A Diff’rent Home in Gary’s Future

GARY COLEMAN, who gained stardom as the precocious Arnold Jackson in the NBC-TV sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes,” just sold his Illinois house, has completed a new home in Colorado and is searching for a pied-a-terre in California.

“While Gary is very happy spending much of his time in (Denver), he’s nonetheless also begun looking for a suitable residence in Los Angeles to make things a bit easier when he is working here,” said Coleman’s publicist, Michael Gerety, in a prepared statement.

“He’s in discussion with various entities in Hollywood on different projects,” Gerety said by phone.

“Diff’rent Strokes,” which was created for Coleman when he was 10, was canceled nearly four years ago, but Coleman, now 22, has been in Los Angeles a number of times since, to appear on TV and in court.

He is suing his parents and his former business manager for allegedly stealing upwards of $1 million from him, and they are counter-suing him for defamation and breach of contract.

In 1987, before any suits were filed, he bought the Illinois home, in the Hunt Club Farms equestrian community north of Chicago. The house has four bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths and maid’s quarters in 4,100 square feet, including a 1,500-square-foot finished basement.

Coleman sold that house for $415,000 through Janet Fulambarker of RE/MAX Realty in Lake Forest.

Coleman also just put the finishing touches on his new Colorado home, in the town of Highlands Ranch, overlooking Denver. That house, on a half-acre hillside lot southwest of Denver, has a 180-degree view of the Front Range of the Continental Divide.

The home, reminiscent of an Old English manor house with its brick and cedar facade, also has four bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, a screening/media room with a 70-inch TV, a game room and a 600-square-foot bonus room.

The bonus room was designed for Coleman’s model railroad layout, which includes about 500 feet of track running through miniature cities, tunnels and mountains. Coleman has a collection of narrow-gauge trains, consisting of about 50 engines and 300 cars and valued at more than $100,000,

Coleman bought the house, built by the Genesee Co., for $470,000 through David Evins of Coldwell Banker Realty in Englewood, Colo.

Comedian/actor LOUIE ANDERSON, whose first book, “Dear Dad,” was published last December, has put his Hollywood Hills home, which he purchased last September, on the market at $1.95 million.

“Louie enjoys redoing houses. He especially knows landscaping and how to create a magical environment,” said Brett Lawyer, who has Anderson’s listing with Douglas Properties.

After he bought the property, Anderson enlisted his brother, Jim, to supervise construction of two redwood decks overlooking a gently sloping hillside. One deck has a hammock and a private meditation area, which Anderson has been using for inspiration while writing his second book.

The contemporary, ranch-style house, which is on a cul-de-sac, also has a swimming pool, city and ocean views and four fireplaces, including one in the master bath.

Anderson bought the house after selling his smaller, nearby home of two years last June for slightly under $600,000.

He decided to sell his current home because he wants to buy an older, less contemporary, California bungalow to complement his collection of Arts and Crafts Movement furniture, Lawyer said.

JANE SEYMOUR and DAVID FLYNN are on the move again:

The actress and her business manager/husband were due to close escrow after our press time last week on the fifth Westside home that they’ve bought in the last three years.

This time they’re buying a 50-year-old hacienda in Coldwater Canyon for nearly its $2.95-million asking price.

The Flynns didn’t move into any of the Westside homes that they already had purchased, because the couple renovated and resold three of the houses and are still expanding the fourth, in Bel-Air, with the help of architect Gus Duffy.

“They don’t know whether they’ll sell that one or move into it, but they’re going to have Gus design their dream house for this (Coldwater Canyon) property,” said Jana Jones of Alvarez, Hyland & Young in Beverly Hills, who represented the Flynns.

She described their dream house as “an 8,000-square-foot, red-brick colonial with a back yard like a park.”

“This will be the first time that they will have torn down a house, but they decided to do that, because you have to drive across the tennis court to get to the (existing) house,” Jones said. “The seller was an avid tennis player.”

The seller was JOHN ZIMMERMAN, a renowned sports and illustration photographer who has worked on the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition as well as for Life and Saturday Evening Post.

He plans to move to Pebble Beach, according to a spokeswoman for Fred Sands Realtors, which had the listing through Theodora Kinder in the firm’s Santa Monica office.

The property was owned earlier by portrait photographer, George Hurrell, who shot glamour poses from the ‘20s through the ‘50s of Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis and other stars.

“This property is the most exciting to David (Flynn), because he’ll be able to build his dream house from the bottom up,” Jones said. The Flynns maintain three residences: one in Santa Barbara and two in England.

The Iowa Courthouse Building in Torrance, a freeway head-turner ever since attorney Dudley Gray rebuilt the 105-year-old, former Council Bluffs government seat in 1980 within view of the San Diego (405) Freeway, has been listed at $6.2 million.

“When you get so close to (70), it’s time for new adventures,” Gray said. “It’s with a great deal of reluctance that I am putting it on the market so I can pull back my horns and relax.”

The four-story, 42,000-square-foot office building, which has housed Gray’s law firm, is being marketed by Warren Noack, Bart Hoffman and Eric Herold of Crown Associates, Gardena.