Inside the Making of a 104K-Square-Foot 'Giga-Mansion'

'The One' is under construction in Bel Air, may be priciest home ever
By Luke Roney,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 15, 2016 7:45 AM CST
Inside the Making of a 104K-Square-Foot 'Giga-Mansion'
An artist's rendering of the mansion.   (Skyline Development.)

In the hills above Bel Air in Southern California, "The One" is about halfway built. And when construction on the 104,000-square-foot "giga-mansion" is complete, it just might become the most expensive home in the world, the Orange County Register reports. The asking price for The One will be $500 million, developer Nile Niami tells Details, more than double the current world record of $221 million spent on a London penthouse in 2011. "We have a very specific client in mind—someone who already has a $100 million yacht and has seven houses all over the world," says Niami, who hired Paul McClean to design the home. The Irish-born architect has designed multi-million dollar houses for the well-heeled, including the Winklevoss twins.

Some of The One's specs:

  • 74,000-square-foot main house (with 5,000-square-foot master suite), guesthouse, staff quarters, and 30-car garage
  • 360-degree views of the Santa Monica Mountains, downtown LA, and the Pacific
  • 45-seat IMAX theater, casino, night club, bowling alley, and jelly fish tanks
  • Gym, beauty salon, massage room, billiards room, and cigar lounge
  • Four swimming pools, a tennis court, and a 20,000-square-foot synthetic lawn
Even with all that and more, some say that it doesn't add up to $500 million. One broker tells the Register it will sell for "north of $100 million," while another expects it to top $301 million. And once it's done (scheduled for 2017), The One may be the only one of its kind—in Bel Air, at least. Construction of the mansion has prompted neighbors to form a homeowners alliance. At this scale, they say, The One is more commercial than residential. And they're a bit irked that it took 5,000 truckloads to haul away 49,000 cubic yards of dirt to prepare for construction. (This Florida mansion isn't too shabby, either.)

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