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The former Neverland Ranch in Michael jackson, in California, it was sold to the American billionaire Ron Burklehis spokesman said Thursday, at a sharply lowered price of about $ 22 million.
The late King of Pop turned his massive mansion into a fairytale-themed haven, complete with toy railroad, Ferris wheel and orangutans, and wrote some of his top hits there.
But Neverland was also the infamous place that Jackson invited children to visit and sleep in, and the scene of alleged sexual abuse of minors, according to accusations against him.
Following Jackson’s death, it was renamed Sycamore Valley Ranch in 2009.
Burkle, a Montana businessman with investments ranging from supermarkets to the entertainment industry, bought the ranch “as a ‘land banking’ opportunity,” his spokesman told AFP in reference to acquiring land for long-term investment.
The price of $ 22 million reported by the Wall Street Journal and confirmed to AFP as approximate a source familiar with the agreement, would mean a significant reduction in the initial price of the ranch, of 100 million dollars in 2015.
That juicy figure, considered “bullish” by real estate agents even at the time, was cut to $ 31 million last year, but the ranch remained unsold and was taken off the market.
Burkle was flying overhead recently to explore a neighboring property, likely to host a new branch of his Soho House network of private clubs, when he spotted the ranch, after which he contacted its owner, according to the spokesperson.
Michael Jackson reportedly paid $ 19.5 million for the property in the 1980s. Thomas Barrack Jr.’s investment firm Colony Capital bought the ranch from the then heavily indebted singer for $ 22.5 million the year before his death.
Burkle had worked in the past as advisor to the singer in commercial affairs, including the resolution of debts incurred by his lavish lifestyle in the years preceding his death.
The farm of 1,100 hectares, located 40 miles from Santa Barbara, has a main house with six bedrooms and three guest houses, a lake with a waterfall, tennis courts, several barns, and animal shelter facilities.
The ranch of Jackson was raided in 2003 as part of a child abuse case against him and the police seized a large repertoire of pornography and images of naked children.
Jackson was acquitted of the case in 2005.
Last year, the HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland” released testimonies from two men who claim that Jackson sexually abused them as children on the ranch, including the attic, master bedroom, and pool.
Jackson’s heirs, who They sued HBO for $ 100 million for the “posthumous murder of a character”, they deny all the accusations, as Jackson did in life.
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