Four Seasons adds posh condos near Beverly Hills

Some of the most expensive condominiums in Los Angeles — highlighted by a $50-million penthouse — are slated to be built in a Four Seasons-brand complex on the edge of Beverly Hills.

The posh 59-unit Four Seasons Private Residences-Los Angeles is scheduled to open in 2017 across the street from the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills. It will be operated independently from the hotel but have similar amenities, including its own concierge and kitchen serving residents and their guests.

Sales prices are expected to be as much as 50% higher than other luxury condos in the neighborhood, where units at the Montage Residences Beverly Hills and Sierra Towers in West Hollywood top $2,400 a foot, developer Jonathan Genton said.

The $50-million Fours Seasons penthouse will have a 9,000-square-foot garden and a swimming pool. Its owner will be able to come and go via an exclusive elevator connected to a private six-car garage. It has already been reserved.

“There is a huge appetite for high-end residential condos” in the region, said Sandra Miller of Engel & Voelkers, who brokers expensive properties. She pointed out an oceanfront penthouse at the Sechyelle in Santa Monica that recently sold for $3,795 a foot.

Buyers include baby boomers were are “aging out” of their big houses, and investors from around the world looking for a relatively safe way to diversify their financial holdings, she said..

Condominiums connected with top brand hotel chains have grown in popularity in recent years, but they typically share the building or grounds with the hotel itself. In downtown Los Angeles, the Ritz-Carlton Residences at L.A. Live are atop the skyscraper that houses the Ritz-Carlton. Residents share a swimming pool and gym with hotel guests and can order room service from the hotel.

Genton hopes having some distance from the popular five-star hotel will work in his favor with buyers who want to feel exclusive.

“Skeptics said we should be physically connected to the hotel,” he said, or at least offer services from the hotel. “We said no, we need everything connected to the brand, but in an ideal world you don’t share elevators or services with hotel guests at this price. The buyers do not want transient guests in their space.”

Representatives of Four Seasons Private Residences, a division of the Four Seasons hotel chain, will operate the building on behalf of the homeowners’ association. Dues will run about $5,000 per month for the larger units, Genton said, about 25% more than the dues at most competing condos properties.

There will be different types of residences in the complex. In addition to the lavish penthouse and conventional units in a 12-story tower at Third Street and Weatherly Drive, there will be four-story and two-story wings on Weatherly and Almont Drive respectively, with two-story townhouses.

Genton, head of Genton Property Group, has been keeping the project under wraps in Los Angeles until now but marketing the units in Riyadh and Asia. He will travel to Indonesia and China in the next few weeks and then seek buyers in Europe. About a third of the units have been reserved with cash deposits.

roger.vincent@latimes.com

Twitter: @rogervincent