Slice of Paradise

Today’s luxury housing market trend has every smart investor scouring for fresh, new haute residential locations. Likewise, broker Raju Chhabria from Shorewood Realtors, knows how to attract such buyers by pairing an elegant lifestyle, filled with priceless delights, found in a blossoming West Coast city.

By Kristelle Devieux

Nowadays, the public is not content with the same old banal locations nor the most luxurious homes, they want more. They want the mansion as well as the optimum surrounding, environment, and lifestyle. As an experienced luxury real estate broker, Raju Chhabria, the number one real estate agent in all of Los Angeles county, knows how to please his clientele. Through partnerships with some of the country’s most attractive developers he’s obtained exclusive deals to represent many top-notch developments in L.A.’s newest “it” location: Palos Verdes Peninsula, dubbed as the West Coast’s “slice of paradise” and conveniently situated at the southernmost tip of Los Angeles county.

Blessed with perfect weather, Palos Verdes enjoys the most favorable climate of each season, with temperatures reaching the 80s in the summertime and the upper 60s in the “colder” seasons. Additionally, claiming the Pacific Ocean as its entourage both on its western and southern borders, the peninsula provides an array of aquatic activities, from yachting to sports fishing to simply tanning, the choices are endless. And for those who are still not impressed, the region’s geographical features provide the perfect locale for a myriad of cycling, biking, horseback riding, and more. The Peninsula also boasts three top-notch golf courses. Bringing back the simple pleasures of outdoor activities paired with luxe amenities, Palos Verdes Peninsula offers a vibrant lifestyle for everyone.

“The Palos Verdes Peninsula is one of the most beautiful ocean view communities you’re ever going to find. You’re only about thirty minutes to downtown Los Angeles, and forty-five minutes from Beverly Hills,” explains Chhabria.

As a way to stay ahead of the game, one of the unsurpassed pioneering developers, Trump Organization, set their eyes on the precious Palos Verdes area in 2005. With The Trump National Golf Course and The Estates at Trump National, Donald Trump and his team have developed an exclusive residential community complementing the Trump National Golf Club, Los Angeles. One of the most expensive courses in the country, tabbed at $250 million, the 18-hole Donald J. Trump Signature Design course spans 300 acres, with 2.5 miles of oceanfront property. By adding the right features and amenities, The Trump Golf Course and Estates has initiated the luxury real estate boom of Palos Verdes.

With lots ranging from 12,000 to 35,000 square feet, the average estate spreads from 6,000-10,000 square feet and includes five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. In accordance with Trump’s signature palatial interiors, the estates incorporate high ceilings, fully equipped state-of-the-art kitchens, and open transitional configurations from room to room. As expected, none of the estates will be the same; they’ll each have customized touches and different recreational accommodations to fit its residents’ personal habits. In doing so, models can reflect the buyer’s needs. For example a home can come equipped with a media room for the movie buff, a gym for the athlete, a wine cellar for the oenophile, or a library for the intellectual. Of course, each will have a swimming pool and exceptional concierge services. Furthermore, the positioning of the homes provides spectacular 180-degree ocean views, and each estate has the added perk of dedicated paths for golf carts leading directly to the course.

Amidst all these choices, Chhabria emphasizes that it’s not only the interiors that one should be impressed with. “The outdoor living is beautiful, filled with green areas and botanicals, beautiful unobstructed ocean views, and lots of parks.” The estates provide the perfect setting for ultimate living. Accessibility to the golf course, added to the city’s many more activities, creates an exceptionally opulent and active lifestyle, balanced with the comfort of seclusion and its surrounding vista. Simply put, theses estates are purely majestic!
With prices ranging from $4 to $10 million, Chhabria warns that “there are only going to be thirty-six estates. There are plans to start construction on five more, allowing buyers to opt for pre-construction-if they want us to build a custom home for them they can get involved early enough.”

One mile north of Trump’s Estates and Golf Courses, Chhabria is working on Palos Verdes’ second development, dubbed Terranea Resorts. A $2 billion project by the Lowe Hospitality Group (a division of Lowe Enterprises in Los Angeles) Terranea is currently under construction and set to open summer of 2009. Chhabria is co-marketing the property with the resort. The dream-duo are striving to ensure success of the development.
Terranea Resort will be the peninsula’s very first hotel, and the only approved resort in all of Los Angeles county. Situated along Palos Verdes’ pristine coastline and fashioned after old-world Spanish manors, Terranea Resort boasts 102 acres of coastal property. Made up of 500 rooms, the property includes yet another executive golf course and training facility; a 25,000-square-foot world-class spa; more than 60,000 square feet of indoor conference and event space; and swimming pools. To be cliché, it offers “the whole nine yards” alongside a secluded and sheltered beach for soulful relaxation.

Additionally, the development plans have allocated an extensive outdoor facility-after all we’re talking about the West Coast’s slice of heaven-celebrating the area’s natural splendor with outdoor venues for social, community, or business functions. In addition, three restaurants and a cliffside bar dot the property.

The development will also offer a limited collection of wholesale ownership Ocean Casitas and Villas with a seperate lock-off entry, starting in the low $2 million range. Each bungalow residence will feature 2,000 square feet of indoor living space with three bedrooms. Or, for those craving the more sumptuous choice, Terranea will offer a rare collection of Ocean Villas (of which there will only be 32). The single-family Villas will offer three floorplans ranging from 1,850 to 2,800 square feet of interior space with spacious great rooms, expansive terraces, gourmet kitchens, and private courtyards. Both the casitas and villas’ architecture will exhibit an elegant blend of authentic California and Spanish vernaculars, with soft earth tones, brick red tiled rooftops, and sweeping arches. Here, the spatial configuration invites a continuous interplay between indoor and outdoor spaces.

Capitalizing on the city’s natural wonders, both the Trump Golf Course and Estates and Terranea Resort bring back priceless simple pleasures paired with elegant refuges fit to suit every lifestyle. “For golfers, the Trump Golf Course and Estates is like a dream, people can play right on the ocean. It’s one of the most beautiful golf courses in California, and the property offers an extravagant lifestyle. At the same time, the Terranea Resort development is great for families and people who want to entertain guests, and for lavish vacationers,” explains Chhabria.

With some of the best public schools in the nation and a practically non-existent crime rate, Palos Verdes is well on its way to becoming the next Laguna Beach. “The thing is that very few people know that there is an upscale community in Palos Verdes and these two projects are going to bring more people in,” says Chhabria, confident of the peninsula’s utmost magnificence.