Does Cerritos Councilman Naresh Solanki Live in the City?

SOLANKI OWNS A MANSION: The S. Owens mansion located in Anaheim, which title records show is owned by Cerritos Councilman Naresh Solanki. The 7,000 s.f. home is valued at over $4 million with interior furniture fashioned after Louis XVI, a stocked controlled-climate humidor/wine cellar, bronze bathroom sinks, and a massive kitchen with top-notch equipment. The house carries a mortgage payment of over $20,000 and annual property taxes over $40,000. Solanki claims he lives in a 2,700 s.f. home in Cerritos.

Climate controlled wine cellar (stocked) and humidor.

$90,000 Wolf stove/oven with imported iItalian tile backsplash, custom ventilation hood, pull out spice racks; an elaborate pot-filler completes the look.

Louis XVI blush: a gaudy set of French furniture following the Rococo eras in the 17th and 18th centuries in France.

By Brian Hews

April 22, 2022~Cerritos, California is home to three high-end shopping malls, quality restaurants, a world-class performing arts center, several large and successful companies, an award-winning school district, and top-notch city administration.

At the intersection of two major freeways, the city is located within minutes Knotts Berry Farm, Disneyland and popular coastal cities.

According to Realtor.com, as of March 2022, there were 49 homes for sale in Cerritos, ranging from $565,000 to $2.4 million. The median listing home price is some of the highest in the nation at $988,000 with a median home sale price of $1.1 million, a healthy $577 per square foot.

Cerritos Councilman Naresh Solanki owns a nice home in Cerritos. According to title documents, the house is 2,700 square feet, with four bedrooms and three baths. 

But evidently the city and the location of the Cerritos home is not good enough for the acerbic Solanki.

Hews Media Group-Community News has found that Solanki also owns an opulent mansion tucked in a remote neighborhood in the hills of Anaheim. 

Solanki’s Cerritos home could fit it the backyard of the Anaheim home, the lot is over a half-acre and the home is 7,000 square-foot with seven bedrooms and eight baths, and an outdoor swimming pool area that resembles a high-end resort.

According to the online realty website Zillow, the house is worth in excess of $4.1 million, carries a mortgage payment of $21,000, with annual property taxes of $40,000.

The beauty of the house is only upstaged by the gaudy, over-the-top French-style interior that would make Louis XIV blush, an interior that would seem to completely contradict any claim by Solanki that he lives in his home Cerritos.

The house boasts an extremely large kitchen with top-notch kitchen equipment worth hundreds of thousands, state-of-the-art a climate controlled humidor and wine cellar, and bronze coated bathrooms, complete with bronze coated sinks.

According to Cerritos’ website,” Councilmember Naresh Solanki was elected to the Cerritos City Council in 2015 and re-elected in 2020.”

Online title documents show that Solanki bought the Anaheim mansion for $3.4 million in May 2016, immediately after he was sworn in as a City Council member.

OWNERSHIP: Above is the property records from OCTitle.com showing the Owens home in Anaheim with the address blanked out. The document clearly states that Solanki owns the property and that he bought it in May 2016 from the Fermanian Trust just weeks after he was sworn in as a Cerritos councilman. Click on image to view larger document.

And in another fact Solanki will have to explain, HMG–CN has obtained a picture of a wedding event involving Solanki’s family which shows the event was held at the Anaheim mansion.

When  asked about the house and the wedding event, Solanki who has never answered any questions from HMG-CN, did not comment.

The home Solanki claims to be his primary residence is 60% , 4,300 square feet smaller than the Anaheim mansion, located on Bos Street near the 605 freeway in Cerritos. 

It is a requirement to live in Cerritos to be a Cerritos City Councilman.

The revelation presents a number of major concerns for Solanki, including legal issues, a recall movement, and most sticky, explaining how he describes the $4 million plus home as a second residence to angry Cerritos residents and constituents.

When asked for comment, Solanki initially did not answer the first request, but finally answered saying, “”My son lives in [the] Anaheim house until I am ready to sell and buy another one. I bought that house to exchange [a 1031 exchange] home in Diamond Bar.” 

A check of title records by HMG-CN shows Solanki sold the Diamond Bar home in 2013 to Lo Kuie Lein and Su Tsung Chang.

CAUGHT IN A LIE?  Solanki told HMG-CN he executed a 1031 exchange between the Ridge Line property (above) and the property on Owens in Anaheim. Yet, Solanki sold the Ridge Line home in 2013 to Lein and Chang, he bought the Owens property  from Fermanian Trust in 2016 (below). Click on images to view larger document.

He did not buy the Anaheim mansion until 2016, and bought it from the Fermanian Family Trust. 

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