The Nicky O South Beach Hotel, set to open next month, has 94 rooms kitted out by celebrity designers, including fashion designer Roberto Cavalli.If guests like anything in their rooms, they can buy it by flipping through the Nicky O catalogue.
Hilton, 23, sister of Paris, daughter of real estate mogul Rick and great-granddaughter of Conrad, the founder of the hotel chain, plans to open another Nicky O hotel in Chicago.
But star power doesn’t guarantee success when it comes to real estate. Las Ramblas, the Las Vegas hotel and casino project designed by actor and architecture buff Brad Pitt and financed by Pitt’s buddy George Clooney and nightclub mogul Rande Gerber (model Cindy Crawford’s hubby), has been axed due to soaring construction costs and the land sold for $A224 million, according to Forbes.com.
“It might happen in the future, but there’s nothing in the works right now,” says a spokeswoman for the trio. If Pitt needed space to recover from the casino flop, he’s found it in the six-bedroom apartment that he and wife Angelina Jolie are renting with their four kiddies in Manhattan’s legendary Waldorf Towers for a whopping $110,000 a month.
Speaking of pricey havens, singer Billy Joel has just paid $14.4 million for a modest oceanfront cottage in Sagaponack in the Hamptons, the ritzy Long Island holiday area for New Yorkers with loads of money. In June, Joel bought the neighbouring property for $18.3 million from actor Roy Scheider.
The New York Post reports the two properties give Joel and wife Katie Lee 1.2ha of prime real estate right on Gibson Beach.
It’s McMystifying
Two little letters have the power to turn an object of envy into one of derision. The mansions of the rich and famous, decked out with sprawling entertainment areas, home theatres, cellars and far more bedrooms and bathrooms than residents, are held up as the trophies of success.
But when their dimensions are copied in suburbs without harbour views and multi-million-dollar land values, they’re dubbed “McMansions”.
It’s the uniformity of some housing estates in Sydney’s outer rim that gives rise to the disparaging name.
But the mantra here is little different to anywhere else: bigger is better. In recent years, house sizes all over the city have grown in inverse proportion to the number of occupants.
At Bella Vista Waters, in Sydney’s Hills district, the developer Norwest Residential has stipulated that all homes must be a minimum of 390sqm and individually architect-designed.
Not the biggest at Bella Vista – but still around 540sqm – is a four-bedroom home (above right) with triple garage, full-home automation system, swimming pool and home theatre, for sale through LJ Hooker’s Jonathan de Jong with an asking price of $2.2 million.
'Head to the coast and a six-bedroom home on the shores of Narrabeen Lakes, and you’ll pay a premium.
It has kitchens on both levels, making it an ideal dual-family residence, its own sandy beachfront, heated pool and triple garaging. It goes to auction through Ray White Unlimited’s Stephen Provis on November 4, with expectations of $3 million.
Going south, you’ll pay more than $3.3 million for a “waterfront of grand proportions and grandstand views”.
The Gundawarra St, Lilli Pilli, home has five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a private jetty and pontoon, as well as plenty of room to move. It’s for sale through Angelo Fournaris, of Ray White Cronulla.
For those with serious money, though, there are far bigger homes. In the past five years the mega-rich have been outdoing each other in the construction of mega-mansions, especially around Point Piper.
Morgan and Banks founder Andrew Banks and wife Andrea spent $15 million and two years to build Villa Veneto, now listed for sale with expectations of $60 million.
Its five storeys include a theatre, butler’s pantry, cellar, sauna and shower area, staff quarters, art gallery, gym, library, six bedrooms and nine toilets.
Aussie Home Loans’ John Symond did his best to dampen the rumours of excess that abounded while his Point Piper pile, Windagal, was being built. It’s no secret that the whopping
1993sqm home is the biggest residence on the east coast and includes its own lift, a cellar, formal and informal living and dining rooms, a cinema, smoking room, five bedrooms, 12 toilets, staff quarters, a library, cloakroom and 10 car spaces.
Coming in second is the “holiday home” of Billabong founder Gordon Merchant at Angourie, on the state’s far north coast, estimated to be “as long as half a football field”.
While it’s been praised by residents for blending in, there’s no doubt it’s bigger and brassier than the average beach shack. The front door alone is reported to have cost $85,000.
Source : http://www.news.com.au/
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