Real Estate Industry News

If your weekend streaming list includes the HBO MAX drama Ballers, chances are this 10,000-square-foot trophy home in the Hollywood Hills may look familiar.

Owned by Los Angeles-based developer Michael Mueller, the $19.99-million tour de force was used as a setting in final season of the sports drama series, with its decadent appearance embodying the extravagant lifestyles of the show’s wealthy characters.

“This property had to be all about glass, all about floating,” Mueller shared in a recent sit-down with Forbes. “The big key design is that the inside becomes the outside, especially in California where you can leave the doors open.”

Mueller, whose famous clients have included Nicole Kidman, Sharon Stone and Nicolas Cage, also served as designer of the estate, which was completed in 2019. Before the new construction, the one-acre hillside property was previously owned for more than 50 years by Leslie Nielsen of The Naked Gun and Airplane! fame.

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Contemporary in design and execution, the five-bedroom, eight-bathroom dwelling implements staples of modern, innovative architecture, with free-form shapes, an asymmetrical layout and landscape-integrated structures.

The interior suits modern tastes with an open floor plan, expansive walls of disappearing glass and natural material accents. Decorative touches like golden fixtures, bold wall patterns and high gloss surfaces add an air of Hollywood Regency glamour.

“It’s a very cutting-edge design,” shares listing agent Jonathan Nash of Beverly Hills-based Hilton & Hyland. Nash believes the property is tailored for the quintessential Hollywood lifestyle that draws many to Los Angeles. “It might be an international buyer, or someone in entertainment. I believe [the property] lends itself well to a musician or someone involved in crypto or tech because it’s completely automated.”

A spacious kitchen fits two stone islands, one topped with Caesarstone and another composed of slabs of mica-accented granite.

Other marbled stone statement pieces are found throughout, seen in the double-sided fireplace, Italian-granite backsplash and black, rhombic wet bar.

An impressive two-story dressing room resides in the home’s primary suite, which also features a fireplace, seamless outdoor-transitional glass wall and a deluxe bathroom with a soaking tub, dual showers and a makeup vanity.

Other amenities include a state-of-the-art fitness studio, media room and three-car showcase garage.

Outdoor spaces include a rooftop lounge, a dramatic, arched infinity pool and an array of balconies with views that stretch from downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean.

“I would say that living in this house is like living in the sky in a modern world where you are surrounded by all the beauty that Los Angeles has to offer,” Mueller said.


Hilton & Hyland is an exclusive member of Forbes Global Properties, a consumer marketplace and membership network of elite brokerages selling the world’s most luxurious homes.