Mindy Kaling already owns two enviable homes in the Los Angeles area, a nearly $10 million Malibu beach house that used to belong to Frank Sinatra and a historic Hancock Park estate that was featured in the pages of Architectural Digest back in 2017, following a nearly year-long makeover.
Now the always-busy and successful actress, writer and producer has decided to take on another project, having picked up a traditional Hamptons-esque fixer-upper in the city of Beverly Hills, just minutes from The Beverly Hills Hotel and Rodeo Drive.
Records show the property surfaced on the market earlier this year, asking a speck under $17 million. But Kaling was able to snag the place at a heavily discounted $15 million. That chalks up as a loss for the seller, Russian insurance billionaire Sergey Sarkisov, who purchased the house for $16.2 million in 2017 and also lays claim to the much larger mansion right next door.
Originally built in the early 1950s, and formerly owned by the late and powerful Hollywood business manager and producer Edgar F. Gross, the shingled and brick-accented structure is hidden down a lengthy driveway, and rests on two parcels of walled and hedged land spanning over an acre. It’s also quite literally around the corner from Taylor Swift’s landmarked mansion, the former home of MGM producer Samuel L. Goldwyn.
Though photos are scarce, marketing materials show the existing two-story structure offers six bedrooms and six bathrooms in a little more than 6,000 square feet of living space. But the house could potentially be bulldozed to make way for a newer and bigger mansion, complete with up to 15,000 square feet of living space.
It’s not yet clear what Kaling plans to do with her newly acquired digs, but according to listing agent Ernie Carswell of Douglas Elliman, who presented the home in a recent YouTube video, this is “an opportunity property, one where someone with creative vision is going to come and take the essentials here—a large lot, beautiful tennis court, guest house, pool, main house, all in a sumptuous verdant lot—and take it to the next level.”
In addition to this project, Kaling recently sold a $2.4 million New York City apartment in the trendy Soho neighborhood that she had extensively remodeled in collaboration with One Kings Lane designer Sally Gotfredson.
Carswell shared the Beverly Hills listing with Rita Benelian of Keller Williams Hollywood Hills; Kaling was repped by Matt Altman of Douglas Elliman.