Editor’s Note: Looks like selling this place wasn’t a mission impossible after all. Tom Cruise finally got an offer he likes for his Hollywood Hills West compound, even though it’s about $1.5 million under asking price. He originally listed it in January for $12.995 million, and accepted an offer for $11.4 million in September. See more details in my post on Yahoo Real Estate.

As Tom Cruise lists one of his two Beverly Hills estates, the rumors begin to fly. The property that’s currently on the market is reported to have been used as a retreat for high-level Scientologists. While no one is confirming the estate’s usage, it makes complete sense, since the property’s layout would be the ideal design for a big cheese gathering of any nature.

For example, there’s a smallish main house with three bedrooms, and a separate, slate-roofed guesthouse with four bedrooms, all with their own baths. There are also stone driveways and pathways all over the property, and, of greatest importance, it’s gated and heavily fortified, with state of a art security system. The asking price for this possible corporate paradise is $12.995 million.

The property actually consists of two parcels, totaling 2.5 very private acres on a Beverly Hills promontory partially overlooking the famed Mulholland Drive. Needless to say, it has exceptional views. Described as a “European style estate,” the main house has walls of glass, smooth Venetian plaster walls, wide plank oak floors, and an Italian farm house kitchen equipped with chefs quality appliances. There’s also an additional structure, “a stone clad craft building that can be used as a wine cellar and tasting room,” according to the listing.

In addition to meandering trails, the grounds include a heated pool with a lagoon, spa and waterfall. Tom Cruise’s sister is rumored to have enjoyed all the facilities as a recent resident, but before the Cruise family came on the scene, the larger parcel was owned by Frank Zappa’s former road manager, Marty Perellis, who used it as a refuge for rescued animals–dogs, llamas and lovebirds among them. With so many grateful animals on the premises, the property is bound to have good karma. Oh to have a spare $13 million to buy it and restore it to that purpose!

Cruise appears to be scaling back his real estate portfolio of late. Last November he put his 298-acre ranch near Telluride, Colorado on the market for $59 million, and the year before that, in 2013, he sold his 2,200-square-foot apartment in New York City’s East Village for about $3 million. It appears he’s keeping the Beverly Hills mansion he bought in 2007 for $30.5 million, which is his current residence of record. That alone would be more than sufficient for most people.

 Tom Cruise Lists His Storied Beverly Hills Estate