Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch has been sold to US billionaire Ron Burkle at a steeply discounted price of around $22 million.
The late “King of Pop” famously converted this 2,700-acre property in Los Olivos, California into a fairytale-themed retreat; complete with toy railroad, Ferris wheel and orangutans. Neverland was Jackson’s home from 1987, when he was at the height of his fame, to the time of his death in June 2009.
Burkle, a Montana-based businessman with investments ranging from supermarkets to the entertainment industry; purchased the ranch “as a land banking opportunity,” his spokesman told AFP.
The $22 million price tag as confirmed to AFP as roughly accurate, by a source familiar with the deal; would mark a dramatic decline from the ranch’s $100 million asking price in 2015.
That lofty fee, dubbed “optimistic” by realtors even at the time, was slashed to $31 million last year, but Neverland still did not sell and was taken off the market.
Burkle was flying in the region recently to scout a neighbouring property as a possible new branch of his Soho House private club network when he spotted the ranch and called its owner, according to the spokesman.
Jackson reportedly paid $19.5 million for the property in the 1980s.
Thomas Barrack Jr.’s Colony Capital investment firm purchased the ranch for $22.5 million from the singer; who was in debt the year before his death.
Burkle previously worked as an adviser for the singer on business matters; including resolving debts incurred by his lavish lifestyle in the years before his death.
The Neverland estate features a main house with six bedrooms; along with three guest houses, a four-acre lake with a waterfall, tennis courts, several barns and animal shelter facilities.