How America’s $500 Million Megamansion Dream Turned Into A Real Estate Nightmare

• The One was meant to be America’s most expensive and luxurious home.
• The 105,000ft² Bel-Air mansion featured a Monaco-style casino and a private nightclub.
• After ending up with $180 million USD of debt, the property sold at auction for just $126 million (~$200 million AUD) — a far cry from the original idea.

In luxury real estate, some properties make the headlines for their beauty or unique features — like California’s “Drift Mansion” with its private race track, or Bengaluru’s “Sky Mansion” perched atop a 33-story tower. But some end up making headlines for their downfall — like The One, a Bel-Air mansion that is so large and over-the-top, it feels more like a movie set than a place you would actually live in.

Nile Niami, the developer of the place, launched this project in 2014 with one goal: to build America’s biggest, most mind-blowing mansion. And with the first look, it seemed like he had made his dream come true. The One is perched on a Bel-Air hilltop with sweeping views of Los Angeles and covers around 105,000 square feet. It’s like a small town; inside it, there are twenty-one bedrooms with 42 bathrooms.

There is also a 50-car garage (because why have one Lamborghini when you can have fifty?), a private movie theatre with seating for 24, and a four-lane bowling alley. There’s also a nightclub in the house for anyone who feels like throwing a Hollywood-style bash. And for those evenings when only a glass of fine wine will do, there’s a cellar stocked with around 10,000 bottles.

And let’s not forget the outside, which has infinity pools that look like they’re floating above Los Angeles, plus a full-on Monaco-style casino. Niami wasn’t humble about it either, saying, “No house like it.” He wasn’t just building a home but making a statement with a price tag of half a billion dollars.

Unfortunately, Niami’s dream didn’t become the reality he had always hoped for. The mansion was designed with extravagance for a billionaire who craved such indulgence, but it ended up being a financial nightmare, with construction continuing for years and, therefore, causing high costs while paperwork and legal problems were just the cherry on top.

By 2021, The One had become a $180 million debt sinkhole and Niami’s vision wasn’t able to attract a billionaire buyer who was willing to pay even half the asking price. In 2022, when the mansion finally went up for auction, the final sale price ended up being only $126 million (~200 million AUD). This broke auction records, but comparing it with the original price, $126 million, it felt like a pocket change.

For Niami, who proudly envisioned the home as “the Mona Lisa of real estate,” the dream dissolved into a mess of lawsuits, insurmountable debt, and bitter disappointment — far from the masterpiece he had imagined. The One was supposed to set a new standard for luxury living, a property so extravagant that even “too much” wouldn’t suffice. Instead, it became a financial disaster and a lasting nightmare for its creator.