German Financier Drops $47 Million on Palatial Beverly Hills Spec Mansion

Think the market for outrageously contemporary Los Angeles spec mansions is dead? Think again! A massive beast of a house in the mountains above Beverly Hills has just sold for $47.5 million, $1 million more than the initial asking price. Records reveal the buyer is an entity linked to Lars Windhorst, a German financier widely known for his love of luxury.

Completed in 2020, just as Covid-19 quarantines were beginning, the house first hit the market that fall. According to the MLS, the property entered contract in June 2021, but for unknown reasons was tied up in escrow for nearly two years. The house finally transferred March 31st, just one day before L.A.’s controversial new mansion tax went into effect — barely saving the seller from owing an additional $2.6 million in taxes.

Designed by noted designer and developer Troy Adams, the property took seven years to complete and was underwritten by homeowner Henry Winterstern, a financier and film producer. According to Adams, the home’s design and massive scale was meant to evoke a “high-end, luxury boutique hotel.” We’d say they succeeded in that regard, as the bespoke place has enough creature comforts to put practically any five-star resort to shame.

Particularly hedonistic amenities include a cigar lounge, a double-height living room, wet bar with rotating shelves, wine cellar, games room, gym, all-glass elevator and a car museum. Massive walls of glass disappear at the touch of a button, setting the tone for indoor-outdoor living in a quintessentially Southern California manner. And let’s not forget the rooftop deck, which offers enough al fresco dining space for a grand gala, plus a hot tub, wet bar and a big TV.

The listing does not specify the home’s indoor square footage, but the place is clearly huge, with six bedrooms, nine bathrooms and enough sitting areas to accommodate a small army. Upstairs, the master suite offers walls of glass and a huge private terrace, so the suite is as much outdoor as it is indoor. Outside, a zero-edge infinity pool and patios have views from the downtown L.A. skyline to the Pacific Ocean.

And the entire property — the lights, cameras, sound system and HVAC units — can be controlled via iPhone, so the homeowner can monitor the premises from within the house or from across the globe. Although much of the 1-acre lot is steeply sloped hillside, the estate does offer terraced gardens laced with meandering concrete pathways and a long driveway with a spacious motorcourt, further enhancing the private resort vibe.

Windhorst, 46, is the owner of major investment company Tennor Holding, and he’s got a widely reported thing for fast living. He survived a 2007 plane crash in Kazakhstan that left him with major injuries and killed one of the pilots, though the Financial Times recently reported Windhorst still spends much of his time commuting via private jet. The London-based financier also owns a $115 million superyacht — appropriately named Global — and in 2018, he snapped up luxury lingerie brand La Perla, which he continues to own.

The wunderkind was just 17 when he founded German trading company Windhorst Electronics, and Windhorst has overcome numerous legal clashes over the years, plus record fines, several public falls from grace and allegations that he hired Israeli spies to monitor a business partner. So we’d say this extra-brash mansion, in all its unabashed opulence, will make the perfect L.A. pied-a-terre for a flamboyant dealmaker like him.