Welcome back to the real estate newsletter. December typically marks a slowdown for the Southern California luxury market, as homebuyers focus on travel and holiday gift shopping, but this week brought the most interesting trio of sellers in memory. recent.

The first is actor-turned-weed grower Jim Belushi, who sold his Brentwood mansion for $ 30 million after four years and eight registrations. The ‘According to Jim’ actor of fame has since moved to Oregon, where he runs a cannabis business operation that recently starred on his own Discovery Channel show.

The second is Taylor Thomson, who listed her Tudor-style estate at Bel-Air for $ 43 million a few months after losing more than $ 48 million on Vice co-founder Shane Smith’s Pacific Palisades enclosure. Not that she really needed the money; The Bloomberg Billionaires Index ranks Thomson as the 282nd richest person in the world thanks to his sizable stake in media conglomerate Thomson Reuters.

Fun fact: When the original article was published late last week, his net worth was $ 8.85 billion. As of Thursday, it was $ 9.02 billion.

The third is UC San Diego, which is shopping around the coastal home of famous oceanographer Walter Munk. Munk, nicknamed “Einstein of the Oceans” after years of wind and wave research at university, donated the striking estate to the school in 2014 and died in 2019. After putting it on the National Registry historic sites, the school was listed for $ 5.5 million.

We also have a history lesson from my colleague Rachel Schnalzer, who sought to answer this question from an LA Times reader: How did the oil industry play a role in attracting people to Los Angeles. at the turn of the 20th century? The drama unfolds like a parallel Hollywood story and has a lot to say about fortune, greed, and the American dream.

There’s also an update on the abandoned 710 Freeway project. California transportation officials seized hundreds of properties for development before the political retreat of wealthier communities brought the freeway to a halt. , leaving a 4.5 mile gap between Alhambra and Pasadena. Now LA executives have unveiled a proposal that would replace decaying homes and empty lots with new parks and housing.

While keeping up to date, visit and love our Facebook page, where you can find real estate stories and updates throughout the week.

High price for the weed grower

In Brentwood’s third most expensive house sale of the year, actor-turned-cannabis grower Jim Belushi unloaded his Mediterranean-style mansion for $ 30 million.

The deal marks the end of a four-year effort that saw Belushi – the former “Saturday Night Live” and sitcom star “According to Jim” – list the house eight times. It first asked for $ 38.5 million in 2017, and two years later it dropped the price to $ 28 million.

The sale is not a surprise, as it has since moved to Eagle Point, Oregon, where he runs a cannabis farm. Discovery Channel documented the operation in the 2020 series “Growing Belushi”.

The heiress contemplates another fortune

Taylor Thomson, the editorial heiress who Bloomberg ranks as the 282nd richest person in the world, listed his Tudor-style mansion in Bel-Air for $ 43 million.

In terms of profit, the list is about as ambitious as it can come. If she gets her prize, it will be nearly six times the $ 7.4 million she paid for the historic estate two decades ago.

Thomson landed a spot at Pacific Palisades this year, losing $ 48.67 million on Vice co-founder Shane Smith’s Mediterranean-style resort in a deal that set a record for the coastal community. His family owns Woodbridge Co., which owns a majority stake in media conglomerate Thomson Reuters.

UC San Diego attempts to cash house donation

On the La Jolla coast, UC San Diego has listed Cuttlefish, a remarkable resort built and owned for 60 years by oceanographer Walter Munk. Asking price: $ 5.5 million.

Munk – who died in 2019 at the age of 101 – was a scientist and explorer known for his research on wind and waves at UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which ultimately earned him the nickname “Einstein of the Oceans” . He built the house in 1953 and donated it to the school in 2014. A cuttlefish is a standing wave in a body of water.

Located directly across from the UCSD campus, the property includes a main house, guest house and a small amphitheater overlooking the ocean. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in July, and later that month the school announced plans to sell it.

Mid-Century in style, the residence features open-plan spaces bordered by wooden beams and steel-framed windows overlooking the coast. A sunny fireplace kicks off, leading to a wood-clad kitchen and quaint dining room.

The impact of the LA oil boom

Imagine Los Angeles in the 1920s. What do you see? Many people bring up visions of the burgeoning film industry, populated by actors like Charles Chaplin and Greta Garbo and Hollywood hopefuls arriving in droves, writes Rachel Schnalzer.

While the movie industry certainly played a role in the development of Los Angeles during the 20th century, the oil industry also spurred the growth of what is now the second largest city in the United States.

“Oil, movies and real estate were like the trio of forces pulling migrants west to Los Angeles,” said Becky Nicolaides, research affiliate at USC and UCLA. “The oil sort of lived up to the glamor of Hollywood.”

Edward Doheny was not the first to find oil in the Golden State. But its 1892 Los Angeles oil strike sparked a surge in economic and population growth, as well as environmental pollution and devastation.

It would take about a quarter of a century for the oil boom to come to a head.

New abandoned highway proposal

Six decades after California transportation officials began foreclosing on hundreds of properties for an unsuccessful freeway project, Los Angeles executives have unveiled a proposal to replace the decaying vacant houses and dirt plots of the El Sereno neighborhood with new parks and housing, writes Liam Dillon.

If the plan comes to fruition, it would be a big step forward in the saga involving the shrunken 710 highway, which hit a wall of opposition before it could spread to richer communities.

the The Eastside neighborhood has long borne the most visible and lasting scars of the abandoned project, with a high concentration of abandoned homes left in its wake. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, activists repeatedly attempted to take back vacant homes in response to the region’s affordable housing crisis.

What we read

Horror is up for grabs on the East Coast, where a townhouse dubbed ‘the ugliest building in Queens’ is on the market for $ 3.6 million. The tiled facade, similar to Lego, is so brutal that the house won the “Frank Lloyd Crap” award. The New York Post has the details.

In competitive markets, realtors will try just about anything to gain an edge, and many find huge success on TikTok. According to CNN, agents have flocked to the social media app as a way to safely show homes to potential buyers during the pandemic, and some are now using it for 100% of their business.