Billionaire Peter Sperling sells pedigreed Montecito compound

Peter Sperling, son of University of Phoenix founder John Sperling, has sold a Montecito estate formerly owned by actress Jane Seymour for $10.5 million.

Designed by architects William A. Edwards and Joseph Plunkett and completed in the late 1920s, the 3.34-acre compound contains a 4,904-square-foot main house, a guesthouse, a pool house, a caretaker’s cottage, a tennis court, a pool and spa.

The main residence, built in Spanish Colonial Revival style, features a rounded turret entryway, wood-beamed ceilings, arched windows and wrought iron fixtures. A formal living room with raised ceilings and a fireplace takes in garden views. There are four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms.

Located on the lower end of the property, the guest house has a living room with a fireplace, an office, a full kitchen, a patio with a rose garden and a deck overlooking a creek. The caretaker’s cottage and pool house combine to offer three additional bedrooms.

Seymour and her third husband, David Flynn, owned the home in the early 1990s and later sold it to the wife of singer-songwriter Jeff Lynne for about $2.8 million in 1994.

Sperling, who owns other property in Santa Barbara County, acquired the property in 1996 for about $3 million, the Los Angeles Times previously reported. He had asked as much as $23 million for the home in 2009.

Riskin Associates of Village Properties Realtors were the listing agents, according to the Multiple Listing Service. Frank Abatemarco of Sotheby’s International Realty represented the buyer in the sale.

Sperling is chairman of the board of Phoenix-based Apollo Group, the parent company of the for-profit University of Phoenix. His net worth is estimated at $1.3 billion, according to Forbes.

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