Iranian American Developer Buys Four Mansions from Elon Musk; Rents Villa for $350,000 a Month

July 3, 2020

Entertainment , Iranians in Diaspora , Society , Kodoom Official Blog

Entertainment News Blog, Kodoom.com
Elon Musk the billionaire cofounder of electric automaker Tesla is selling four adjoining properties in the ritzy Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel Air to Iranian American developer Ardie (Ardeshir) Tavangarian, founder of Arya Chalon LLC. The properties were listed together for $62.5 million.

Tavangarian was born in Shiraz, Iran and came to the U.S. in 1973 at the age of 15. He moved to California from Michigan in 1977, and in 1979 completed his Architectural Degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture. As a trustee of the Farhang Foundation, an organization that promotes Iranian Arts and Culture in United States, he played a major role in the realization and execution of the Freedom Sculpture project in Los Angeles.

Separately, The Wall Street Journal profiled Tavangarian's effort last month to rent out a Pacific Palisades home for $350,000 a month (pictures above and below). Tavangarian told the Journal that he had received serious interest in the abode — including a tour from Musk.

Tavangarian sold a Bel-Air spec house to a Chinese buyer in 2019 for $75 million. The 25,000-square-foot home had been listed at $88 million.

As the real-estate industry scrambles amid the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Tavangarian said he decided to rent rather than sell the amenity-laden home to capitalize on increased demand for luxury homes from renters, especially those coming from hard-hit cities such as New York and San Francisco to escape coronavirus and crowded cities.

Perched atop a promontory overlooking the Santa Monica Mountains and the ocean, the house sits on roughly an acre of land next door to a mansion owned by Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, record show. Mr. Tavangarian purchased the land for about $7.25 million in 2013. He declined to say how much it cost him to build and furnish the home, although he did say a curved, 40-foot-tall statement wall on the property alone cost roughly $2 million.

The six-bedroom house has a fully stocked wine cellar, spa and movie theater. A large garage doubles as an events venue, with a car turntable that can be transformed into a dance floor. The master suite, accessed via a retinal scanner, has a custom-designed roof that retracts to reveal the sky, either entirely open or through glass. It can also be used as a projection screen to watch movies in bed, Mr. Tavangarian said.

Interestingly, while Tavangarian and other developers are expanding or reshuffling their real estate portfolio during the market downturn, Elon Musk said that he plans to sell "almost all physical possessions" and "own no house" in a tweet May 1. He said in an interview with Joe Rogan this will help him focus on his life and creative projects "making stuff" instead of capital allocation and consumption. He says he wasn't really spending much time in his properties so someone else could put them to better use.

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