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Sisters Tamara Ecclestone and Petra Stunt
are ultra-wealthy, young real estate moguls.
Photo: Getty Images |
Some kids cost a fortune.
In a real estate shopping spree of epic proportions, the daughters of
Formula 1 Racing boss Bernie Ecclestone have snapped up hundreds of
millions of dollars worth of high-profile properties in the past 18
months. Tamara, 27, bought a 16,000-square-foot historic brick home
across the road from Kensington Palace, where Prince William and
Duchess Catherine
will soon take up residence, for about $70 million early last year. Her
23-year-old sister Petra paid $85 million for a 57,000-square-foot Los
Angeles mansion a few months later. Known as "the Manor," the
14-bedroom, 27-bathroom home was built by Candy Spelling and her late TV
producer husband Aaron Spelling.
The sisters are among a small number of ultra-wealthy, young people
who are making waves at the very top of the real estate market. A trust
linked to Ekaterina Rybolovlev, the 22-year-old daughter of Russian
fertilizer billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, bought a four-bedroom
penthouse in
New York
for $88 million earlier this year. Another young Russian, Anna
Anissimova, the 27-year-old actress daughter of Vasily Anissimov, who
made his billions in iron ore and aluminum, recently put her New York
apartment on the market for $50 million. (She paid $9.9 million for the
apartment in 2004, when she was 19.) Megan Ellison, the 26-year-old
daughter of software mogul and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, bought three
homes in the Hollywood Hills over the last few years, one of which she
put on the market recently for $15.5 million.
Still, it was Petra's purchase of the Spelling mansion that "changed
the perception of who a buyer could be," said Rick Hilton, who
represented both Ms. Stunt and Ms. Spelling in the sale, noting that he
now looks at younger buyers much more seriously. He added that Petra's
desire to buy such a statement home surprised him, considering her age.
"At first, I showed her several properties but they weren't grand
enough," he remembered, including a 36,000-square-foot French-style
mansion on Sunset Boulevard now listed for
$49.5 million.
"When those earlier homes didn't excite her, I saw very quickly
that…she wanted the finest estate available, and that's what she got."
The Ecclestone sisters exemplify the way many of the ultra-wealthy,
and ultra-young, buy real estate. They often make up their minds
quickly. They like to customize their homes to their highly specific
tastes, on a quick turnaround with few expenses spared. Petra Stunt, who
married entrepreneur James Stunt last August, negotiated the deal to
buy her Los Angeles home the week after she saw it. And she recently
moved in following an extensive 12-week renovation, an unusually short
turnaround for a job of that magnitude. Ms. Ecclestone's Kensington home
is also being finished on an accelerated timetable, according to the
builder, about half the typical time frame for a project of that scale.
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Ms. Stunt bought the Aaron Spelling estate in Los Angeles for $85 million
Photo: Associated Press |
Though the sisters are sometimes portrayed in the British press as
rivals, Ms. Ecclestone said they are best friends who speak on the phone
or text message several times a day; the letter "P" in script is
tattooed on her wrist for Petra. Ms. Stunt surprised her sister when she
called from Los Angeles, where she was vacationing with her then-fiancé
last spring for Easter, to say she was planning to buy a house there.
"When she has something in mind that she wants, she just goes for it,"
said Ms. Ecclestone. "I'm the same way."
Ms. Ecclestone is also planning to convert a London pub her father
purchased for her into a private home, which she estimates she'll market
for roughly $16 million. Ms. Stunt is separately in the midst of
renovating a four-story home in
London's
posh Chelsea neighborhood, which she purchased around the end 2010 for
about $90 million. Real estate veterans said it's somewhat unusual for
that number of purchases to happen in the same family in such a
compressed time frame. "Most high-profile, uber wealthy people prefer to
remain under the radar and would shy away from such purchases in bulk,"
said I. Dolly Lenz, a luxury real-estate agent in New York.
Ms. Ecclestone now lives about a block from where she and her sister
grew up in Chelsea. Her current home, which she plans to sell when her
new place is ready, is decorated with photos of the family on ski
vacations and at formal events, artwork by Damien Hirst and Anish Kapoor
and a sculpture of a Hermes Birkin bag. A bedroom she's converted into a
closet is filled with her collection of Ugg boots and Louboutin heels.
Wearing Lululemon yoga pants and a fitted hoodie, Ms. Ecclestone sat in
her living room, overlooking an outdoor lap pool, and explained that she
sees their real estate holdings as smart purchases. "I think London
[property] is a really good investment," she said. "There's no bank in
the world that can give you that return."
In shopping for real estate, Ms. Eccelstone said she keeps resale
value in mind and that a premium location and security are paramount
considerations. Her guiding philosophy is to buy "the best property I
could find."
After looking at many houses, Ms. Ecclestone said she immediately
knew she wanted the home in Kensington Palace Gardens. The estate agent
who brokered the deal, Louise Hewlett, said her client understood that
the purchase price was "a large sum of money" but that by refurbishing
the home, "the value would go up tremendously." She added that her
client has already gotten two offers of well-above what she paid.
Tim Wright, an estate agent with Knight Frank who was not involved in
the deal, describes the location as "the most exclusive street in
London, bar none." Mr. Wright said with only 30 homes on the block, many
of them embassies or ambassadorial residences, renovated properties
there tend to sell quickly.
Sayed Bukhari, owner of the building, construction and design company
that Ms. Stunt retained to work on her Chelsea home, said she's already
received several offers in excess of $125 million on it. "When she
first bought the house, people were really skeptical about whether it
was a good investment," he said. "She has proven everyone completely
wrong." Real estate brokers in L.A., however, are less sure Ms. Stunt's
purchase there, which included a pricey renovation, will turn out to be
such a sound investment. "She would probably need to get a $100 million
offer on the home just to break even," said Stephen Shapiro, a top
luxury broker. "And there aren't too many buyers looking in that range
in L.A.… so far, she's the only one." When it comes to selling a
property in the $100 million range in L.A., he added, "You are kind of
stuck waiting for the next Petra Ecclestone."
One thing the sisters' newest homes share is Gavin Brodin, a
Los Angeles-based
designer-builder whose past projects have included homes for Kate
Beckinsale and Sylvester Stallone. He met Ms. Ecclestone about a year
and a half ago poolside at the resort where they were both vacationing
in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, introduced by a mutual friend. Since then,
he's been working 15- to 18-hour days to complete both sisters' homes on
an accelerated timetable. For her second home in London, however, Ms.
Stunt hired design firm Candy & Candy, which caters to Russian
oligarchs and celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow.
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Ecclestone's renovation of a Kensington Palace Gardens mansion
Photo: Ben Phillips for The Wall Street Journal |
Built in 1991, Ms. Stunt's Los Angeles home sits on five acres in
Holmby Hills and has parking for 100 cars. Ms. Stunt's renovation was
completed in less than three months with 500 workers. The closet of the
master suite—which at 7,000 square feet has its own kitchen and living
room—is two levels, connected by a pair of staircases.
Ms. Ecclestone, who lives with her private investor boyfriend Omar
Khyami and their six dogs, said she plans to move into her house in
Kensington in October. Her renovation and expansion of the historic
mansion requires about a dozen managers and 80 construction workers on
site five days a week. The exclusivity of the gated block means only
large construction truck is allowed on the property each day, creating a
further challenge for workers, who are also required to be off-site by 5
p.m. every day.
Designer Mr. Brodin relocated to London to oversee the project last
year. "It's nonstop," he said, sitting in a temporary office strewn with
planning documents.
A 45-foot-deep hole in the ground will become a 4,000-square-foot,
two-story underground addition with a pool with a bar, spa and
entertainment center with a nightclub and bowling alley. A multi-room
master suite will have separate cocktail and Champagne bars. Mr. Brodin
had a staffer travel to Brazil to purchase a giant slab of smoke quartz
crystal for the master suite's bathtub. When done, the home will be
20,000 square feet. Everything in it—from the cutlery to the seats in
the 3D movie theater—will be custom-designed.
"I'm definitely, 'Go big or go home,'" Ms. Ecclestone said.
The son of a fishing trawler captain who quit school to race
motorcycles, Bernie Ecclestone built his fortune from auto sales,
property and the transformation of Formula 1 into one of the world's
most popular sports. He married Slavica Radic, a Croatian fashion model,
in 1985 and said he tried to instill in his daughters a sense of what
money was worth.
Mr. Ecclestone and his wife divorced in 2009, and he recently became
engaged to a 35-year-old Brazilian named Fabiana Flosi. Mr. Ecclestone
said he has a close relationship with his daughters but did not advise
them on their most recent real estate purchases. With their mother, the
sisters are beneficiaries of an off-shore family trust known as Bambino
Holdings, of which Mr. Ecclestone said he has no oversight. "I can't
control them at all," he said. Along with the trustees, their mother
"has been looking after them. And it's right for a mother to do that."
Mr. Ecclestone, whose daughters are often photographed wearing
stiletto heels, towering over his 5-foot-3-inch frame, said that by
giving them money now, "they will want to be independent and make their
own money as they spend it." "I think it's better they make their own
mistakes in the world and they'll learn quicker," he said, adding that
he's proud of his daughters' real estate investments, made independently
from him. He said he did not pay for Ms. Stunt's London home. Public
records show that Ms. Stunt borrowed the bulk of the money from her
mother—$82.4 million—to pay for her $85 million mansion in LA.
Neither sister graduated from university. After attending briefly,
Ms. Ecclestone got a job at an Armani retail store, which she quit after
six months. "I found it shocking how rude people were," she said. She
later worked as a TV host and model and is launching her own line of
luxury hair products and lingerie.
At 19, Ms. Stunt launched a menswear label but folded it quickly
thereafter. Earlier this year, she launched a line of high-end clutch
purses with names like High Maintenance, Clutch Me and Morning After.
Friends describe Ms. Stunt, the younger sister, as the shyer of the two,
but more free-spirited. "She's quite airy-fairy and likes to make her
mind up last-minute," said Ms. Ecclestone. Ms. Stunt initially agreed to
an interview but canceled; her publicist said one of her dogs got sick.
The sisters attract their share of criticism. In London, construction
to renovate Ms. Stunt's Chelsea home, including installing a 25-foot
wide aquarium and digging down dozens of feet to create a
10,000-square-foot basement with an indoor pool, squash court, gym,
beauty salon and spa, has sparked ire. Terence Bendixson, honorary
secretary of planning for the Chelsea Society, a community organization,
said Ms. Stunt's London home was turning into "a neo-Georgian pastiche
of the kind spec builders put on Bishop's Avenue for people with lots of
money and no taste."
Isla Baring, a philanthropist who lives nearby, said the construction
is so disruptive that she and several neighbors sent Mr. Ecclestone a
letter last month asking for compensation. "We suggested that he give us
some money rather than throwing it all away on his spoiled daughter so
she can live in this enormous monster of a house," she said. Mr.
Ecclestone said he replied to the letter saying that the home was not
under his ownership. "They were passionate to get some money any way
they could," he said.
Last year Ms. Ecclestone starred in a reality program about her life
called "Billion $$ Girl." One episode depicted her taking her dogs to
Harrod's for facials and pedicures. Another shows her debating
cancelling a meeting because she woke up with a pimple on her face.
Her participation in the show, in the midst of a recession, drew
criticism from many, including her father. Mr. Ecclestone said he could
barely make it through one episode. "I spoke to her before and said…
'They're never going to show you in a good light,' " he said. "She was
stupid to do it."
Ms. Ecclestone took the criticisms in stride. "It's like water off a duck's back," she said.
She said her true passions don't lie in property but in creating a
luxury brand and modeling. On a recent afternoon after a pilates class,
she climbed into a chauffeured Land Rover and headed to a sushi
restaurant. At lunch, she ran into a friend who was dining with the
actor Tom Hardy, who plays the villain in the upcoming Batman movie,
"Dark Knight Rises."
Ms. Ecclestone said the attention and speculation doesn't bother her.
"I kind of feel like people [in the U.K.] want you to apologize for
what you have," she said. "Petra and I are like, 'Why should we have to
apologize that our father's this amazing businessman who gave us this
great life?'"
