Largest private land holding in Tahoe sold
By Kathryn Reed
It took more than seven years and for the price to drop $55 million before Tranquility got a new owner.
Tranquil Investments LLC bought the Zephyr Cove property for $45 million. When it first went on the market in 2006 the asking price was $100 million. It is the largest private land holding in the Lake Tahoe Basin.
This staircase is designed to look like the one on the Titanic. Photo/Chase International
In 1996 Joel Horowitz, co-founder of Tommy Hilfiger, and his wife, Ann, bought the 210-acre undeveloped property for $4.5 million from South Shore developer Falcon Capital, which was run by Randy Lane. Falcon bought it in a bankruptcy deal involving Wayne Newton for $2.51 million. The Bourne family, who owned the Singer Sewing Machine Co., are the original property owners. The Bourne Meadow is on the other side of Highway 50 from this parcel.
It took 30 months to build all the structures. There are nine bedrooms, 14 full baths, five half baths and room for 16 vehicles.
The main house, which feels like a museum, is 27,000-square-feet. Most of the furnishings come with the house. The marble floor entrance was built to resemble the New York City Library – a couple lion statues are out front just like in the Big Apple. Then there is the replica of the Titanic staircase. A rectangular mezzanine level is a library. The theater seats 19.
Near the main house is the 5,000-square-foot guesthouse, which feels more like Tahoe. It has the only wood fireplace. Ten small gas fireplaces are on the property.
Across the drive is the 5,000-square-foot wood-framed caretakers’ quarters. A 1,400-square-foot log cabin art studio is on the far side of the natural, private lake.
Beyond the guesthouse is a 4,000-square-foot wood barn and stable. Near the stables is the 4,000-square-foot wood-framed and steel trussed gymnasium with basketball court.
A tunnel connects the glass mosaic pool and spa to the main house.
What, no bowling alley?
They have done a great job of keeping the buyer secret.
Douglas county received a windfall of $175,500 in transfer tax.
Likely another tech tycoon. Local beach here in San Mateo County was sold to a “secret” buyer a few years ago. He immediately closed off long time public access to “HIS” beach. A lawsuit was filed and it took many months before the veil was lifted and his identity was revealed. As it currently stands, the beach remains private based on language contained in the original Spanish land grant. Don’t quite understand all the fuss as the new owner doesn’t live on the property. There are a number of privately owned cottages that lease the land beneath them for the time being.
I always wondered about that property. Interesting details, would love to know more.
It would be great to have it on the UUAW tour. Cool that you were able to go inside, Kae!
The county assessor website shows the sales price at $48M
Finally sells for less than half the original asking price-in a vigorous real estate market?-guess Sotheby’s kind of made a mess of that one-and it is more Mausoleum than Museum-honestly the only entity that would want it would be Dracula-overdone ornate Gothic scariness and underground tunnels? who pays that kind of money for a Lake Tahoe mansion with no lake access-the whole sale seems rather fishy and was purposely being kept on the down low as well-surprised that Kay got this out actually-and I believe the name Randy Lane still leaves a bad taste in a lot of Tahoe local’s mouths anyway-it really is supposed to be public knowledge of who owns any land-Maybe Kay can get to the bottom of that murky little mess-Tranquil Investments LLC? the more they try to hide it the more people are gonna want to know