Yahoo News HauteLook Founder Adam Bernhard Flips Fashionable Sunset Strip Home
The carefully tailored and fashionably dressed Sunset Strip home of Adam Bernhard, founder and former CEO of the members-only discount flash sale site HauteLook, has popped up on the market with a hang tag marked with the not-exactly-bargain-basement-price of $5.149 million.
The serial entrepreneur, who once owned a chain of pizzarias in mall food courts, launched HauteLook in 2007 and sold it to Nordstrom in 2011 for a staggering $270 million, $180 million in Nordstrom stock plus a three-year earn-out of up to $90 million. Like many retailers, Covid-19 has hit Nordstrom hard this year; stock prices have dropped by more than 50% from the more-than-$41-per-share price at the pandemic’s onset in late February.
More from Variety
Purchased by Bernhard not even one-and-half years ago for almost $4.3 million, and accurately described in listings held by Ben Belack at The Agency as a “sophisticated departure from the modern boxes carved into the hillside above the Sunset Strip,” the freshly rehabbed late-1940s East Coast traditional — a kind of Cape Cod meets faux-timbered Tudor mash-up surrounded by lush, semi-tropical gardens — sits on more than a quarter-of-an-acre and is all but invisible behind a verdant wall of foliage, mature trees and secured entry gates.
Inside, a smattering of traditional details like diamond-paned and casement windows balance out more modern decorative flourishes such as minimalist fireplaces, pale hardwood floors and sugar-white walls hung with contemporary art. Just inside the front door, the ample step-down living room is anchored by a sleek fireplace, and French doors open the simply-but-sumptuously furnished room to the swimming pool. The custom-cut gold silk carpeting in the living room is repeated in the separate dining room, where French doors open to a massive entertaining terrace and sport court complete with basketball hoop.
In the kitchen, which incorporates a cozy eating space with thick-cushioned banquette seating as well as a snack bar at the huge center island, lightly veined white marble countertops are juxtaposed against jet-black lacquered cabinetry and premium-quality stainless steel appliances make a shimmering contrast from the en vogue raw brass fixtures. The main floor is rounded out by a small den with backyard access and a sumptuously glammed-up family room painted gunmetal grey and highlighted by a glitzy brass fireplace and a brass-countered wet bar. French doors open to a small loggia just above the swimming pool. The glam quotient is significantly dialed back in the four comfortable, sparely outfitted upstairs bedrooms that include a primary suite that offers a sitting area, a marble bathroom and a full wall of windows that provide a dreamy over-the-treetops city lights view.
Bernhard owns at least two other multi-million-dollar homes in the L.A. area. In 2006 he dropped almost $1.2 million for a ranch-style traditional in the Benedict Canyon area of Beverly Hills — it’s been extensively upgraded and occasionally comes up for rent, most recently a few years ago at $8,500 per month — and, in 2016 he ponied up nearly $3.3 million for a cabin-like 1970s contemporary sequestered behind the discreet gates of a prestigious gated enclave that provides use of a co-owned tennis court and private access to popular, postcard-perfect Paradise Cove beach.
Launch Gallery: Peek Inside HauteLook Founder Adam Bernhard’s Stylish Sunset Strip Home
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
