Foreign Property News | Posted by Si Thu Aung
Last fall, noted Chicago philanthropist Ann Lurie put her longtime vacation home in California‘s famously posh seaside neighborhood of Montecito on the market, asking just under $13 million.
Records now reveal the property has quietly sold for $11.5 million in an all-cash deal, and the spendy buyer is retired tennis superstar Maria Sharapova.
Lurie, the widow of real estate titan and former Chicago White Sox and Bulls part owner Robert H. Lurie, acquired the stunningly lavish Montecito hideaway in the mid-2000s, paying about $8.3 million.
Since then, it’s clear the house and its extensive grounds have been exquisitely and painstakingly maintained.
Reportedly designed by noted architect Lockwood de Forest Jr. and completed circa 1949, the five-bedroom main house is surrounded by 3.3 acres of lush lawns and terraced gardens shaded by mature specimen trees. Walled and gated, the impressive estate lies high in the foothills above downtown Montecito, at the very end of a quiet and secluded cul-de-sac.
The property also happens to sit directly next door to an even larger compound owned by Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom.
(Though it has been modified and expanded over the years, the home’s rustic, wood-trimmed interiors still hark back to its midcentury roots.VIRTOUR MEDIA)
Sharapova’s new home is filled with natural light, thanks to soaring walls of glass that blur the line between indoors and out.
Sunlight also filters in through the skylit-topped entry foyer, which connects to a living room equipped with one of the largest brick fireplaces we’ve ever seen.
Radically overhauled in recent years, the open kitchen offers commercial-grade appliances and a slim island hewn entirely from rustic hardwood.
There’s also a separate and full outdoor kitchen tucked under a loggia and equipped with sleek stainless appliances, which we would guess were installed during Lurie’s ownership.
Ref: Maria Sharapova Scores an $11 Million Montecito Estate (robbreport) Ref: VIRTOUR MEDIA
