Neverland, the onetime ranch and private playground of the late pop icon Michael Jackson, has returned to market for $94 million (US$67m), a 33 per cent price chop from its original list price of US$100 million (NZ$140.4m).
The property, now known as Sycamore Valley Ranch, is set on 2700 park-like acres outside Santa Barbara in the Santa Ynez Valley. It centres on a Normandy-style mansion designed by architect Robert Altevers and built in 1982. The roughly 12,000-square-metre house features exposed beams, parquet floors, five fireplaces and a master wing complete with its own garden.
A 50-seat theatre and dance studio, a four-bedroom guesthouse and a separate two-bedroom guesthouse are among nearly two dozen other structures on the estate. Also on the property is a swimming pool, a sports court and a red barn originally built to house Clydesdale horses.
Jackson, who died in 2009 at age 50, bought the property for US$19.5 million in the late '80s from golf course entrepreneur William Bone. He was in default on the loan on the ranch when it was bought by Colony Capital about eight years ago for US$22.5 million.
The Neverland Ranch originally had a two-storey arcade, a host of animals (including horses, lions, orangutans, reptiles and giraffes), a candy store, a cinema, bumper cars and numerous rides, as well as a famous miniature train and train station.
The back of the main house of Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, California.
The back of the main house of Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, California.
Listing agent Joyce Rey of Coldwell Banker said in a statement that the original price allowed Colony Capital, the private equity firm headed by Thomas J Barrack Jr, "time to better determine the future of the Ranch."
"This quintessential California estate is now ready for the next chapter in its journey," she said.
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