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Just seven months after purchasing the “Beverly Hills Cop” Santa Monica compound for a record-breaking $48.7 million, media heiress and former actress Taylor Thomson — a member of one of Canada’s wealthiest families — has decided to slightly downsize her $100+ million luxury real estate portfolio. As first reported by the Wall Street Journal, her longtime home in Bel Air has popped up for sale, asking $43 million — a whopping $35.6 million more than she paid for the place some two decades ago.
Constructed way back in 1926 and designed by noted architect Gordon Kaufmann — and one of the first homes ever built in Bel Air — the eight-bedroom, 12-bath structure rests on a prime Bel Air street, on over an acre of picturesque land dotted by mature sycamore and redwood trees. Expensively renovated and restored by Thomson during her tenure, the nearly 9,000-square-foot residence is punctuated throughout by colorful tile, vintage light fixtures, metal window frames, arched doorways and soaring wood-beam ceilings.
Highlights include a formal living room accented by a stone fireplace and an adjacent wood-paneled library, plus a fireside dining room, and a gourmet kitchen outfitted with stainless appliances, a spacious center island and floor-to-ceiling tile. The master retreat has a fireplace, walk-in closets and a spa-like bath; elsewhere are five additional bedrooms, including a Moroccan- and Turkish-inspired guest suite spotlighted by a French copper cheese vat converted into a tub. Outdoors, the lush backyard holds a large pool and spa enveloped by a grassy lawn, along with hidden meadows, pocket gardens and a two-story guest house with a duo of bedrooms.
Boasting an estimated net worth of $7.5 billion, Taylor is currently ranked as Canada’s second-richest woman. She’s a member of the Thomson family, which has amassed a collective fortune of about $44 billion as stewards of a media empire founded by her grandfather Roy Thomson; their biggest asset is Woodbridge, a holding company with a controlling stake in Thomson Reuters.
In addition to her Santa Monica and Bel Air properties, Thomson also owns a $21.5 million oceanfront home in the guard-gated Malibu Colony community, a multiacre tennis court estate in the hills above Malibu’s Carbon Beach and another Santa Monica home worth $7.9 million. But perhaps her most notable real estate holding is an 1880s mansion once owned by Gordon Lightfoot, in Toronto’s pricey Bridle Path neighborhood, where one of her nearest neighbors is Drake and his $50 million mansion.
The listing for the Bel Air house is jointly held by Drew Fenton of Hilton & Hyland and Jade Mills of Coldwell Banker Realty.
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