The sale of L.A.’s biggest mansion to Fashion Nova owner is approved

The mansion known as The One is L.A.’s largest residence, with 21 bedrooms and 42 full bathrooms. The $141-million offer by Fashion Nova founder Richard Saghian for the Bel-Air mega-mansion known as “The One” was approved Monday by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge.

The ruling by Judge Deborah Saltzman followed a two-day court hearing during which creditors opposed to the sale alleged that Saghian’s bid should be found inadequate because the three-day auction for the sprawling estate came within a week of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, scaring off bidders.

Attorneys for Saghian, the bankrupt estate and other creditors — who acknowledged the bid was disappointing — countered that there were other crucial reasons the offer came in at half the home’s $295-million asking price. They further argued that there were no guarantees the world’s geopolitical situation would improve if another auction were conducted in months.

Saltzman said that although the “proposed sale doesn’t feel like a success to anyone except maybe the proposed buyer,” she ruled that it met all legal criteria for approval. She also said she would not insert her own judgment into whether a second auction would have resulted in a better outcome.

“There have been credible arguments that perhaps markets could have adjusted and that things would be different now, but there are also arguments to suggest that things could be worse now,” she said.

The 105,000-square-foot marble-and-glass home on a Bel-Air hilltop remains unfinished and carries more than $250 million in claimed debts. Saghian’s $126-million bid, which totaled $141 million after auction fees, means many creditors are facing substantial and even total losses for the house, which has been under construction for nearly a decade.

Supporting the bid was Hankey Capital, the estate’s largest creditor and the real estate lending arm of Los Angeles billionaire Don Hankey. It made more than $100 million in loans to the project but is first in line among lenders to be repaid, though it may not be made whole.

The trophy home’s winning bid was a mega disappointment, failing to break the California record set in October by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who . It was also well under the $238 million a hedge fund mogul spent in 2019 for a penthouse overlooking New York’s Central Park, the U.S. high-water mark. The mansion sits atop a Bel-Air hillside. Roffers said the concerns from neighbors — including the Bel-Air Assn. — were particularly worrisome. That homeowners group, which has called The One a “growing scandal,” was involved in having an illegally constructed Bel-Air mansion by developer Mohamed Hadid . The mega-mansion was designed by architect Paul McClean. Recently , Saghian, 40, already owns two area homes, one in the Hollywood Hills that he bought for $17.5 million in 2018 and another on a Malibu beach that he purchased for $14.7 million last year. The hillside home was designed by Paul McClean, the architect who designed The One.

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