The Mountain Beverly Hills

About

The Mountain Beverly Hills, formerly known as The Vineyard Beverly Hills, is a 157-acre (64 ha) undeveloped property in Beverly Hills, California reportedly worth $1 billion.

Princess Shams Pahlavi, the sister of Iran’s last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, bought it in the 1970s and intended to build the shah a $20 million palace in exile after his overthrow in 1979. It never materialized and she sold it in 1987 to Merv Griffin for a reported $6.5 million. Griffin effectively sliced off the top of the mountain, grading 14 acres and removing about 2 million cubic yards of dirt. He planned an expanse including a 58,000-square-foot house, a helipad and a couple of lakes, but instead found himself busy with other real estate deals, including his 1987 purchase of the Beverly Hilton Hotel and several other hotels. Later, he divided the property into six lots for potential development. In 1997, Mark R. Hughes, the founder of Herbalife, bought the property for $8.5 million after that, it went through a number of owners, following a complex lawsuit after Hughes' death.