(Bloomberg) -- A bankruptcy court judge approved the sale of a Los Angeles mega-mansion for $141 million, after objections that the price wasn’t high enough to compensate creditors.

The 21-bedroom, 49-bath property in the Bel Air district, dubbed “The One,” has more than $250 million in debts. 

The highest bid at a March 3 auction was less than half the $295 million list price for the estate and a fraction of the $500 million once floated by its developer, whose firm filed for bankruptcy last year when lenders moved to foreclose on the decade-in-the-making project.

Deborah Saltzman, the judge in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court case, said the sale should proceed despite the disappointing price.

“It doesn’t feel like a good result,” Saltzman said Monday. “It’s a justified result.”

Opponents of the sale had complained about the lack of a minimum required bid for the property and said the war in Ukraine had a deterred offers from to potential foreign buyers.

The brokers selling the property said the auction price was reasonable, because potential bidders were deterred by the lack of a certificate of occupancy and construction problems that had nothing to do with global events. 

 

The top bidder, Richard Saghian, founder of apparel line Fashion Nova, argued that the court should accept his purchase because he followed the agreed-upon process and has the means to pay. Saghian could walk away if the sale is delayed, his attorney Sam Newman said.

“He is going to lose interest and go onto other things,” Newman said during Friday’s hearing.

The project’s largest creditor, Don Hankey, with $132 million in claims, supported the sale. Putting the property out to market again was based on “hope and prayer and speculation” that someone would pay a higher price, Tom Geher, Hankey’s attorney, said Friday.

“This is the real value of the property,” Geher said. “It’s not the make-believe-fairy-tale value of the developer.”

One creditor who contested was Joseph Englanoff, a Los Angeles doctor with approximately $20 million in claims. He argued the auction failed to attract higher offers partly because global markets were roiled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Potential buyers from the Middle East and Asia were among those who toured and expressed interest in the estate, but no one from overseas placed a bid, Englanoff said in a March 15 court filing. 

Attorneys for Inferno Investment Inc., a Canadian firm with approximately $20 million in claims, cited a written offer from a member of Saudi royalty who was willing to pay $160 million, and “multiple potential buyers circling with higher numbers.”

Saltzman dismissed those claims, noting that no formal or approved offers had been submitted since the auction.

The mansion’s developer, Nile Niami, also jumped in, announcing a plan to raise as much as $250 million from individual investors. That proposal was dropped when the property’s managers barred would-be investors from touring the estate. His attorney, Hamid Rafatjoo, argued more could be done to get a higher price.

“We’re not selling a tract home,” Rafatjoo said during Friday’s hearing. “There was a war and that war scared everyone.”

While he’d like to get money from “The One,” Niami said he now is focusing on a new project, a reality television network he’ll call “The One Truth.” He arrived for an interview last week at a Beverly Hills cafe in a chauffeured white Rolls Royce Phantom, accompanied by his girlfriend, who gave her name as Twiggy, and a bodyguard Niami calls Rhino.

“I’m not worried about The One,” Niami said. “I’m moving on.”

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