Celebrity Homes
and all the exotic animals and amusement park rides now gone, the property once known as Neverland Ranch is ready for its next chapter.
Many, many years after the King of Pop stopped calling it home, the sprawling property has a new owner.
back in 2015, the iconic property finally sold at the end of 2020 for only a fraction of its ambitious asking price.
a onetime associate of the late pop star and co-founder of a large investment firm, paid $22 million for the 2,700-acre property.
That’s fairly close to the amount Michael Jackson spent on the ranch back in 1988, when he bought it for $19.5 million.
But the King of Pop had an ambitious vision for the property. He wanted to use it as a retreat from the outside world, a magical world of wonder.
He added amusement park rides, two railroads, a roller-coaster, a Ferris wheel, and an unforgettable zoo with exotic animals
He had everything from flamingos to orangutans, giraffes, and tigers to an actual elephant roaming around the estate.
In fact, the singer’s famous elephant (called Gypsy) was a gift from actress Elizabeth Taylor -- as a "thank you" for letting her hold her wedding at Neverland Ranch.
He named it after Neverland, the imaginary land from the children’s story Peter Pan.
But after the estate was searched extensively by police officers in connection with multiple counts of molesting a minor in 2003....
Michael Jackson never returned to Neverland again. He said it no longer felt like home, so he let most of the staff go and dismantled all the rides.
While the property remained in Jackson's estate years after his death, many things have changed: including its name. It's now known as the Sycamore Valley Ranch.
And the truth is that the Sycamore Valley Ranch — sans the “Neverland” — is an incredible property by itself, unlike any other.
Located about 8 miles north of Los Olivos, California, the estate is a massive 2,700-acre property that borders the Los Padres National Forest.
There are 22 structures on the estate, with a large main house which sits between the property’s two lakes and measures about 12,000 square feet.
The estate boasts live oaks that are more than 100 years old, lakes, a mountain, and lush vegetation as it borders the Los Padres National Forest.