Michael Jackson‘s opulent Santa Barbara County, California estate Neverland Ranch has been put on the market for $100 million. Named after the fictional world in Peter Pan where children never grow up, the King of Pop resided on the estate, which contained its own amusement park and petting zoo to entertain visiting kids, for 15 years.
Jackson purchased the 2,700-acre ranch in Los Olivos, California in 1987, but ceased living at Neverland following his 2005 molestation trial and an extensive police search of the property. After Jackson failed to repay a $24 million loan on the ranch amid his mounting debt in 2008, Neverland Ranch almost went to auction before real estate investment firm Colony Capital entered into a joint title on the property with Jackson.
After Jackson left the Ranch, the property fell into disrepair. However, following Jackson’s death, Colony Capital slowly redeveloped the home, rebranding the property Sycamore Valley Ranch, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The amusement park rides, exotic animals and the Jackson-owned Neverland Valley Fire Department – an on-property emergency service that would respond to injured children – that once graced the property are now gone (though a llama is still on the ranch).
The property does features 22 structures, including a six-bedroom main house complete with attached staff quarters, a four-bedroom guesthouse and an adjacent two-bedroom guesthouse. There is also a tennis court, basketball court, swimming pool and cabana and a 50-seat movie theatre. The Neverland Valley Train Station, featuring a clock tower with large floral clock, also remains, but while the railroad tracks continue to circle the property, the train itself no longer runs.
In an effort to prevent giving open house tours to Jackson fanatics, the real estate companies who are sharing the listing, Sotheby’s and Hilton & Hyland, will conduct an “extensive prequalification” screening process. “Our seller is not encouraging a lot of showings,” Jeffrey Hyland of Hilton & Hyland told the Wall Street Journal. “We’re not going to be giving tours.”
News of Neverland Ranch’s sale comes just days after Jackson’s estate was sued over an outstanding $4.6 million payment Jackson owed from the August 2007 refinancing of the property, CBS Los Angeles reports. [Rolling Stone]
