hauled in 15 Grammys — five of them for her iconic 2002 debut album “Songs in A Minor,” Keys released her eponymous seventh studio album (“Alicia”) last year, and, though she hasn’t toured in almost a decade, the smooth-voiced R&B songwriter and chanteuse is scheduled to crisscross the globe next year. As for Beatz, he’s produced a slow of hit songs for myriad recording artists, including Kanye West, Beyoncé and Busta Rhymes. He’s also dabbled in fashion design and is an avid art collector who showcases his growing collection on the Instagram account @thedeancollection. The couple has also amassed the largest private collection of images by groundbreaking multidisciplinary artist Gordon Parks.
The hillside property was listed with Scott Grigg of the Grigg’s Group at Realty Executives, and the buyer was represented by Joan Faith at Faith Real Estate and Investments.