Gimme Shelter

By TAD BARTIMUS

Stuck on what color your marble floor should be? Can't decide between a five or six-car garage? Confused about whether you should turn a Tuscan or Zen image to the world? Don't panic, a plethora of taste arbiters have multiplied like e-mail addresses. For a fat fee they stand ready to create for you a personal lifestyle that will dazzle, in the inimitable words of Leona Helmsley, "the little people."

Oceanfront, a new development in Southern California, is real estate's flavor of the month following a recent spread in Newsweek. The beach-side, 132-acre complex on the Rancho Palos Verdes peninsula also has been featured in a slew of other media outlets from Frankfurt to Tokyo because it offers a unique approach to buying a house – just pay $10 million and move in.

"It's astounding, really" said Tim Hamilton, vice president of sales and marketing for Capital Pacific Holdings, which conceived Oceanfront and several other all-inclusive enclaves for the very very very VERY wealthy. Hamilton said he was amazed at the stampede of potential buyers – "from England and the Middle East, and there's a Chinese and a Korean, it really will be a diverse community" -- eager to snag a mock-Tudor or French Regency-style mansion before some other kazillionaire beats them to it.

Sixteen rooms, 8,000 square feet completely wired for computer nerds making a new IPO fortune every week and every convenience you can dream of, these houses are aimed at a young, hip market obsessed with luxury and lifestyle. A big cookie and a glass of milk are no longer sufficient rewards for whiz kids who've put in a few hard days in the market. They want opulence and gadgets but don't want to waste time shopping for them. Instead, they want to point, say "that one," and move in with just a toothbrush.

The Oceanfront development is an extension of the mindset that inspired Manolo Blahnik to create limited edition women's shoes – a pair of pearl-decorated alligator boots reportedly retail for $14,000 – and Louis Vuitton to put its corporate initials on bathing trunks. Purveyors of luxe goods know from their growing bottom lines that the buyers are out there with platinum cards burning a hole in their Armani pockets. It's no longer "give 'em what they want," it's "create fantasies and convince them they can't live without them."

Gold toilet handles are passe, cars as success symbols are old hat. New billionaires now measure status by the size of their private jet, the vintages in their wine cellar and the amount of "soft money" they've raised for at least one presidential candidate. Overnight millionaires celebrate with $20 hors d' oeurve nibblers, weekend hideaways that rent for $5,000 a night and Waterford crystal settings for 40.

Living in gated communities such as Oceanfront allow residents to "make a statement about their lifestyle," according to the hype. Marketing expert Hamilton said there's been such a demand -- 6,100 visitors since February – for information "we've hired one person fulltime just to load inquiries into the computer, and another fulltime person to liaison with brokers seeking details for clients too busy to call us themselves."

Hamilton said his company is "in various stages of negotiations" to sell Oceanfront's first five houses, even though none are completed yet. Buyers will be able to choose amenities that suit their, or their decorator's, taste. Even more convenient for Oceanfront's less self-confident buyers is a customizing service that will conjure up dishes for the cabinets, bathroom towels and art for the walls so that a client never has to choose between avocado or tangerine Formica.

Too bad. One of life's greatest joys is creating a home, slowly assembling it around a favorite old leather chair or a rug that's warmed your feet on many a winter's night. A house becomes a home through wedding pictures, shells found on the beach, finger paintings on the refrigerator. Charm accumulates in the honeymoon vase that always holds spring's first lilacs, on the sideboard where your grandmother's sterling silver tea service always sits.

Money can always buy wretched excess. But, like the patina of an heirloom, a home's authentic character is only acquired through time.

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