With a net worth estimated at around $200 million, he may be great at making money hand over fist as a musician and entrepreneur but, having lost millions on the sale of a couple of previous homes, mononymous “Blurred Lines” singer Pharrell does not seem to have the Midas touch when it comes to his real estate portfolio.
Back in 2015, he shelled out $7.14 million for a sky-high ultra-contemporary home above L.A.’s Laurel Canyon that he’s just put back on the market at a smidgen under $10 million after he first gave it the ol’ college try about 1.5 year ago with a way-too-high price of $11.95 million. The price was chopped to $9.995 million before it was taken off the market this summer and re-listed at the exact same $9.995 million price but with a new set of high-powered real estate agents, Rayni Williams and Brick Williams of The Beverly Hills Estates.
Designed by innovative architect Hagy Belzberg, and running along a high ridge with 360-degree mountain, canyon and city views, the long, low-slung, and interestingly angled residence offers what promo materials call “eco-conscious living” thanks to an array of solar panels mounted on the roof. Chock-a-block with eye-catching flourishes, the gated estate offers about 6,100 square feet of airy, light-filled living spaces with a total of five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms between the main house and the detached one-bed/one-bath guesthouse that offers a full kitchen and cavernous double-height lounge with a soaring wall of glass.
Throughout the house and across the 1.55-acre property, unique features clamor for attention, from a bulbous stainless-steel fireplace that hangs from the high ceiling in the center of the glass-walled living room to the lush “green wall” that flourishes in the dining room adjacent to the sleekly appointed kitchen. Guest bedrooms are conventional, though the primary suite is considerably amped up with a 10-foot video wall, a bathroom sheathed in mossy-green onyx, and a designer-done dressing room lined in book-matched wooden wardrobes.
Indoor spaces spill easily out to a variety of decks and terraces, one with an outdoor kitchen, another with a 70-foot-long infinity edge pool with endless mountaintop views, and a third perfect for viewing outdoor films projected on the wall of the guesthouse on the opposite side of the sunken motor court. Listings also state there’s a skate park, no doubt a favorite feature of the four kids Pharrell shares with his former model wife Helen Lasichanh.
The 13-time Grammy winner, who’s also been nominated for two Oscars, including as a co-producer for the 2016 biodrama “Hidden Figures,” has owned a waterfront mansion in his hometown of Virginia Beach, Va., since 2001, when it was acquired for $1.85 million, and last year, just as the Covid-19 lockdowns were sweeping the country, he splashed out a whopping $30 million for a 17,000-square-foot waterfront mansion in Coral Gables, Florida. However, should he sell any of the properties currently bulking up his property portfolio, including the ultra-modern place atop Laurel Canyon, history is not on Mr. Williams side when it comes to turning a profit. In 2015 he lost more than $3 million when he sold a Miami penthouse for $9.35 million, and just last year he took a $1.6-million gut punch to his pocketbook when he shed a contemporary hilltop mansion in Beverly Hills, near the top of Coldwater Canyon, that he’d purchased about 2.5 years earlier from Tyler Perry for $15.6 million.
Only time will tell if Pharrell will break his streak of million-dollar real estate losses with the sale of his Olympus-like mountaintop aerie. He certainly has a brisk market, a fairly deep pool of potential buyers swimming in cash, and a team of top agents working on his behalf. Still, maybe don’t anyone hold their breath.