A billionaire former associate of Michael Jackson has purchased the pop star’s former home, Neverland Ranch.
Ronald W. Burkle, the co-founder of the investment firm Yucaipa Companies, purchased the ranch for $22 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.
A spokesman for Mr. Burkle, who previously served as a financial adviser for Mr. Jackson, said that he viewed the investment as a land banking opportunity. Mr. Burkle made his initial fortune buying and selling supermarkets in California. He is also a co-owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey franchise.
Mr. Jackson bought the ranch, a 2,700-acre property in Los Olivos, Calif, about 125 miles northwest of Los Angeles, for about $17 million in 1988. He named it Neverland Ranch, after the mythical island home of Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up.
Under Mr. Jackson’s direction, the property was transformed at a cost of $35 million into an entertainment complex, complete with a zoo, a train, an amusement park that included a Ferris wheel, and a 50-seat theater.
The property also includes a 13,000-square-foot French country main house, as well as other buildings.
In 2008, Neverland was nearly foreclosed on after Mr. Jackson defaulted on $24.5 million he owed on the property. A Los Angeles real estate investment company, Colony Capital LLC, put the title for the property into a joint venture with Mr. Jackson.
In 2016, the asking price was $100 million, but it dropped to $67 million the next year.
Stacy Brown, an author of “Michael Jackson: The Man Behind the Mask,” said he used to be close to the Jackson family and visited the ranch several times.
He said Mr. Jackson was hospitable and that the ranch “had it all.” A statue of a butler held the ranch’s guest book, which many famous people in Hollywood had signed, Mr. Brown said.
“It was a great place, but many will say that it was a place where kids were exposed to abuse, and I don’t disagree with that,” said Mr. Brown, who was a witness for the prosecution in Mr. Jackson’s 2005 case. He said he never witnessed Mr. Jackson do anything malicious.
“What a shame that it came to this, and what a shame that Michael’s dead,” he said. “The sale of Neverland is a sad day for the Jackson family. It truly ends what was such an amazing legacy.”
