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A Statement on Billionaire’s Row
Long before The One made Nile Niami a household name, there was Opus. Perched on a 1.05-acre promontory in Beverly Hills’ Trousdale Estates — on a cul-de-sac so wealthy it would later inspire its own rebranding — Opus was the prototype for LA’s modern mega-mansion era, the house that proved a spec home could be marketed like a blockbuster film rather than a piece of real estate.
Designed by architect Paul McClean and completed in 2017, the glass-walled residence spans roughly 20,500 square feet (some records say over 22,000), with seven bedrooms, eleven bathrooms, and sweeping views that run from downtown Los Angeles all the way to the Pacific. It was, by any measure, an extraordinary house.
Gold Everything
Opus was conceived as decadence turned into a design language. The 10-car garage doubled as a private car museum, and it initially came stocked with a gold-wrapped Lamborghini Aventador Roadster and a gold Rolls-Royce Dawn. Inside, the finishes read like a luxury-brand index: Roberto Cavalli floors, Longhi doors wrapped in suede and embossed leather, and two pools — one indoors, one out.
The amenities stacked up relentlessly. A 170-bottle Cristal champagne vault paired with a “Winestation” that dispensed glasses at the perfect temperature. A 15-seat curved-screen theater with JBL Synthesis audio. A wellness center with hot and cold plunges, a beauty salon, and a steam massage room. A gourmet show kitchen and a separate catering kitchen for events.
The Video That Broke Real Estate Marketing
Opus debuted in February 2017 not with an open house but with a red-band “movie trailer”: a lingerie-clad woman waking to find gold-painted, half-naked models cavorting through the mansion’s halls, pools, and supercars. Niami kept telling the director to “go darker… go sexier,” .
The clip became 2017’s most notorious listing video, covered by media outlets around the world. It generated enormous attention
The Slow-Motion Price Collapse
What followed was a three-year lesson in spec-home gravity. Within months, the price fell to $85 million, with the cars and Hirsts quietly dropped from the package. By May 2019 it had plunged to $59.9 million.By early 2020, the mansion had slipped back to Niami’s own lender.
Enter the Doctor
That lender was Joseph Englanoff — the same physician-turned-developer behind La Fin at 1200 Bel Air Road and the Flicker Estate. County records show the house quietly transferred in February 2020 for $38.3 million.Englanoff was no stranger to the project. He was a longtime personal friend of Niami’s and one of several financiers who had supplied millions for the home’s construction.
Rebranded and Flipped
The house was renovated inside and out — the champagne fridge converted to a pantry, stone floors swapped for wide-plank oak, the iconic “O” sculpture at the entry water feature removed — and relisted in May 2020 at just under $60 million with Rayni Williams of Hilton & Hyland.The rebranded mansion sold for $48.4 million — a roughly $10 million profit on Englanoff’s debt-takeover price, within about a year.
