No doubts: if one of your new year resolution is to move to Toluka Lake area, Craig Strong of John Aaroe Group (Prestige MLS Member in LA) is your trustworthy man. Craig, tapped to sell Toluca Lake’s most famous property, tells us more about this new challenge.
The 5.21-acre Bob and Dolores Hope estate in Toluca Lake is back on the market at $23 million listed with Craig Strong of John Aaroe Group, known as Mr. Toluca Lake for his untiring involvements in community activities and his insider’s knowledge of the area. He is the top-selling agent in Toluca Lake and is based in Aaroe’s Toluca Lake office.
This is an unparalleled opportunity to own one of the most iconic and devotedly cared-for estates in Los Angeles
The Hope estate at 10346 Moorpark Street was designed in an English traditional style by architect Richard Finkelhor who also built houses for Barbara Stanwyck and Zeppo and Harpo Marx. The Hopes loved to entertain and planned the home to accommodate large star-studded gatherings as well as informal visits from neighbors like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. Toluca Lake has long been a favored home base for stars including current residents Steve Carell, Melissa McCarthy and Kiefer Sutherland, notes Strong.
The centerpiece of the Hope Estate, built in 1939, is an almost 15,000-square-foot main residence with an immense formal living room renovated in the 1950s by John Elgin Woolf, the king of Hollywood Regency style. In the main residence, a soaring foyer leads to a vast formal living room with walls of glass overlooking the breathtaking grounds and a post and beam patio. The main house also includes a family room, bar and billiard room, formal dining room, family dining room, commercial grade chef’s kitchen, a library, office and staff quarters. A curving staircase rises to the second floor, home to four family bedroom suites and a lavish master wing with a fireplace, his-and-her spa baths and closets, and a shared study.
Hope Estate – Toluka Lake
In addition to the classic outdoor pool, a glass-enclosed indoor pool and spa look out across the grounds. An array of outdoor spaces on both levels afford stunning views of the sumptuous gardens and lawns, highlighted by a formal rose garden and a one-hole, three-par golf course. A spacious motor court completes the home.
Legacy trees border the walled and gated estate making this an utterly private retreat. The site encompasses four parcels, offering abundant space for multiple structures including a two-bedroom, two-bath pool house and a 4,000-square-foot production office/guest house at the front of the property that housed Hope’s staff that managed his radio, television, film and real estate interests.
The 5+ acres really makes this a rare property, says Strong, who has lived in Toluca Lake for 14 years with his wife Tara who is well known for voiceovers on shows such as Fairly Odd Parents, Rugrats, Powerpuff Girls and My Little Pony. There are only a handful of estates with this size property in the most coveted neighborhoods of Los Angeles, he comments. Furthermore, this site, in the heart of Toluca Lake, is mostly flat unlike many larger properties in Beverly Hills, Brentwood and Bel Air, he points out.
“This is an unparalleled opportunity to own one of the most iconic and devotedly cared-for estates in Los Angeles, home to one of our most beloved entertainers, and available for the first time in 75 years. It’s a property that you really need to experience,” concludes Strong.
John Aaroe Group, a top luxury residential brokerage, recently sold the highest priced home in the history of Beverly Hills for $70 million to Swedish billionaire Markus Persson. It has achieved a 70 percent compound annual growth rate in sales volume during the last five years and is on target to report record sales of nearly $2 billion for 2014, up from $1.3 billion in 2013. For more information, visit www.aaroe.com.
