Milwaukee Brewers co-owner asking $75mn for LA estate.

In Los Angeles, a mansion built for the co-owner of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team is up for sale. The 3.5-acre mansion called "Ochos Manos" is located in the Brentwood neighborhood and includes a main house of about 20,000 square feet, according to realtor Carolwood Estates.

Owners

The owners are financier Robert Beyer, who is also a member of the Brewers' team advisory board, and his wife, Katherine Beyer. Robert Beyer said in an email that the couple purchased the bulk of the land in Brentwood in 2000, looking for a large flat lot to build a home for them and their young children. At the time, the property was home to a "beautiful but old-fashioned ranch house" built in the 1940s, Beyer said. The couple dismantled the original house and donated parts of it to the museum. They then expanded their property by acquiring three neighboring lots, including one formerly owned by the great film director Frank Capra, Beyer said.

They then invited later deceased architect Bob Ray Offenhauser to design the eight-bedroom main house, styled in a Mediterranean style with exquisite stone work. One of the biggest challenges was finding authentic Mallorca stone for construction because it could only be quarried in Spain. The couple found the general contractor responsible for renovating La Residencia Hotel in Mallorca, Spain, and invited him to Los Angeles. He agreed to dig up existing building lots to provide them with the stone they needed. He shipped huge crates resembling wooden bakery boxes to the U.S. within a year, Beyer said. Construction of the estate took about three years after nearly two years of development. Completed in 2005, the estate has a gym, a cellar for 1,200 bottles of wine, a game room and a gift-wrapping room.

The estate and amenities

The stone for the house was imported from Spain.

Sale and demand

Beyer, the former CEO of investment firm The TCW Group, has been a minority owner of the Brewers baseball team since 2005. He said he and his wife divide their time between California, Sun Valley, Idaho, and Southern France. They sold because, he said, with the children grown, they couldn't make the best use of the house. "I think a large and joyful home with an expansive lot is like a fast car and deserves a frequent 'ride,'" he said. "Although the house is quite livable even for both of us, most of the time we can't enjoy all of its space, especially the spacious grounds." The land is for sale by Drew Fenton and the Beyers' son, Andrew Beyer, both of Carolwood Estates. Despite the decline in luxury deals in Los Angeles, Andrew Beyer said he sees continued demand for unique properties. "There are no flat areas like this on the West Coast," he said. "A facility like this always has its own demand segment. "