When Bob Hope’s John Lautner-designed masterpiece on Southridge Drive went on the market in 2013, the price was an even $50 million. If the house sold, that would have been the highest price paid for a home in Greater Palm Springs, surpassing Larry Ellison’s 2011 purchase of the Porcupine Creek estate for $42.9 million. It might’ve been timing (real estate in the Valley was still dragging itself out of a recent recession) or the prospect of high heating bills, but there were no takers.
Finally, in 2016, Ron Burkle purchased the home for $13 million – not chump change, but nowhere near a record setter. The record nearly fell in 2022 when a Guy Dreier-designed estate at Bighorn Country Club sold for $42 million, falling just a few hundred grand short of Ellison’s record. Now, that same Bighorn estate is back on the market for $59 million. If it sells, it will make Burkle’s preservation-inspired purchase of the Hope/Lautner house look like the bargain of the century.
