Palisades Isn’t Passing Fancy

Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has purchased a Pacific Palisades home for $2.5 million.

Bryant, now 20, was the youngest All-Star in NBA history when he played last year in the NBA All-Star Game in New York, and he was the youngest player ever to appear in an NBA game when he made his NBA debut in 1996.

He has a new six-year $70.9-million contract extension.

Bryant, who grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, leased the house for two years. Built in 1992, the house has six bedrooms and six baths in 8,200 square feet. The home also has an ocean view and a pool.

Bryant bought the house through his attorney but had been represented in his lease by Marilyn Convey and John Aberle of Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas Co., Pacific Palisades. Barbara Robinson of DBL Realtors, Beverly Hills, had represented the former owners in the lease.

Tony- and Grammy-winning lyricist and composer Jerry Herman has sold his Palm Springs home to a couple from San Francisco for about $1.9 million.

Herman wrote the scores for “Hello, Dolly!� “La Cage aux Folles� and “Mame.� Barbra Streisand is planning to be the executive producer and possibly the star of a three-hour film of “Mame� for ABC next season.

Herman also likes to refurbish houses. The Palm Springs house was his 27th. He redid the house, built in the 1950s for actress-singer Dinah Shore, and lived there for five years.

“I loved it very dearly,� he said, “but it really was a house better suited to a family. It is so rambling, and it has a tennis court and is on a couple of acres.�

The 7,000-square-foot house has a three-bedroom guest wing, master suite with a sunken spa-tub, a maid’s quarters, media room, sauna, pool and pool house. Herman took the house back to its original glass-and-stone architecture and designed the interiors in shades of sand and bronze.

“Houses are like shows to me,� he said. “Now I’m ready for another one.�

Mike Shanley of Coldwell Banker Edie Adams Realty, Palm Springs, had the listing.

William Wardlaw, California state chairman for the 1992 and 1996 Clinton presidential campaigns and chairman for the 1993 and 1997 Riordan mayoral campaigns in Los Angeles, has put his Pasadena home on the market at $2.9 million.

Wardlaw is moving to another home he owns in the area. He is a partner with merchant bankers Freeman Spogli & Co. Inc.

He has owned the house he just listed since 1991. It has four bedrooms, a family room and a library in 5,522 square feet. It also has a five-car detached garage with a two-bedroom apartment on the top floor, and a gym, sauna and bath on the lower level. The grounds, nearly an acre, have a pool and a spa.

The English country-style house, which was built in 1928, is listed with John Tartaglione of Coldwell Banker Previews in Pasadena.

A Los Feliz house owned at one time by actress Geena Davis and, earlier, by actress Jane Withers has been listed at $6.8 million.

The house was built in 1926 for A.P. Giannini, founder of the Bank of America, real estate sources say. Davis bought it for $1.3 million in 1992. Soon after, the house became an eyesore when it was torn apart for refurbishing and left unfinished.

The property was sold for about $1.4 million in 1997 to W/B Housing Group, a partnership. Since then, the house has undergone major renovations.

It has four bedrooms plus maid’s quarters, a gym and a theater in about 10,000 square feet. A pool is almost completed. There is room to park two limousines on the property.

Dorothy Carter of Coldwell Banker, Sunset Strip, and Jade Mills of the firm’s Beverly Hills South office share the listing.

Ulf Johansson, co-founder of the Swedish Traktor Film Co., and his wife, Annika, have purchased a four-bedroom 2,500-square-foot house in Santa Monica for about $850,000.

Johansson’s entire staff and partners--a total of eight families--have moved to the area from Sweden. The Johanssons were here for four months when they bought the first house they inspected. Now he can walk from home to his offices on 2nd Street.

His company, known for its wacky humor, has shot such TV commercials as the Taco Bell spots with the talking Chihuahua. The company is also about to shoot its first American feature film, a dark comedy called “Shiny New Enemies.�

Elaine Golden Gealer of Coldwell Banker’s Santa Monica office represented the Johanssons in their home purchase.