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A Hollywood Mogul Downsizes From His $60 Million Malibu Paradise

This article is more than 10 years old.

This story appears in the November 4, 2012 issue of ForbesLife. Subscribe

It's easy to get lost driving to George Rosenthal's vacation retreat. Nestled among the hills of Malibu, the 235-acre estate has its own GPS-scrambling private street, hidden behind a discreet wooden gate. The Hollywood real estate mogul wouldn't have it any other way.

"We wanted to create a vacation place close to our home in Santa Monica where we could invite friends and not have to get on an airplane or pack a bag," explains Rosenthal, as he strolls under the pergola on the patio, which overlooks surrounding hills adorned in terraced rows of grape vineyards spanning across Newton Canyon. "You can sit here and pretend to be anywhere in the world."

And an escape from his work life in Los Angeles was the idea. Rosenthal, 81, founded the real estate development and investment company Raleigh Enterprises in 1955. The multimillion-dollar company is responsible for more than 10 million square feet of real-estate globally, much of it in and around Los Angeles, including hotels, shopping centers, residential apartments, and film studios. He created L.A.'s iconic celebrity hideaway, the Sunset Marquis Hotel, which was the first all-suite-style hotel in the United States. He pioneered the use of tilt-up concrete walls in film studio soundstages, which have become an industry standard.

In the late 1970s, he decided he needed a place to get away and discovered the Malibu property . The process was slow: Over the next 35 years there, he constructed a hacienda-style main house, guest casitas, a six-car garage, an exercise area, three swimming pools, and two barns, which were once used by his wife, Karen Sharp, to breed Andalusian horses.

Inspiration came from his late friend, billionaire Univision owner Emilio Azcarraga, who used to host leisurely, afternoon-long lunches with Rosenthal at his Mexican mansion. To re-create that feel, Rosenthal traveled to small villages in Mexico to find artisans who could hand-lay river-bottom pebbles in a fountain-studded entry courtyard; chisel and install salmon-stone lined quatrefoil windows; sculpt silver chandeliers; and create bathrooms from Mexican onyx. In a small town outside of Guadalajara, he found an artist to hand-carve murals into doors made of ironwood. That process took more than a year to complete.

"When you look at the stone columns and other features, there wasn't an architectural plan," says Rosenthal. "It was all from ideas."

Another of Rosenthal's ideas: a winery on the estate. In 1987, he became the first aspiring vintner to utilize Malibu's nutrient-rich soil and favorable climate to grow grapes, planting original root stocks found after two years of research done by viticulturists at the University of California, Davis. Rosenthal The Malibu Estate produced its first vintage in 1991. Today, the 25 acres of planted grapes yield up to 5,000 cases of wine--Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Chardonnay, to name a few--per year. "I can't write music or paint, but I do get in my head a vision of real estate development," says Rosenthal of his vacation retreat. "The joy for me is the journey."

And now, with the Malibu journey completed, Rosenthal will embark on another: downsizing. His Malibu estate was recently listed at $ 59.5 million. (The wine brand will remain in operation.) The Rosenthals are also selling their 70-acre Jigsaw Ranch in Aspen, for $47.5 million.

What's next? A custom-built Benetti yacht that will sport a modern aesthetic with "comfortable sofas and easy-to-sit-in dining room chairs," he says. He wants to ensure the continuation of those leisurely lunches. He thinks he'll need the downtime. After all, his professional life is only getting busier--Raleigh Enterprises is expanding overseas. The company recently completed a film studio in Hungary and has another under construction in China. James Cameron will use Raleigh Studios to film his upcoming Avatar movies as well.

"I will miss the ability to be totally tranquil after leaving the office after a hectic day," says Rosenthal of his Malibu retreat. "But I think the yacht will take care of that."

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