Land next to socialite Goetz estate in Holmby Hills re-lists for $35M
Gary Wilson divided the property in 2017 after estate lingered on the market
A parcel of land next to one of the last remaining grand estates from Hollywood’s studio era is back on the market in Holmby Hills, a year after getting split up.
Gary Wilson, the former chairman of Northwest Airlines and CFO of Disney, has re-listed the land adjacent to the former estate of Edith Mayer Goetz for $35 million, The Real Deal has learned.
The 2.2-acre plot of land, at 320 Delfern Drive, was once owned by singer Glen Campbell and is next door to the estate where Goetz, the socialite daughter of legendary movie mogul Louis Mayer, entertained the elite of Hollywood for over three decades. There, she showed off her famed art collection, which included rare Impressionist works, according to Jeff Hyland, co-founder of Hilton & Hyland.
Stephen Shapiro and Richard Ehrlich of Westside Estate Agency have the listing, which is hitting the market on Tuesday.
Wilson listed his 4.39-acre estate in September 2016 for $79 million. After it lingered on the market, Hyland and Drew Fenton of Hilton & Hyland, along with Aaron Kirman of Pacific Union International, split the property into two pieces early last year — 300 Delfern and 320 Delfern.
Wilson sold the 9,843-square-foot main house, which sits on 2.16 acres and has eight bedrooms and nine bathrooms, to billionaire investor Nicolas Berggruen last year for $40.8 million. The same brokers had less success selling the adjacent land for $37 million. After the listing expired earlier this year, Wilson turned to the Westside Estate Agency.
Wilson acquired the main property at 300 Delfern from the Goetz estate in 1990, and purchased the adjacent property at 320 Delfern in 1996 for about $5 million, combining the two, according to Hyland and property records.
The adjacent lot has a two-story guest house, a lighted tennis court, a pool and a conservatory. Since acquiring the land, Wilson upgraded the landscaping, creating a small forest on the property that includes a sprawling fig tree and koi ponds.
British architect Gordon Kaufmann designed Goetz’s original Georgian Revival estate, which was completed in 1938 and later enhanced by interior designer William Haines. Goetz, the diminutive daughter of Mayer, the founder of MGM studio, lived there with future studio exec William Goetz, and became a fashion icon and Hollywood socialite. Her screening room on the estate was considered to be the first great Hollywood screening room of it era, according to the Los Angeles Times. And her lavish dinner parties were need-to-be-seen affairs for Hollywood A-listers of the era, including Judy Garland, Cary Grant and Lana Turner.
Wilson’s former estate is located in one of the most exclusive sections of Holmby Hills, with a number of celebrity neighbors. Fashion designer and film director Tom Ford lives with his husband in the nearby former estate of Betsy Bloomingdale. Nearby, billionaire investor Tom Gores has been remodeling a spec home he bought for $100 million on the site of Barbra Streisand’s former estate.
While 320 Delfern Drive is not completely bare, it would still rank among the pricier land sales in Los Angeles. The highest unimproved land sales in the county remain a $50 million lot in Malibu, along with $36 million and $35 million sales in Bel Air.
