What's The Most Expensive Property Sale In Manhattan Beach

Ah Ha.. got you thinking .... if you were thinking new on The Strand or in The Hill section you would be wrong..

The most expensive property recently sold in Manhattan Beach is a 889,059.6 square foot lot with about 584,746 sqft of buildings on a commercial property called Raleigh Studios. They just closed escrow at a reported price of $150,000,000. (Yep.. the zeros are in the right place)

Now with Sound stages, offices and other assorted buildings this is a tad over lot value but still a hefty chunk of change. In 1998 the land sold for $20,600,000. The rumored sale price in 2004 was about $100,000.000 and here we are three years later with an extra 50 mil added to the price. Now that's some appreciation.

I'm guessing that this is smaller then Manhattan Village but still a respectable sized piece of property in a city that sells lots by the square foot not the acre. I know it's hard to imagine a property with so much ground in Manhattan Beach where a really big lot is maybe 8000 sqft ...and depending on location... could sell for anywhere from $1.5m-$5 m for the land.

So of course I'm wondering what the land would be worth if it was zoned residential. What if you subdivided the parcel into roughly 5000 sqft lots.. some larger, some smaller.. on which you could build about a 1800-3400 sqft home.. current value in east Manhattan Beach for new homes is about $2.2-$2.4 on a smaller lot. Of course it would need to be a gated complex.. with a pool, maybe a gym etc.. some would have a golf course view, oh and let's make a section with a few single story homes that cater to 55+.. Prices could easily be between $1.6m for the 55+ ( a plan 5..single level in the Village just sold for $1.3 m)to $2.8m for the others.

Now we are looking at maybe 700,000 sqft of buildable space( minus 189000 sqft for recreation and common area) let's say you have about 170 homes of various sizes. That works out to about $882,000 per site at that $150m sale price which would leave a lot of room for some hefty profits..

I think the buyers got a bargain on the land.. so don't be surprised to see Studio Homes on the site some day.. If you think it can't happen.. Remember 20th Century Fox Studios most of the old studio lot is Century City today.