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| Sisters Tamara Ecclestone and Petra Stunt are ultra-wealthy, young real estate moguls. Photo: Getty Images |
Some kids cost a fortune.
In a real estate shopping spree of epic proportions, the daughters of Formula 1 Racing boss Bernie Ecclestone have snapped up hundreds of millions of dollars worth of high-profile properties in the past 18 months. Tamara, 27, bought a 16,000-square-foot historic brick home across the road from Kensington Palace, where Prince William and Duchess Catherine will soon take up residence, for about $70 million early last year. Her 23-year-old sister Petra paid $85 million for a 57,000-square-foot Los Angeles mansion a few months later. Known as "the Manor," the 14-bedroom, 27-bathroom home was built by Candy Spelling and her late TV producer husband Aaron Spelling.
The sisters are among a small number of ultra-wealthy, young people who are making waves at the very top of the real estate market. A trust linked to Ekaterina Rybolovlev, the 22-year-old daughter of Russian fertilizer billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, bought a four-bedroom penthouse in New York for $88 million earlier this year. Another young Russian, Anna Anissimova, the 27-year-old actress daughter of Vasily Anissimov, who made his billions in iron ore and aluminum, recently put her New York apartment on the market for $50 million. (She paid $9.9 million for the apartment in 2004, when she was 19.) Megan Ellison, the 26-year-old daughter of software mogul and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, bought three homes in the Hollywood Hills over the last few years, one of which she put on the market recently for $15.5 million.
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Still, it was Petra's purchase of the Spelling mansion that "changed the perception of who a buyer could be," said Rick Hilton, who represented both Ms. Stunt and Ms. Spelling in the sale, noting that he now looks at younger buyers much more seriously. He added that Petra's desire to buy such a statement home surprised him, considering her age. "At first, I showed her several properties but they weren't grand enough," he remembered, including a 36,000-square-foot French-style mansion on Sunset Boulevard now listed for $49.5 million. "When those earlier homes didn't excite her, I saw very quickly that…she wanted the finest estate available, and that's what she got."
The Ecclestone sisters exemplify the way many of the ultra-wealthy, and ultra-young, buy real estate. They often make up their minds quickly. They like to customize their homes to their highly specific tastes, on a quick turnaround with few expenses spared. Petra Stunt, who married entrepreneur James Stunt last August, negotiated the deal to buy her Los Angeles home the week after she saw it. And she recently moved in following an extensive 12-week renovation, an unusually short turnaround for a job of that magnitude. Ms. Ecclestone's Kensington home is also being finished on an accelerated timetable, according to the builder, about half the typical time frame for a project of that scale.
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| Ms. Stunt bought the Aaron Spelling estate in Los Angeles for $85 million Photo: Associated Press |
Though the sisters are sometimes portrayed in the British press as rivals, Ms. Ecclestone said they are best friends who speak on the phone or text message several times a day; the letter "P" in script is tattooed on her wrist for Petra. Ms. Stunt surprised her sister when she called from Los Angeles, where she was vacationing with her then-fiancé last spring for Easter, to say she was planning to buy a house there. "When she has something in mind that she wants, she just goes for it," said Ms. Ecclestone. "I'm the same way."
Ms. Ecclestone is also planning to convert a London pub her father purchased for her into a private home, which she estimates she'll market for roughly $16 million. Ms. Stunt is separately in the midst of renovating a four-story home in London's posh Chelsea neighborhood, which she purchased around the end 2010 for about $90 million. Real estate veterans said it's somewhat unusual for that number of purchases to happen in the same family in such a compressed time frame. "Most high-profile, uber wealthy people prefer to remain under the radar and would shy away from such purchases in bulk," said I. Dolly Lenz, a luxury real-estate agent in New York.
Ms. Ecclestone now lives about a block from where she and her sister grew up in Chelsea. Her current home, which she plans to sell when her new place is ready, is decorated with photos of the family on ski vacations and at formal events, artwork by Damien Hirst and Anish Kapoor and a sculpture of a Hermes Birkin bag. A bedroom she's converted into a closet is filled with her collection of Ugg boots and Louboutin heels. Wearing Lululemon yoga pants and a fitted hoodie, Ms. Ecclestone sat in her living room, overlooking an outdoor lap pool, and explained that she sees their real estate holdings as smart purchases. "I think London [property] is a really good investment," she said. "There's no bank in the world that can give you that return."
In shopping for real estate, Ms. Eccelstone said she keeps resale value in mind and that a premium location and security are paramount considerations. Her guiding philosophy is to buy "the best property I could find."
After looking at many houses, Ms. Ecclestone said she immediately knew she wanted the home in Kensington Palace Gardens. The estate agent who brokered the deal, Louise Hewlett, said her client understood that the purchase price was "a large sum of money" but that by refurbishing the home, "the value would go up tremendously." She added that her client has already gotten two offers of well-above what she paid.
Tim Wright, an estate agent with Knight Frank who was not involved in the deal, describes the location as "the most exclusive street in London, bar none." Mr. Wright said with only 30 homes on the block, many of them embassies or ambassadorial residences, renovated properties there tend to sell quickly.
Sayed Bukhari, owner of the building, construction and design company that Ms. Stunt retained to work on her Chelsea home, said she's already received several offers in excess of $125 million on it. "When she first bought the house, people were really skeptical about whether it was a good investment," he said. "She has proven everyone completely wrong." Real estate brokers in L.A., however, are less sure Ms. Stunt's purchase there, which included a pricey renovation, will turn out to be such a sound investment. "She would probably need to get a $100 million offer on the home just to break even," said Stephen Shapiro, a top luxury broker. "And there aren't too many buyers looking in that range in L.A.… so far, she's the only one." When it comes to selling a property in the $100 million range in L.A., he added, "You are kind of stuck waiting for the next Petra Ecclestone."
One thing the sisters' newest homes share is Gavin Brodin, a Los Angeles-based designer-builder whose past projects have included homes for Kate Beckinsale and Sylvester Stallone. He met Ms. Ecclestone about a year and a half ago poolside at the resort where they were both vacationing in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, introduced by a mutual friend. Since then, he's been working 15- to 18-hour days to complete both sisters' homes on an accelerated timetable. For her second home in London, however, Ms. Stunt hired design firm Candy & Candy, which caters to Russian oligarchs and celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow.
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| Ecclestone's renovation of a Kensington Palace Gardens mansion Photo: Ben Phillips for The Wall Street Journal |
Built in 1991, Ms. Stunt's Los Angeles home sits on five acres in Holmby Hills and has parking for 100 cars. Ms. Stunt's renovation was completed in less than three months with 500 workers. The closet of the master suite—which at 7,000 square feet has its own kitchen and living room—is two levels, connected by a pair of staircases.
Ms. Ecclestone, who lives with her private investor boyfriend Omar Khyami and their six dogs, said she plans to move into her house in Kensington in October. Her renovation and expansion of the historic mansion requires about a dozen managers and 80 construction workers on site five days a week. The exclusivity of the gated block means only large construction truck is allowed on the property each day, creating a further challenge for workers, who are also required to be off-site by 5 p.m. every day.
Designer Mr. Brodin relocated to London to oversee the project last year. "It's nonstop," he said, sitting in a temporary office strewn with planning documents.
A 45-foot-deep hole in the ground will become a 4,000-square-foot, two-story underground addition with a pool with a bar, spa and entertainment center with a nightclub and bowling alley. A multi-room master suite will have separate cocktail and Champagne bars. Mr. Brodin had a staffer travel to Brazil to purchase a giant slab of smoke quartz crystal for the master suite's bathtub. When done, the home will be 20,000 square feet. Everything in it—from the cutlery to the seats in the 3D movie theater—will be custom-designed.
"I'm definitely, 'Go big or go home,'" Ms. Ecclestone said.
The son of a fishing trawler captain who quit school to race motorcycles, Bernie Ecclestone built his fortune from auto sales, property and the transformation of Formula 1 into one of the world's most popular sports. He married Slavica Radic, a Croatian fashion model, in 1985 and said he tried to instill in his daughters a sense of what money was worth.
Mr. Ecclestone and his wife divorced in 2009, and he recently became engaged to a 35-year-old Brazilian named Fabiana Flosi. Mr. Ecclestone said he has a close relationship with his daughters but did not advise them on their most recent real estate purchases. With their mother, the sisters are beneficiaries of an off-shore family trust known as Bambino Holdings, of which Mr. Ecclestone said he has no oversight. "I can't control them at all," he said. Along with the trustees, their mother "has been looking after them. And it's right for a mother to do that."
Mr. Ecclestone, whose daughters are often photographed wearing stiletto heels, towering over his 5-foot-3-inch frame, said that by giving them money now, "they will want to be independent and make their own money as they spend it." "I think it's better they make their own mistakes in the world and they'll learn quicker," he said, adding that he's proud of his daughters' real estate investments, made independently from him. He said he did not pay for Ms. Stunt's London home. Public records show that Ms. Stunt borrowed the bulk of the money from her mother—$82.4 million—to pay for her $85 million mansion in LA.
Neither sister graduated from university. After attending briefly, Ms. Ecclestone got a job at an Armani retail store, which she quit after six months. "I found it shocking how rude people were," she said. She later worked as a TV host and model and is launching her own line of luxury hair products and lingerie.
At 19, Ms. Stunt launched a menswear label but folded it quickly thereafter. Earlier this year, she launched a line of high-end clutch purses with names like High Maintenance, Clutch Me and Morning After. Friends describe Ms. Stunt, the younger sister, as the shyer of the two, but more free-spirited. "She's quite airy-fairy and likes to make her mind up last-minute," said Ms. Ecclestone. Ms. Stunt initially agreed to an interview but canceled; her publicist said one of her dogs got sick.
The sisters attract their share of criticism. In London, construction to renovate Ms. Stunt's Chelsea home, including installing a 25-foot wide aquarium and digging down dozens of feet to create a 10,000-square-foot basement with an indoor pool, squash court, gym, beauty salon and spa, has sparked ire. Terence Bendixson, honorary secretary of planning for the Chelsea Society, a community organization, said Ms. Stunt's London home was turning into "a neo-Georgian pastiche of the kind spec builders put on Bishop's Avenue for people with lots of money and no taste."
Isla Baring, a philanthropist who lives nearby, said the construction is so disruptive that she and several neighbors sent Mr. Ecclestone a letter last month asking for compensation. "We suggested that he give us some money rather than throwing it all away on his spoiled daughter so she can live in this enormous monster of a house," she said. Mr. Ecclestone said he replied to the letter saying that the home was not under his ownership. "They were passionate to get some money any way they could," he said.
Last year Ms. Ecclestone starred in a reality program about her life called "Billion $$ Girl." One episode depicted her taking her dogs to Harrod's for facials and pedicures. Another shows her debating cancelling a meeting because she woke up with a pimple on her face.
Her participation in the show, in the midst of a recession, drew criticism from many, including her father. Mr. Ecclestone said he could barely make it through one episode. "I spoke to her before and said… 'They're never going to show you in a good light,' " he said. "She was stupid to do it."
Ms. Ecclestone took the criticisms in stride. "It's like water off a duck's back," she said.
She said her true passions don't lie in property but in creating a luxury brand and modeling. On a recent afternoon after a pilates class, she climbed into a chauffeured Land Rover and headed to a sushi restaurant. At lunch, she ran into a friend who was dining with the actor Tom Hardy, who plays the villain in the upcoming Batman movie, "Dark Knight Rises."
Ms. Ecclestone said the attention and speculation doesn't bother her. "I kind of feel like people [in the U.K.] want you to apologize for what you have," she said. "Petra and I are like, 'Why should we have to apologize that our father's this amazing businessman who gave us this great life?'
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