Add The New York Post on Google Cue the klieg lights.
Storied builder Ardie Tavangarian has high hopes his rehab and buildout of Elizabeth Taylor’s former Bel Air estate will command the same drawing power as the actress herself, in what appears to be his swan song as a decades-long uber-luxury developer.
The 1.3-acre property where the legendary actress lived for 30 years is becoming a Taylor/Tavangarian manor, with restoration of the original home to shore up its 60-year-old frame and much of the interior remaining as when Taylor lived in it, right down to the huge room where she kept her fabled jewelry in velvet lined cases.
Newness is coming from a large addition that will blend with and connect to the existing home, Tavangarian said in discussions with The Post — putting to bed persistent reports, and the resultant public outcry, that the legendary home was already torn down or was on its way to being so.
Instead, it will be a melding “from the heart,” Tavangarian said. “We’re trying to create something that is a continuation of Elizabeth Taylor and her legacy while creating a phase 2 to enhance the beauty that is already here.”
Taylor was an iconic actress and humanitarian activist who provided people decades of exceptional performances and much needed pathos.
She bought the estate for $2 million in 1981 from Frank Sinatra’s first wife, Nancy, and lived there until her passing in 2011, at age 79.
Some parts of the original 7,000-square-foot home will serve, in essence, as the Elizabeth Taylor wing, with rehab planned for her master bedroom and bath, her beauty center and other areas she treasured.
“We’re just modernizing it from a point of view of functionality,” Tavangarian said.
Tavangarian also plans a gallery for the home filled with Elizabeth Taylor-related artwork.
The rest of the home is being remodeled to smoothly transition to an additional 12,000-square-foot buildout that has already seen a massive hill next to the house leveled to create an area that will include Tavangarian-signature touches.
These include subterranean framing and deep foundation footings that will allow walls, floors and ceilings to be built underground and shored up like a heavy-duty bunker to hold back thousands of tons of shifting earth.
There will also be a 4,500-square-foot retractable roof for stargazing, as well as an expansive grass overlay.
Taylor’s ranch-style home is 2 levels, with 5 bedrooms, and the addition will stand that tall and 3 levels in some areas. The existing home’s brick exterior will remain and continue onto the new structure to create visual continuity.
The new structure will have 3 bedrooms, a high-end screening room, a spa and other wellness amenities, as well as a family “pajama room” where residents and guests can kick back and enjoy entertainment on a huge-screen TV while munching on popcorn and other treats from well-placed canisters in surrounding comfort.
Tavangarian vows to keep much of the estate’s original landscaping, removing only the thick bamboo that was on the now-defunct hill.
The outside will still boast Taylor’s striking sapphire-colored pool, which reflected the color of her eyes, amid natural landscaping and tall trees. The koi pond and shell-shaped fountain that her nephew built is being rehabbed and arbors of climbing roses and a bright pink hybrid tea rose named “Elizabeth Taylor” will still dot the area.
Tavangarian said he is restoring some areas of Taylor’s home to their original state after they were outfitted as a showroom and offices for a high-end audio/visual firm that rented the place from former owner Rocky Malhotra, and for a bit after Tavangarian bought the property from the razor blade tycoon in the summer of 2021.
The designer and builder said he paid $15 million for the compound and expects to put at least another $47 million into its rehab and buildout. The project does not have a buyer lined up, Tavangarian said, and he declined to say what he might list it for when it is finished next year. His custom mansions often trade north of $100 million.
Tavangarian’s uber luxury properties include the $135 million, 35,000-square-foot Bel Air mega mansion, Villa Siena. He told The Post he had a buyer for the long-listed and often price-reduced compound last month, but the deal fell through when the prospective purchaser reconsidered and determined they “didn’t want that kind of footprint in LA.”
The compound relisted this month at $135 million after originally being put up for sale in the fall of 2024 for $177 million.
Tavangarian said non-disclosure agreements keep him from saying more about the almost purchase, except that the prospective buyer was not part of the tech billionaire influx that had been accounting for many sales in the area.
Tavangarian’s scores of uber projects have broken real estate price records as they catered to the world’s most ultra-wealthy individuals over the past 4 decades. But building modern day palaces is no longer viable, the developer said. “First there was Covid, then the LA fires and now global unrest,” in addition to knots of local legislation making mega homes unappealing to developers and buyers.
After the Elizabeth Taylor property buildout, Tavangarian said he will continue building hotels, and more affordable “fire-proof” homes that can help rebuild the more than 16,000 structures that burned to the ground, or were left standing and uninhabitable, as fires tore across over 50,000 LA-area acres last year.
Tavangarian has already rebuilt one of these protective places in the Pacific Palisades for one of his daughters. Given the vast need for these very fire-resistant homes and the positive reception to his approach, “this is the direction we are headed in,” for his Arya Group design and building firm.
Right now, though, it’s about harkening back to Hollywood’s heyday with a modern twist through a property with a unique patina that Tavangarian feels Taylor “would be comfortable living in.”
“I’m approaching this as though she is my client,” he said.
