If you’re among the 1.27 million people who pre-ordered the upcoming Cybertruck and have a craving to see one in the flesh, you might want to go to Pacific Palisades. There’s a good chance that one of the first examples off the assembly line will be the use of gadgets around the city’s posh Riviera section, where leading Cybertruck designer Franz von Holzhausen and his wife have just purchased a luxury complex, in a $51 million deal initially reported by the Los Angeles Times. .
Of course, von Holzhausen isn’t just a Cybertruck guy. Elon Musk’s stalwart has been Tesla’s chief design officer since 2008 – since before Tesla was even somethingpractically – and designed all of the brand’s most successful models, including the Model S, Model X, Model 3 and Model Y. Before joining Tesla, the Connecticut native worked for General Motors, where he met fellow auto designer Vicki (née Vlachakis), Born in Pasadena, California, he is now the founder and owner of the elegant Von Holzhausen fashion line.
The couple’s new home was sold by Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo, who first floated the place for a takeover less than two months ago, asking for $57.5 million. While the final sale price is an 11% discount, it’s still $19 million more Which led to Prinsloo-Levines for the place just over three years ago. It is also believed to be the fifth most expensive home sale in Los Angeles this year, after only $126 million paid by owner Fashion Nova for Bel Air’s The One megamansion, $75 million by Drake, and $70 million by a Hong Kong billionaire in Beverly Park, and Adele’s $58 million deal to buy Sly Stallone’s estate.
Set on a green three-acre plot in what is arguably the most luxurious enclave on the Palisades Riviera, the new von Holzhausen estate has a unique history in Los Angeles. The 9,000-square-foot main house was originally built in the late 1930s and designed by beloved California architect Cliff May, and is said to have been owned by Gregory Peck.
In the 2000s, the property became owned by Hollywood powerhouse producer Brian Grazer, who installed what may be the property’s most impressive feature—a four-bedroom guest house located mostly underground, sitting in basement style beneath a back garden. (Yes, it’ll be the ultimate studio for super-secret car design meetings, or maybe it’s a sinister hideout on the latest Bond model.)
Grazer sold the estate in 2009 for $17.6 million to Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, who lived there throughout their marriage and for several years thereafter, with Garner occupying the main home and Affleck the guest house. They sold the property in 2019 for $32 million to Levine and Prinsloo, who later hired famous interior designers Tommy and Kathy Clements to remodel the space. The resulting decor, simple and sober in a concise manner in the photos below, as featured on Architectural Digest, is a video tour hosted by the owners themselves.
Although von Holzhausen’s net worth does not appear to be a matter of public knowledge and the elusive designer rarely gives interviews, he has been with Tesla since before the company went public in 2010. In the 12 years since, the company that The world’s most valuable automaker is worth a trillion dollars, and the person who invested $1,000 in 2010 will now sit on as much as $120,000. So it’s probably a reasonable guess that von Holzhausen and his family were actually set for life – and possibly several more after that, too.
This hypothesis is supported by a quick look at von Holzhausen’s impressive real estate portfolio, which puts the properties of some billionaires to shame. In addition to a new $51 million masterpiece in Palisades, he also acquired a $12 million property designed by Richard Neutra in Montecito, which he and Vicki acquired back in 2020. Less than a year ago, the couple paid $23 million for Blufftop house game in Malibu. But wait, there’s more: The couple also owns three more homes in Malibu, as well as a million-dollar apartment in Santa Monica. Altogether, the portfolio is worth about $100 million – that’s a conservative estimate.
Kurt Rappaport of Westside Real Estate kept the Palisades list. Aaron Kerman and Dalton Gomez of Compass represented the buyers.