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Dustin Hoffman’s Los Angeles Investment Property Gets $1.5 Million Price Cut

The Hollywood Hills home, now selling for $7.45 million, is at the center of a legal dispute between the actor and Paul Manafort’s developer son-in-law

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The buyer would inherit the plans and permits for a luxury spec home, which renderings show would have been a three-story mansion built into the hillside with "jetliner views."

Douglas Elliman
The buyer would inherit the plans and permits for a luxury spec home, which renderings show would have been a three-story mansion built into the hillside with "jetliner views."
Douglas Elliman

A homesite at the center of a dispute between actor Dustin Hoffman and developer Jeffrey Yohai, the son-in-law of Republican strategist Paul Manafort, has taken a $1.5 million price reduction, according to listing records on real estate site Redfin.

The Hollywood Hills homesite where Mr. Hoffman, his son Jacob Hoffman and Mr. Yohai planned to build a contemporary glass mansion is now selling for $7.45 million—$50,000 less than what Mr. Yohai paid for the property in 2015, according to property records.

More:Check Out Another Property in the Bird Streets—Matthew Perry's $13.5 Million Listing

The unbuilt spec home is at the center of a legal dispute between the Hoffmans and Mr. Yohai, who is married to the daughter of President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Mr. Manafort.

Mr. Hoffman and his son made a $3 million investment in the project, using a limited liability company called DJ Blue Jay Way, but the project stalled with only planning permits and designs in place when Mr. Yohai’s companies filed for bankruptcy last year, according to filings with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The Los Angeles Times first reported the unlikely business dealings between the Manafort family and the Hoffmans.

In March, Mr. Yohai took a step toward settling his debts by hiring celebrity real estate agent Josh Altman of Douglas Elliman—who appears on the Bravo reality show "Million Dollar Listing"—to try and sell the property and spec home plans for $9.995 million. They chopped $1 million off the price tag in May and then reduced it again by another $1.5 million on Monday, listing records show.

Mr. Altman and lawyers for Mr. Yohai did not immediately return requests for comment.

As it exists today, the property on Blue Jay Way, in the coveted "Bird Streets," includes a modest three-bedroom, 3,056-square-foot home built in 1969, according to county property records. The buyer would also inherit the plans and permits for a luxury spec home, which renderings show would have been a three-story mansion built into the hillside with "jetliner views stretching from the Pacific to Catalina, Downtown and the L.A. Basin without any rooftop obstructions," according to the listing.

More:Ultra-Luxury Spec Homes Gaining in Popularity

While the Hoffmans were pleased Mr. Yohai had taken steps to try and sell the home in order to pay back his debt, they were concerned the effort would fail given the large number of similar homes for sale in the area, according to court filings.

"There is an excess inventory of high-end spec residential homes available in the adjacent vicinity," Mr. Hoffman’s lawyers wrote in a successful bid to convert the Chapter 11 bankruptcy to a Chapter 7. "To date, to (Mr. Hoffman’s) knowledge there have been no offers for the property."

The Hoffmans support auctioning the property if it fails to sell, according to the filings.

Lawyers for the Hoffmans did not immediately return a request for comment.