Los Angeles – The founder of the adult entertainment company Playboy, Hugh Hefner, is selling his famous mansion. He and Daren Metropoulos, who is the heir to a multi-billion fortune, are in negotiations at the moment. The house was listed at the initial price of $200 million which is way more expensive than any other house in the whole area. The third parties easing the transaction are The Agency and Hilton and Hyland.

Hugh Hefner is selling the Playboy mansion
Hugh Hefner will sell the Playboy mansion to Dean Metropoulos for $100 million. Credit: Starcasm.net

A house full of Playboy bunnies

 The Playboy Mansion wasn’t always called like that. Originally, it was a huge house built in 1927 in the privileged Holmby Hills near Beverly Hills. The architect was the famous Arthur Rolland Kelly. Enthusiasts and architects say the house has a Gothic Revival style while others think it is an example of the Tudor Revival style.

Mr. Kelly designed a lot of houses in Los Angeles, but this one, in particular, became very famous when a young entrepreneur, founder of the first famous adult entertainment company in the United States, purchased the state back in the 70’s. Mr. Hefner paid $1.05 million and transformed the residence into the house of many Playboy bunnies.

Thousands of parties have been celebrated in the now known Playboy Mansion. With the heights of its popularity in the 70’s, the mansion has seen more celebrities than a court room. However, things are about to change.

Dean Metropoulos, who is the principal at private-equity firm Metropoulos & Co. and owner of Twinkies-maker Hostess, is engaged in negotiations with Hugh Hefner, and one of the things on the table is very weird. According to the president of Hilton and Hyland, Jeffrey Hyland, the new owner of the Playboy mansion, has to allow Mr. Hefner to stay in the house as long as he wants.

“If the purchase closes and at some point after Mr. Hefner’s tenancy ends, Mr. Metropoulos intends to reconnect the two estates, ultimately returning the combined 7.3-acre compound to the original vision executed by noted architect Arthur R. Kelly and its first owner, Arthur Letts, Jr., the department store heir whose father conceived and developed Holmby Hills when it was the Wolfskill Ranch,” Metropoulos’ business, Metropoulos & Co., said in a statement.

A $200 million mansion

The original listed price was $200 million which is a lot more expensive than any other house in the area. According to Zillow, the most expensive houses and mansions in Los Angeles can be shopped from a million dollars up to $25 million, and that is the average top prize. There are no details on how much Mr. Metropoulos is paying for the mansion, but an unconfirmed source told TMZ that the number is close to $100 million. Daren Metropoulos has been Hefner’s neighbor since 2009. He bought that property from Hugh himself for $18 million, and apparently, they are friends. Mr. Metropoulos even hosted one of the famous parties at the bunnies’ mansion. And that is a good thing because they will probably end up being housemates.

Source: WSJ