Rodeo Drive to Be Roped Off for Gala Fund-Raiser

Rodeo Drive, that Beverly Hills rendition of New York’s 5th Avenue or Paris’ Rue Faubourg St. Honore, will be cordoned off for a few hours starting at 3 p.m. next Sunday for a party to benefit cancer research.

About 2,500 people are expected to donate at least $200 each to attend festivities planned in front of some of the highest-priced commercial real estate in the world. The monthly rate to lease retail space is about $6 to $10 a square foot, says Linda Trapp of the George Elkins Co. Merchants along the party stretch--from Brighton Way to Wilshire Boulevard--include Battaglia, Carroll & Co., David Orgell, Frances Klein, Georgio, Gucci, Jerry Magnin, Tiffany & Co., and the Beverly Rodeo and Beverly Wilshire hotels.

For the third year, George Elkins Co.’s Beverly Hills office will play a principal part in the fund-raiser, sponsored by the Concern Foundation for Cancer Research. The real estate office will contribute two coffee bars and 5,000 paper cups brightly printed in red, white and blue. “Americana a la Mode� is, after all, the theme of the annual party, which will feature regional food (such as New England clam chowder, Wisconsin cheese, Texas chili and Oregon berries) and volunteer entertainment, directed by Pierre Cossette.

Singer Andy Williams will star in the show, actors Lloyd Bridges and Ed Asner have signed up as celebrity bartenders, and Monty Hall will conduct an auction.

Ever hear of the Beverly Pavilion Hotel? It was a Holiday Inn until earlier this year.

Entrepreneurial hotelier Max Baril, who turned a former Hyatt into the Beverly Rodeo in 1973, put about $2 million into redesigning the eight-story, 110-room Holiday Inn in Beverly Hills with the help of the Becket Group of Santa Monica, architects.

The exterior was resurfaced, 22 windows were added, concrete-block screening was replaced with balconies and wrought-iron railings, guest rooms and suites were refurnished, a formal entry was created on Wilshire Boulevard, the corner restaurant was remodeled and renamed Colette, portholes were built in the rooftop pool to enable swimmers to get a view of the city, and voila! The French-born Baril opened another of his hotels a few steps away from Rodeo Drive. (Rates are $95 to $190 a night.)

Composer-conductor Johnny Mann is trying to sell his 30-year-old, three-bedroom California ranch-style house on 6.5 acres in Chatsworth for $1.8 million.

Not only that but he’s listed an adjacent seven-acre view lot at $1.4 million and another 4.5 adjacent acres at $787,500. “We’ll sell each piece individually or all three together,� he said. Helen Trembicki of Golden Rule Realty in Northridge has the listings.

Mann has lived in the house for 21 years. So why sell now? “We’ll be traveling so much with the Great American Choral Festival. We’ve been all over the country during the past four years, and we’ll be traveling a great deal more,� he explained. When not touring, he sometimes gets the Johnny Mann Singers together for a new album.

He and his wife have two grown daughters, so the house is really too large for his family now, he added. He has a place in Indian Wells. But where will he and his wife stay if he sells the house and then has business in L. A.? “Maybe we’ll get a condo here,� he replied.

Dennis Devine, son of that lovable, late actor Andy Devine, kicked off his first solo real estate development with a party well-attended by old friends and business associates.

Following the party, at his Pacoima/Lakeview Terrace construction site, Councilman Howard Finn gave Devine a proclamation, congratulating the builder for his efforts to develop affordable housing. Devine’s Foothill Homes is one of 39 projects being constructed by private developers under the city’s Home Mortgage Bond Program, which provides lower-interest-rate financing of home mortgages for first-time home buyers.

Under the program, Devine’s homes are being sold at 30-year fixed rates from 10.39% to 10.45%, and prices start at less than $100,000--such a deal that a spokeswoman for the city’s Housing Division, Community Development Department, said, “Public interest in Foothill Homes and the Home Mortgage Bond Program has been overwhelming.� About 1,500 people went through the models the weekend the project opened.