Michael Jackson’s Neverland purchased by American billionaire Ronald Burkle

Pittsburgh Penguins’ co-owner Ronald Burkle acquired Micheal Jackson’s Los Olivos residence- Neverland Ranch, the billionaire’s spokesperson confirmed on Saturday, CNN reported. The Wall Street Journal was the first to break the news on December 24 but according to CNN’s claims the price has been confirmed by Burkle’s spokesman Frank Quintero on December 26.

Jackson had purchased the Neverland Ranch — a 2700 acre property, 40 miles from Santa Barbara — in 1987 for $19.5 million. It contained 22 structures, including an amusement house and a zoo which housed elephants, a giraffe, orangutans, Jackson’s chimp Bubbles, and a 12,000-square-foot Normandy-style mansion, the report confirmed.

It was 2014, when the Neverland Ranch was listed at $100 million, but the price kept falling every year. In 2017, it was pulled off the market after it found no buyer, causing a significant drop to $67 million, CNN added. In 2019, the price was placed at $31 million.

According to reports, agent Kyle Forsyth shared the listing with Suzanne Perkins of CNN. He reportedly said that the property where Jackson lived for 15 years, was held off the market because of wildfires and mudslides in nearby Santa Barbara, California.

“Everyone pulled back for about a year in general,” Forsyth said in 2019, CNN said.

According to Wall Street Journal, the spokesperson of Burkle who is the co-founder of Yucaipa Companies, an investment firm said that the businessman was looking for Zaca Lake for a new Soho House, but ultimately decided to go for the adjoining property (Neverland Ranch). He believed Zaca Lake was ‘too remote and expensive for a club’. Mr. Burkle is the controlling shareholder of Soho House. After he saw the property from the air, he put in an offer to purchase.