Former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Buys in Beverly Hills

Former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa must be sick of Los Angeles because he’s concurrently sold his city-view contemporary home above L.A.’s historic Beachwood Canyon for not quite $2.7 million and shelled out slightly more than $3.3 million for a 1930s cottage tucked up a quiet, winding cul-de-sac in the ritzier Coldwater Canyon area of Beverly Hills, a city surrounded by yet independent of the City of Los Angeles, with its own mayor, sanitation services and police and fire departments.

Corinthian columns and a carved stone entablature around the front door gussy up the otherwise politely unassuming white-stucco residence that that’s configured with three bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms in close to 3,300 square feet. Inside, lustrous medium-brown wood floors run throughout the multilevel main-floor living and entertaining spaces that flow easily into one another and include adjacent sunken formal living and family rooms, both with lightly veined white marble fireplaces. The formal dining room has French doors to the backyard, while the remodeled kitchen is a cornucopia of design trends: hexagonal marble floor tiles, navy blue Shaker style cabinets set off by brass hardware, a mix of black and white solid-surface countertops, and an a gleaming array of high-end stainless steel appliances.

A staircase accented with heart-shaped curlicues in the wrought iron railing leads to the second floor where one guest bedroom has a bank of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a compact guest bath is emblazoned with the same iconic Don Loper-designed banana leaf wallpaper that’s famously found throughout The Beverly Hills Hotel. The spacious primary bedroom, also on the upper level, offers a polished black marble fireplace, French doors to a private terrace, two walk-in closets that marketing materials called “beguiling,” and a bathroom that somewhat unusually but interestingly makes lavish use of both jet-black and rust colored marble.

Wedged into a steep slope and enveloped in mature plantings, the terraced backyard is nicely decked out with an integrated sound system, brick and stone patios, an outdoor kitchen and, something his previous house does not have, a swimming pool and spa.

The sellers, investor and boutique hotelier David Dittmer, co-founder of PRG Hospitality Group, and Randi Wood, owner of the high-end West Hollywood fashion boutique Entre Nous, were represented by Aaron Kirman of Aaron Kirman Group at Compass, while Villaraigosa was handled by Matt Adamo, also of Aaron Kirman Group at Compass.

Purchased in 2015 for $2.5 million and sold for $2.685 million, the ex-mayor’s former home above Beachwood Canyon is a slightly larger and far more modern three-story affair with four bedrooms and four bathrooms in almost 3,700 square feet.

Prior to serving as the occasionally controversial 41^st mayor of L.A. from 2005-2013, the well-connected Democrat, married in 2016 to Patricia Govea, spent a couple years on the L.A. City Council and six years in the California State Assembly as the representative of the state’s 45^th District, which covers most the suburban western part of the San Fernando Valley. In 2018 he made an unsuccessful run to be governor of the Golden State.