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Diane Keaton Snags Stylish Conversion for .5M in Tucson’s Barrio Viejo

Oscar-winning actress Diane Keaton has purchased an 1880s building turned residence in downtown Tucson, AZ, for $1.5 million.

“Tucson is underappreciated,” Keaton told Jimmy Kimmel this week, during a stop on his talk show.

Keaton, a veteran house flipper, had been eyeing downtown Tucson for a while, according to the Arizona Daily Star. She was contacted last summer by the writer Kathe Lison and her husband, Chris Cokinos, who had spent four years turning a vacant adobe building in Tucson’s Barrio Viejo into a stylish, four-bedroom home.

Keaton saw the desert property, fell in love, and made the purchase in April.

It wasn’t easy for Lison to part with the home she had created from the empty space. But ultimately, Keaton was able to make a $1.5 million offer the sellers simply couldn’t refuse.

The rustic home is full of Southwestern charm, throughout its four bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms and 4,500 square feet. The remodel was careful to maintain as much as possible of the building’s original character, while carving out cozy, modern spaces in the cavernous building.

The property’s prodigious price tag is a boon to real estate in the area, and may signal the beginning of a resurgence in the Barrio. In keeping with her penchant for flipping, Keaton told Kimmel she plans to sell the home eventually.

And the added bonus of a celebrity pedigree could drive the price even higher when Keaton places it back on the market. Local real estate agents are watching carefully, and activists fear that price spikes could irrevocably change the area and drive out low-income families in favor of affluent outside investors, according to the Daily Star.

“[Keaton]’s renowned for her style and her sense of architecture,” Lison told the Daily Star. “The house is my child. I couldn’t have parted with it to just anyone. … It sort of feels like handing off the baton a bit. She’s going to be able to take that house and do even more amazing things with it.”

Everyone with a stake in downtown Tucson will be watching this little building in the Barrio for signs of what’s to come. For now, it’s in the hands of a Hollywood legend with vision and a head for real estate. We can’t wait to see how the plot unfolds.

The post Diane Keaton Snags Stylish Conversion for $1.5M in Tucson’s Barrio Viejo appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

Source: Real Estate News and Advice – realtor.com » Real Estate News