Heart throb actor of screen and television, Rob Lowe and his wife Sheryl have listed their classic Montecito, California estate for $47 million. Located in a celebrity-studded neighborhood, the buyer will be rubbing elbows with some of the world’s biggest stars including Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Gwyneth Paltrow and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Montecito is a much favored retreat away from the work-a-day world of filmdom, located 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles, between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Ynez Mountains in Santa Barbara County – with spectacular hillside views, nearby whale watching and beautiful weather.
The Lowe estate is a classic East Coast style and a stand out from the general Mediterranean architecture in the area. Sited on just over three acres, the main house was designed by architect Don Nulty, built-in 2009 and encompasses 10,000 square feet. Also on the grounds are a two-bedroom guest house, one-bedroom pool house with staff quarters and outdoor kitchen, pool and spa, tennis court with observation areas and lushly landscaped lawns large enough for team sports with mature trees and a vegetable garden. There are two outside fireplaces, terraces and loggias for relaxing or entertaining, a water serenade from fountains and a koi pond. Formal rose gardens overlook the lawn and from most any location one can enjoy sunsets over the Pacific.
Inside the main house totalling 20 rooms are large open formal rooms, a huge white and cheerful family kitchen, separate catering kitchen, eight bedrooms, eleven baths, office, library-music room with bar, family room, various conversation rooms and nooks, movie theater, well equipped gym and expansive wine cellar. There are nine indoor fireplaces throughout the house with one in the master suite.
Now 54 but still not looking a day over 30, Rob Lowe has had a busy career in both film and television and is still lighting up the screens. Starting out at age 19 in the movie hit The Outsiders in 1983 and St. Elmo’s Fire in 1985, his good looks and evolving acting skills kept his teenage fans who have turned middle age and are now binge watching him on The West Wing reruns. Lately he starred as Dr. Ethan Willis on the medical drama Code Black and this year appeared in Super Troopers 2.
Reminiscent of the country estates in Charlottesville, Virginia where he was born, Rob Lowe and his wife recreated a classic East Coast-style estate in 2009 in the celebrity outpost of Montecito, California which he has recently put on the market at $47 million. Suzanne Perkins of Sotheby’s International Realty, Montecito, is the listing agent.
| Photo courtesy of Jim Bartsch for Sotheby’s International Realty