Home that Dustin Hoffman & Paul Manafort’s Son-in-Law Planned to Turn into L.A. Spec Home Sells for $5.2M
THE HOLLYWOOD ‘BIRD STREETS’ NEIGHBORHOOD HOME BELOW WAS PART OF A PROLONGED LEGAL TANGLE BETWEEN THE TWO PARTIES
Aug 23rd, 2018
San Jose, CA – Sridhar Equities has acquired control of a prominent Hollywood home that has been at the center of a dispute between actor Dustin Hoffman and Jeffrey Yohai, former son-in-law of Paul Manafort. Sridhar paid $5.2 million all in cash to gain control of the property, which had previously been sold to Yohai at a price of $7.5 million three years before.
With the help of a $3 million investment by Hoffman and his son Jacob, Yohai had acquired the property in 2015 with the intention of constructing a much larger three-story housing structure worth an estimated $30 million. However, these grand plans were placed on hold when Yohai’s company filed for bankruptcy in 2016.
Headed by investor Matt Sridhar since inception in 2001, Sridhar Equities is known for selectivity in the acquisition of their assets and for adding significant value to the properties they acquire. The investment company’s interest in this real-estate gem in the upscale Hollywood neighborhood, therefore, made perfect sense as it fell right within their expertise. Sridhar has plans to reinvigorate this Blue Jay Way home and rescue it from the foreclosure in which it has languished for the past year.
The legal proceedings that had surrounded the property prior to Sridhar’s purchase involved a petition to rescind Yohai’s filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This petition was made to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court by Dustin Hoffman and his son, and its success enabled the entity’s conversion from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7 bankruptcy. This change was responsible for the property’s subsequent liquidation: it enabled a trustee to be appointed to facilitate its sale, so that some investors could recover a portion of their investments. The home was then auctioned to a real estate fund controlled by Genesis Capital Bank.
Upon its return to the market, the list price for the property was $7 million, and Joshua and Matthew Altman of Douglas Elliman controlled the listings on the behalf of Genesis Capital Bank. Another Douglas Elliman agent, Nicholas Mortland, represented a Sridhar Equities controlled entity as the buyer.
The home, which sits on a quarter-acre plot, boasts 3,056 square feet on the coveted Hollywood street and a panoramic view that takes in the Los Angeles area and extends out to the Pacific. Now that the plans by Yohai and Hoffman to build a $30 million three-story luxury home have been scrapped, the new owners Sridhar Equities plan to construct a property with a lavish and contemporary aura befitting the luxury of the neighborhood and opulence its environs.
Sridhar Equities Vice President Joe Nigos Jr. reported to Mansion Global, “We’re going to build out a pretty big spec home, but we’re not going to go with the same design.”
The incident that put the home on the market was not isolated, reports the LA Times. Paul Manafort was one of a few other investors to have offered financial support to Yohai’s real estate undertakings. However, all those deals fell through as a result of Yohai’s unpaid loans and subsequent bankruptcy filing. Manafort was himself recently convicted on bank fraud and tax evasion charges.
The Real Deal, NY TImes, and several other news outlets have reported previously on the continued investigation around Mr. Manafort & Mr. Yohai’s business dealings surrounding the alleged 2016 presidential election tampering.
For more information, please contact Dan Saltzman at (408) 365-4911, email via pr@sridharequities.com, or visit the Sridhar Equities website at sridharequities.com