Neverland sold at last
Jackson ranch at centre of abuse claims goes for £16m
MICHAEL Jackson’s former Neverland ranch has finally been sold after five years on the market – for just a fifth of its asking price.
Billionaire investor Ron Burkle has paid £16.2million for the 2,700acre estate in California.
In addition to a 12,500sq ft main residence and a 3,700sq ft pool house, there is a separate building with a 50- seat cinema and a dance studio. Other features on the ranch are a ‘Disney-style’ railway station and barn.
Jackson bought the property in 1987 and lived there for 15 years, adding features including a zoo and theme park
‘A zoo and theme park rides’
rides. He named it Neverland after the island where children never grow up in JM Barrie’s Peter Pan books.
But he began to distance himself from the estate in Los Olivos after his 2005 trial for allegedly molesting young boys at the ranch. He was found not guilty. He died in 2009, aged 50.
The property was renamed Sycamore Valley Ranch in 2015 when it was put on the market for the first time by Jackson’s estate and co- owners Colony Capital, with many of its features including the rides removed.
In 2016 the ranch had an asking price of £74million but it has been dropped several times since.
New owner Mr Burkle was a friend of Jackson, advising him on business matters in the mid-2000s when the pop star was working to stave off financial disaster, reportedly caused by his lavish lifestyle.
Mr Burkle, 68, is the largest investor in the Soho House chain of worldwide private members’ clubs. He bought his controlling stake in the company, which has branches in London, the Cotswolds and Brighton, in 2012.
His spokesman said the billionaire had initially been looking at Zaca Lake, which adjoins Neverland, for a new Soho House to join its other North American locations in Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Toronto.
The tycoon ultimately decided Zaca Lake was too remote and expensive for a club. However, on seeing the Neverland property from the air, he put in an offer. Mr Burkle, who according to Forbes Magazine is worth £1.1billion, is a co-founder of investment fund Yucaipa and an investor in technology companies such as Uber and Airbnb. His spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that the purchase of Neverland was a ‘land bank opportunity’.