Inman

Actor Rob Lowe’s one-time Montecito home lists for $22.5M

Jim Bartsch | Coldwell Banker

A California dream estate that Parks and Recreation actor Rob Lowe once called home is up for grabs for a hefty $22.5 million.

The “Owenshire” estate has hit the market in the wealthy coastal town of Montecito outside of Santa Barbara, the Wall Street Journal first reported. Built in the style of an English manor, it sits on 5.5 acres and was Lowe’s home during the early 2000s. The 17,000-square-foot house was built in the 1920s and has vine-covered brick walls, landscaped grounds and large fireplaces.

The property also comes with a pool, a large garden and conservatory, guesthouses, a workshop, a gym and an outdoor kitchen, in addition to a safe room, fur storage and an eight-car garage on the lower level.

“It’s like stepping into ‘Sense and Sensibility,'” agent Timothy Di Prizito of Coldwell Banker Global Luxury told the Wall Street Journal.

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The current owners, billionaire Peter Sperling and his wife Stephanie, who bought it from Lowe in 2005 for $25 million, renovated the property and are now listing it with Di Prizito and Joyce Rey. They first put it on the market in 2017 for $26.75 million and, after not finding a buyer, brought down the asking price. The Sperlings are also selling a second property in the area, a Spanish-style seven-bedroom estate called “Gloria,” for $16.495 million.

Former chairman of the for-profit education corporation Apollo Group, Sperling is in listed among the wealthiest people in the U.S. He and his wife own property all over the country but decided to sell these two as part of a downsizing after their children grew up.

Acting since the early 1980s in films like The Outsiders, Lowe has an Emmy award and two Screen Actors Guild awards. After transitioning from film to TV, Lowe starred in the West Wing, Parks and Recreation and Code Black. He and his wife Sheryl have continued living in Montecito after selling Owenshire — in August 2019, Lowe listed a mansion in the area for $47 million.

Email Veronika Bondarenko