When Hacienda de la Paz listed for $53 million in 2013, the Los Angeles Times ran a significant feature, as did news outlets as far afield as London’s Daily Mail. ABC News’ Good Morning America dubbed the 51,000-square-foot estate the “Underground Mansion” for its stunning subterranean amenities.
This year the nine-bedroom, 8-acre compound is back on the market for the same incredible price. In Rolling Hills, a gated city on Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles, the home technically meets the community’s one-story height limit. However, there is much more here than meets the eye. Above ground, the L-shaped, ranch-style main home opens onto an outdoor swimming pool and patio with 180-degree views over the Pacific Ocean and city below. Also above ground is a guesthouse, a six-car garage, an apartment, a red-clay tennis court built to French Open specifications, a reflecting pool, a bocce court, groves of olive trees harvested for oil making, and 23 other varieties of fruit and nut trees that fill out the manicured grounds. What you do not expect is what lies beneath all of this.
Artisans and master craftsman from Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Morocco took 17 years to finish the house. Crews dug down five stories to accommodate a second tennis court built to U.S. Open specifications. An adjacent catering kitchen allows the space to double as a ballroom for parties of 350. Most impressive is the underground hammam that slyly unfolds among refreshment rooms and marble bathtubs surrounded by 24-karat-gold Venetian tile, steam rooms, massage showers, and a breathtaking indoor pool.
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