Senator Kelly Loeffler and her husband, New York Stock Exchange owner Jeff Sprecher, have added to their already noteworthy collection of personal residences with the $5.3 million purchase of a Los Angeles estate. The all-cash transaction closed earlier this month, according to records, and the house was technically acquired by the Atlanta-based couple’s family trust.
Set in a sylvan canyon widely considered to be the most exclusive pocket of L.A.’s Studio City neighborhood, the new Loeffler-Sprecher digs also have a slight bit of celebrity history. From 2001 until 2003, the property was owned by comedian Tom Green and his then-wife Drew Barrymore. Following the demise of their brief marriage, the erstwhile couple flipped the house to restaurateur Rafael Vega, owner of longtime Sherman Oaks Mexican eatery staple Casa Vega, and it was Vega who subsequently sold the property to Loeffler and Sprecher. According to the Movieland Directory’s researchers, the house was also once occupied by Mickey Rooney.
Hidden behind tall walls and gates, the ranch-style compound spans 1.1 acres — unusually spacious by L.A. standards — and includes a rambling house, detached guesthouse, lush gardens and forested grounds that, per the listing, is defined by a 400-year-old oak tree.
The single-story main residence, originally built in 1952 as a humble midcentury ranch-style house, was later renovated by Vega into a vaguely Spanish, red tile-roofed structure with decidedly rococo interiors awash in a sea of gold and crystal.
Opulent spaces include formal living and dining rooms, a wood-paneled family room, and an eat-in kitchen with skylights and a bevy of fancy appliances. The master bedroom sports its own fireplace — one of five in the home — and also offers frilly wallpaper, a crystal chandelier, and a glass-roofed bathroom with its own chandelier and gilt-trimmed furnishings.
There are three guest bedrooms in the main house, plus the detached guesthouse that features another two bedrooms, a full bath, and a second kitchen. The guesthouse opens via glass doors to a spacious patio surrounding the backyard swimming pool, visually framed by nearby mature palms and other tropical plantings.
Loeffler, a staunch Republican and former business executive, has served as the junior U.S. Senator from Georgia since early 2020. The Atlanta Dream WNBA team co-owner has been much in the news recently, for everything from her controversial stance on Black Lives Matter, to stock sales during the coronavirus pandemic, to her vast wealth, which various sources usually peg at $500 million, although various media outlets have suggested could be as much as $800 million.
Loeffler is far and away the richest member of Congress, with the bulk of her net worth tied to her husband’s ownership of financial services juggernaut Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which acquired the New York Stock Exchange in 2013. The couple’s main residence is a massive Atlanta mansion that they bought in 2009 for $10.5 million, at that time the most expensive residential transaction ever recorded in the city. They also own homes in Florida, a condo in Chicago, a private jet, and a collection of vintage Porsches.
Karen and Jack Misraje of Compass held the listing; Matt Epstein at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices repped Sprecher and Loeffler.