Thursday, June 20, 2013

Martin Lawrence Downsizes in Encino

BUYER: Martin Lawrence
LOCATION: Encino, CA
PRICE: $6,630,000
SIZE: 10,211 square feet, 7 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: We first heard rumbles of it weeks ago from a gal we'll call Suburban Sally and last night we heard it from the eerily well-informed Yolanda Yakketyyak that comedian Martin Lawrence scooped up a newly constructed mock-Med MacMansion perched atop a high knoll in the foothills above L.A.'s prototypically suburban community of Encino. Property records show the property in question, last listed for $7.1 million, changed hands in early June (2013) for $6,630,000.

It was recently announced that Mister Lawrence, who starred in an eponymous t.v. sitcom in the 1990s and whose biggest contribution to The Cinema has been the money minting Big Momma and Bad Boys franchises, will co-star in an as yet untitled sitcom with Kelsey Grammer. Hooray for Hollywood! Anyhoo...

Listing details Your Mama managed to tease out of the interweb shows the recently completed residence, located at the tail end of a long cul-de-sac lined with much more modest, mostly ranch-style homes, was marketed with seven bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms in 10,211 square feet.

Other features of the walled and gated three story mansion, as per listing details and other online resources, include half a dozen fireplaces, garage space for four cars, and a heated negative edge swimming pool with long and wide views over the San Fernando Valley.

Celebrity real estate watchers may recall that last June Mister Lawrence sold his 16,000+ square foot so-called "French Contemporary" mansion in the Beverly Park community to mid-priced shoe and handbag tycoon Bruce Makowsky for $17,200,000.

Property records and other online resources indicate Mister Lawrence, who split from his long-time lady-mate/wife Shamicka last year, continues to own a residence in L.A.'s Toluca Lake that he bought back in July 1992 for $640,000 as well as a sprawling, 21,000-plus square foot pond-front mansion on more than 100 acres acres in rural Purcellville, VA that he picked up in May 1997 for $1,250,000.

listing photo/rendering: Prudential California