Neverland Ranch

The 13,000-square-foot (1,200 m2) main house was completed in 1982, based on a design by Altevers,[7] with formal gardens, a stone bridge, and a four-acre (1.5 ha) lake with a five-foot (1.5 m) waterfall.[14][15] The property was initially purchased by a trust with Jackson's lawyer, John Branca, and his accountant, Marshall Gelfand, as trustees, for reasons of privacy.[18] There was also a Ferris wheel, carousel, zipper, octopus, pirate ship, wave swinger, Super Slide, roller coaster, bumper cars, and an amusement arcade.Some of the events that took place at the Ranch included the wedding of Elizabeth Taylor and Larry Fortensky in 1991 and the live Oprah Winfrey interview of Jackson in 1993.[22] The main house at Neverland Ranch was closed as a cost-cutting measure, while Jackson lived in Bahrain at the hospitality of Sheik Abdullah, the ruler's son.[28][29] On February 25, 2008, Jackson received word from Financial Title Company, the trustee, that unless he paid off $24,525,906.61 by March 19, a public auction would go forward of the land, buildings, and other items such as the rides, trains, and art.On May 12, 2008, a foreclosure auction for the ranch was canceled after Colony Capital, an investment company run by billionaire Tom Barrack, purchased the loan, which was in default."[34][35] On November 10, 2008, Jackson transferred the title to Sycamore Valley Ranch Company, LLC, and neighbors reported immediate activity on the property, including the amusement rides being trucked along the highway.[43][44][45] Kyle Forsyth, Colony's project manager, described the estate's Tudor-style buildings and savanna-like grasslands as "English country manor meets Kenya."[49][50] Archway Amusements Corp of Imperial, Missouri purchased the 65 feet (20 m) ferris wheel which was originally custom made for Jackson in 1990 for $215,000 by the manufacturer Eli Bridge Company of Jacksonville, Illinois.[60] The amusement rides and animals–excluding the llamas–were gone by 2009,[42] replaced with a meditative zen garden and a section decorated with Peter Pan, Jackson's favorite fictional hero.[61] As of May 2016, the 2,700-acre (1,100 ha) ranch, jointly owned by the Jackson estate and Colony NorthStar,[62] was put up for sale by Sotheby's International Realty with an asking price of $100 million.[73] In December 2020, the billionaire businessman Ronald Burkle, a friend of the Jackson family, purchased the property for $22 million as a "land banking opportunity".