Home Is Match for Tennis Star

Tennis star PETE SAMPRAS has purchased Grammy-winning saxophonist and songwriter KENNY G’s Benedict Canyon home for close to its $2.9-million asking price.

Built in 1976 and later remodeled, the Country English-style home has three bedrooms and 5 1/2 baths in more than 5,000 square feet. The home also has a recording studio, gym, pool and, of course, a tennis court. The home is on 1 1/2 acres.

The house was refurbished after an accidental fire in 1995 gutted the first floor, causing an estimated $275,000 in damage. It took 50 firefighters and a helicopter 45 minutes to put out the fire. The saxophonist and his wife, Lyndie, suffered minor smoke inhalation.

The couple, who had owned the Benedict Canyon home since the 1980s, purchased a Cape Cod-style six-bedroom home in Malibu in September for $12.5 million. That home has two guest houses, a gym and a theater on about two acres. They also own a Seattle home that has been on the market for slightly more than $25 million.

Sampras, 27, also has a home on a golf course in Orlando, Fla. The top-seeded Sampras, the youngest man to win the U.S. Open--when he was 19--has had more than 50 tournament victories in his career. He is close to finishing his sixth consecutive tennis season as the world’s top male player.

He is not married but has been dating actress Kimberly Williams.

Barbara Robinson of DBL Realtors, Beverly Hills, had the Benedict Canyon listing.

*

Southern California industrialist ROBERT VELOZ and his wife, Marlene, have purchased a 42-acre Montecito estate that was listed for sale in February for the first time since the 1930s.

The couple, who already had a home in Montecito, bought the estate for $14 million, according to local Realtors who were not involved in the transaction. The last asking price was $19 million. The buyers have put their home on the market at $9.25 million.

The 42-acre property was sold by a trust for the John and Heloise Bacon estate. John B.F. Bacon, who died in his 70s in 1964, was the grandson of John Baptiste Ford, who founded the Libby-Owens Ford Co. Heloise Bacon died a number of months ago.

The buyers are already in the process of restoring the house and grounds, where some fund-raisers are expected to be held. The couple is known for philanthropy as supporters of the Santa Barbara Art Museum and the Santa Barbara Zoo.

The estate includes an 8,000-square-foot main house, built by the Bacons in 1957, and a 4,000-square-foot Craftsman-style guest house, built in 1912. The grounds have a barn, gatehouse, herb and flower garden, orchard, two ponds and a lake.

Bob Lamborn of Pitts & Bachmann Realtors, Montecito, represented the buyers in their purchase and has their $9.25-million listing.

Sotheby’s International Realty, which just opened an office in Montecito, had the listing.

*

OTIS CHANDLER, former publisher of The Times, and his wife, BETTINA, are selling the smaller of their two ranches near Bend, Ore., so they can devote their time and energy to their new project: building a house in Ojai. The Chandlers have had a home in Ojai for years but decided recently to build another one.

Chan Tina, the ranch they decided to sell, encompasses 144 acres. They will keep their 850-acre ranch, which they purchased in the same area a year ago this month.

“He will maintain a part-time home here [at his other ranch], but his permanent residence will continue to be in Southern California,” said Craig Long, who has the $2.99-million listing at Coldwell Banker Morris Real Estate in Bend.

Both of the Chandlers’ ranches are in Oregon’s high desert. Chan Tina is on the Upper Deschutes River, in the Redmond area, and has views of the Cascades and the Deschutes River canyon. The larger ranch is on the Little Deschutes River.

The Chandlers have owned Chan Tina since 1995. The ranch has a new horse barn with stalls, paddocks and an outdoor arena; guest quarters over a shop with RV storage; a man-made lake stocked with rainbow trout; a stream; and a waterfall.

Otis Chandler, 70, was publisher of The Times from 1960 to 1980. He severed formal ties with Times Mirror when he retired from its board of directors in May. His collection of American motorcycles, classic cars and big-game hunting trophies is on display at his Vintage Museum of Transportation and Wildlife in Oxnard.

*

BRIAN ADLER, developer of the guard-gated Beverly Park in the Beverly Hills area, has started building a 30,000-square-foot Italian-style home there “on spec,” he said.

The house, on two acres, will have a screening room, basement, wine room, staff quarters and 6,000-square-foot garage, more than enough space to park 10 cars, according to architect Bill Hablinski’s plans. The house will be priced “probably in the $14-million range,” Adler said.