Got a little cash to throw around? The 2,700-acre property north of Los Olivos that was once Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch is officially on the market for a cool $100 million.
But the late pop superstar’s former home at 5225 Figueroa Mountain Road is listed as Sycamore Valley Ranch on real estate firm Hilton and Hyland’s website. The firm shares the listing with another real estate company, Southeby’s International Realty.
Tracking down information on the property wasn’t easy. It started with a phone call to Hyland’s president and principal agent on the listing, Jeffrey Hyland. That request was bounced to the property’s owners, Santa Monica-based Colony Capital. Harry Kolb, an agent for the Sotheby’s listing, also referred the Sun to Colony.
Colony’s media contact, Caroline Luz, told the Sun to look elsewhere for information.
“Colony Capital is not commenting,” Luz said, and instead referred the Sun to a “pretty accurate” May 28 Wall Street Journal story for background information regarding Jackson’s former home.
The property is a 12,598-square-foot, six-bedroom, nine-bath mansion with a 4-acre lake, tennis court, and a 5,500-square-foot movie theater, according to the Hyland listing.
But the amusement park rides that once inhabited the property are gone, according to the Journal. So are the train depot and the zoo, which included animals like orangutans and elephants. However, there is a llama that lives on the property, the Journal reported.
The Journal article also stated that Jackson paid $19.5 million for the ranch in the late 1980s and lived there for more than 15 years.
In the early 2000s, the luxurious estate was considered to be a crime scene. In a documentary that aired on British television in February 2003, Jackson admitted to British journalist Martin Bashir that he often let children have sleepovers at his ranch, sometimes in his bed. One boy interviewed by Bashir in the video, Gavin Arvizo, later accused Jackson of sexually abusing him at the ranch.
The video stirred widespread controversy and spawned one of the costliest and most publicized trials in county history, drawing tens of thousands of people to Santa Maria from all over the world.
In June 2005, Jackson was acquitted of all 14 charges. Wracked with debt, Jackson defaulted on the ranch’s loan, and Colony Capital paid the balance in 2008, taking over the property, according to an Associated Press article. It’s been unoccupied since.
Jackson died in 2009 in a Los Angeles home. Within days, the gates of the Neverland Ranch turned into a makeshift memorial, according a 2009 article in the Sun.
The Sun reported that the area around Neverland Ranch was inundated with enthusiasts, sightseers, curious onlookers, and those trying to make a quick buck. Vendors reportedly sold concessions like they would at a ballpark, and four portable toilets provided by the county weren’t enough to accommodate the crowd.
This article appears in Jun 4-11, 2015.