Wednesday, 22 January 2014

UPDATE: Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy

Apparently, like the high profile owner before them, five-time Oscar-nominated producer Frank Marshall and his eight-time Oscar-nominated wife Kathleen Kennedy caught a good ol' case The Real Estate Fickle and decided not to build a custom estate on a vacant parcel of residential property in the rustic-luxe Mandeville Canyon area of Los Angeles that they picked up in November 2012 for $7.5 million. Thanks to the kindly and eagle eyed informant Mister Twister, we see they've now flipped the 2.53 acre parcel back on the open market with a significantly higher asking price of $9,750,000. Listing details are currently, at best, anemic and we don't have any inside intel regarding whether they did or did not have any plans drawn up but it appears on the surface that Mister Marshall and Miz Kennedy made few if any improvements to the property.

Avid celebrity property watchers will recall that the award winning movie makers purchased the property from fellow Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon who'd bought the property just over two years earlier for $6.9 million from Steven Seagal who does not have an Oscar but does have a Razzie (plus 8 more Razzie nominations).

At the time of Miz Witherspoon's purchase the property included a large main house and several outbuildings and equestrian facilities. She razed everything. Alas the she and husband Jim Toth opted not to move forward with construction of their own personal Xanadu and instead sold the lot and, instead, dropped $3 million on the house next door to her long time L.A. residence, a multi-parcel property in a discreetly wealthy gated enclave in nearby Brentwood.

Mister Marshall and Miz Kennedy quietly sold their previous residence, a very contemporary, hill-topping Gwathmey Seigal-designed mansion in Pacific Palisades' high-fallutin' Riviera 'hood, in a hush-hush off-market deal to Hollywood royals Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson in early 2010 for just over $26 million.

aerial listing photos: Coldwell Banker