Nile Niami (born February 25, 1968) is an American former film producer turned real estate developer, who has developed and sold multimillion-dollar mansions in the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Bel Air and Holmby Hills. [1]
Niami was born in 1968 in Los Angeles, California. [2] He was raised by a single mother, [3] a special education teacher. [2]
Niami started his career as a film producer. [2] [4] [5] He produced 15 films, many of them B movies, before he started developing small condominiums and renovating homes to sell. [3]
As a real estate developer in Los Angeles, Niami developed a mansion in Holmby Hills which he sold to a Saudi buyer for US$44 million. [4] He developed another house in Holmby Hills, which was purchased by musician Sean Combs for US$39 million in 2014. [6] He also hired architect Paul McClean to build a house for the Winklevoss twins Cameron and Tyler in the Bird Streets (north of Sunset Boulevard). [4] [2] He developed a house in Trousdale Estates, a neighborhood in the city of Beverly Hills, with "a spinning car turntable, similar to those in auto showrooms, that's visible from the living room." [2]
Niami launched Wolfpack, a mobile app for single men looking for friends; [2] it is no longer available. [7]
Niami began construction on a mega-mansion in Bel-Air named "The One" in 2014, which was also designed by Paul McClean. [5] [8] [9] After years of development and numerous delays, Niami's company went bankrupt in 2021 before construction was completed. [10] The construction attracted unease from the Bel-Air Homeowners Alliance, [4] whose chairman, Fred Rosen, suggested it was so big it should have been "considered a commercial project", subject to more restrictive regulations. [2] It was billed as the most expensive private residence in the United States, [11] and at 105,000 square feet, is one of the country's largest private homes. [3]
The property features 21 bedrooms, 42 bathrooms, multiple kitchens, a nightclub, four-lane bowling alley, salon, gym, 50-seat movie theater, a running track, multiple pools, a 50-car underground garage, and a moat. [12] The home was used as a filming location for the Apple TV+ series Loot. [13]
In March 2021, Niami's LLC, Crestlloyd, defaulted on US$165 million in debt related to the property, causing it to enter receivership. [10] A foreclosure sale scheduled for October 2021 was halted when Crestlloyd filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. [14] In July 2021, the 3.8-acre property was placed in court-ordered receivership by Los Angeles County Superior Court. Ted Lanes of Lanes Management was appointed as receiver. [15]
During construction, Niami initially stated the home would be listed for US$500 million. It was formally listed for sale in January 2022 at an asking price of US$295 million. [16] It did not receive an offer and on March 4, 2022, the property was sold at a bankruptcy auction to Richard Saghian, the owner of Fashion Nova, for US$126 million. It became the most expensive home ever sold at an auction in the United States, breaking the previous record set in 2021 when the Hearst Estate in Beverly Hills sold for US$63.1 million, but fell short of the California sales record of US$177 million set by a Malibu mansion purchased by Marc Andreessen in 2021. [17] [18] [19] Its sale price was considered a disappointment, as the mansion had accrued $256 million of debt from its construction, and required at least $10 million of additional work to receive a certificate of occupancy and fix issues such as cracked marble and water leakage. [18] Niami unsuccessfully attempted to block the sale to Saghian. [20]
Niami purchased Scooter Braun's Bel Air house for US$9.5 million in July 2015. [21]
Bel Air is a residential neighborhood on the Los Angeles Westside, in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains in the U.S. state of California.
The Platinum Triangle is an informal name for three adjacent neighborhoods in the Los Angeles Westside area. It includes Beverly Hills, which is its own city within Los Angeles County, along with two Los Angeles city neighborhoods, Bel Air and Holmby Hills. The "Platinum Triangle" designation refers to the affluence of the three neighborhoods and their multi-million dollar homes. The area is consistently ranked as one of the most expensive housing markets in the country.
Holmby Hills is a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California, United States.
Christie's International Real Estate is an international network of independently owned luxury real estate firms with more than 400 offices and approximately 10,000 real estate agents in nearly 50 countries and territories around the world. The brand is separately owned but strategically partnered with Christie’s, the fine art auction house.
Jeffrey Jonathon Hyland was an American real estate businessman, president of Hilton and Hyland, a real estate firm in Beverly Hills, California, and author. He had personally handled several billion dollars in real estate sales.
The Manor is a mansion on Mapleton Drive in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, across the street from Holmby Park and bordering the Los Angeles Country Club. Constructed in 1988 for television producer Aaron Spelling and his wife Candy, it is the second largest house by official living space in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
Nest Seekers International is a full-service luxury residential and commercial brokerage firm. The company is headquartered in New York and London, with offices in Beverly Hills, The Hamptons, Connecticut, Gold Coast Long Island, Colorado, New Jersey, Miami, Palm Beach, Lisbon, Seoul and Spain. It has affiliates in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. In 2021, Nest Seekers International was the 7th-top grossing real estate firm in Manhattan.
Owlwood Estate is a historic mansion in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States. It was built in 1936 and designed by architect Robert D. Farquhar. Previous owners include actors Tony Curtis and Cher.
Don Robert Hankey is an American billionaire and founder of the Hankey Group, which makes most of its income from car loans and the insurance industry. He has been called the "king of the subprime car loan".
Mohamed Anwar Hadid is an American real estate developer. He is known for building luxury hotels and mansions, mainly in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles and the city of Beverly Hills, California. He is the father of models Gigi and Bella Hadid.
Bruce Makowsky is an American real estate developer and entrepreneur. In 2017, he set the record for the most expensive home listed in the United States by listing a home he developed in Bel Air on the market for $250 million, which ultimately sold for $94 million in October 2019.
Aaron Kirman is a Los Angeles-based real estate agent and investor who appears regularly on CNBC's Secret Lives of the Super Rich and stars on CNBC's real estate reality series Listing Impossible.
Billionaire is a private residence in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States.
301 North Carolwood Drive is a private residence located at 301 North Carolwood Drive in the city of Los Angeles, ranking as the twelfth largest private residence in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The mansion was completed in 2016 on one of the most expensive streets in the world.
The Chartwell Mansion is a Chateauesque mansion in Bel-Air, California. Built in 1933, it is best known for its role as the Clampett family home in the 1960s television sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies. It was the most expensive home for sale in the United States in 2018.
Concierge Auctions is a residential real estate company based in New York and Texas. It auctions properties to the highest bidder.
Joyce Rey is a Beverly Hills-based luxury real estate agent who heads the Global Luxury division for Coldwell Banker. She is considered one of the most successful real estate agents in the United States and has represented clients for homes that include Pickfair, the Owlwood Estate, Le Belvedere and Greenacres.
The Beverly Estate is a property built in 1926 at 1011 North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills, California.
The One is a private residence in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, United States. It is a compound of a main residence and three smaller houses in the modernist style and was developed by Nile Niami. The property is 105,000 square feet (9,800 m2) on 3.8 acres (1.5 ha).