Pimco’s Gross pays $23 million to do a tear-down

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Pimco bond guru Bill Gross is willing to do his part to help the Southern California construction industry.

From Bloomberg News:

Bill Gross, who runs the world’s largest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., bought a home for $23 million on a gated island in Newport Beach.

The 11,000-square-foot Georgian-style mansion on Harbor Island has nine bedrooms and 12 baths and comes with 112 feet of waterfront that can accommodate two yachts up to 100 feet in length, said Bill Cote, a Realtor with First Team Estates in Newport Beach, who represented the seller.

Gross, whose fortune is estimated by Forbes magazine at $2 billion, becomes the third billionaire to own property on the island, which has 30 homes, Cote said. He joins Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren, whose worth is estimated at $12 billion by Forbes, and George Argyros, chairman of property company Arnall & Affiliates, with a fortune estimated at $1.8 billion.

Gross and his wife, Sue, plan to tear down the home to build a more contemporary mansion, Cote said. The original asking price of the property, which was owned by the estate of Elizabeth Colyear Vincent, who died in 2008, was $26 million.

The price was cut because of market conditions and the fact that there are few buyers with the resources of Gross, who paid cash for the property, Cote said.

‘He didn’t have to finance it,’ Cote said. ‘Bill has done well.’

Gross currently lives in an oceanfront mansion in Laguna Beach, south of Newport.

Gross didn’t return an e-mail message seeking comment. Realtor John McMonigle, whose company the McMonigle Group represented Gross in the purchase, declined to comment on the sale, citing a confidentiality agreement.

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the transaction.

-- Tom Petruno