Custom-built for a Giant
Angles in the outfield helped baseball star Melancon design home
San Francisco Giants pitcher Mark Melancon was standing in the middle of the ballpark … and imagining himself in his hot tub.
No, it wasn’t an idle moment during a game or practice at Oracle Park. Melancon was testdriving the floor plans for his family’s dream home in Mexico.
He couldn’t get to the actual site, so he made the most of home-field advantage by bringing the project to California. Developer Ricardo Santa Cruz and two colleagues flew up from Puerto Vallarta to map out the 19,000-square-foot mansion using stakes and rope in the stadium’s outfield.
“It was really helpful because it gave me a physical idea of how big each space was,” Melancon told the Star in a phone interview. “On paper, it was hard to grasp.”
The residence, designed by Arizona architect Rick Joy, will be a secondary home for the pro athlete, his wife, Mary Catherine, and their three children, ages 3, 4 and 7.
It’s the largest of 55 private villas at One&Only Mandarina, a new luxury resort and residential community on Riviera Nayarit, about an hour north of Puerto Vallarta. The other homes, which are being marketed by The Agency, range up to 11,000 square feet and are priced at roughly $4.5 million (U.S.) to $12 million.
As the first buyers about 18 months ago, the Melancons paid $9 million for their retreat that’s perched on a private cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
“Your house is a really big house,” Santa Cruz had told Melancon. “We need a big, flat field.”
The pitcher, who has played for the Giants for two years since signing a four-year $62-million contract, knew just where to find one: his home stadium.
Santa Cruz’s team made two visits there — last fall and again in March — spending three or four hours positioning stakes and stringing yellow rope across the grass to outline the scale interior and exterior living spaces. Then, the Melancons did a walk-through, tweaking and adjusting the layout before finalizing the design so construction could begin.
Among the changes were enlarged bedrooms and a wider kitchen after Melancon pictured himself opening the fridge doors and decided more room was needed. He also paid special attention to the gym.
“It was nice to be able to see how big it was,” he says, envisioning how his fitness equipment would fit. “I’m picky on that stuff.”
The final plans, customized for an active family who enjoy entertaining, include a media room, casino and game room, two hot tubs and two pools.
The infinity pool, which appears to hang off the edge of the bluff, isn’t designed for water games, so a kid-friendly second pool was added, Santa Cruz explains. He lauds the Melancons’ choice of location, which offers “spectacular views” of the beach, ocean, mountains, and the development’s polo fields and equestrian centre.
“What’s really cool about the home is one wing goes into the jungle so you get the full jungle immersion,” he says.
Calling the purchase a “wise investment,” Santa Cruz suggests a ballpark figure of $15 million as the appreciated value of Melancon’s property once his villa and the resort hotel are finished in about a year.
Melancon and the Giants host the Toronto Blue Jays on May 14-15 after San Francisco swept a two-game series at Toronto’s Rogers Centre late last month.
“Toronto’s one of my favourite cities,” Melancon says. “I love it there. The people are nice, down-to-earth.”