Highest Price Ever Paid for U.S. Residence - $50 Million
PR Newswire - January 06, 1998 12:00
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Lake Tahoe's Historic Thunderbird Lodge Purchased From Mutual Fund Tycoon,
Jack Dreyfus
LAKE TAHOE, Nev., Jan. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Lake Tahoe's storied Thunderbird
Lodge continues to make history, as the 140-acre estate was sold for a record
$50 million, the highest price ever paid for a residential landholding in
United States.
The American Land Conservancy was the intermediary for the Del Webb
Corporation to acquire the property for a land exchange whereby the United
States Forest Service will be the recipient. The improvements are scheduled to
be available to the University of Nevada, Reno as a research and higher
education center.
Jack J. Dreyfus, Jr., the 84-year-old New York philanthropist and mutual
fund tycoon, decided to sell the 16,000 square-foot Thunderbird Lodge to fund
the Dreyfus Medical Foundation. The Foundation is furthering the broad range
use of the anticonvulsant drug, Dilantin. Arrangements for the purchase were
handled by Lake Tahoe-based Realtor, Shari Chase, of Chase International
Distinctive Properties.
Chase, a Certified International Property Specialist and an established
real estate representative in exclusive Lake Tahoe properties, was contracted
to handle the marketing of the property. Those efforts included world-wide
publicity, advertising and a direct mail campaign to a powerful client base.
The unique property generated attention in the Wall Street Journal, Los
Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, television news programs and
nationally respected real estate publications, such as Estates Internationale.
The previous record high for a residential sale was the J.L. Warner estate
in Beverly Hills, CA., purchased by David Geffen for $47.5 million (of which
$10 million was furnishings) in 1990.
The history of the Thunderbird estate dates to 1938, when "Captain" George
Whittell, an eccentric San Francisco real estate magnate and multimillionaire,
purchased 14,623 acres of pristine Lake Tahoe property. Whittell built a
summer mansion reminiscent of a medieval French chateau with granite blocks,
leaded windows and gables decorated with hand-wrought iron thunderbirds on a
wooded, rocky promontory just south of Sand Harbor, about five miles from
Incline Village, Nevada.
It took 70 stonemasons over three years to complete the estate with its
main building, three guest chalets and caretaker's house. The original
three-story lodge features a great room finished in knotty pine, a
twenty-six-foot open beamed ceiling with large skylights, and a fireplace at
each end of the room. The lodge also includes guest suites, staff quarters and
a gourmet-style kitchen.
Whittell spared no expense in creating the estate. He added swimming
lagoons, stone patios, winding lakefront pathways and a network of stone walls
to the expansive grounds. A waterfall cascades from the terraces above the
original lodge and a gazebo stands guard over a private cove with its white,
sandy beaches.
During its heyday, The Thunderbird Lodge bustled with activity when George
Whittell invited friends up to the lake for private parties. One of the guest
chalets, now known as the Card House, was once home to Whittell's infamous
card parties. Howard Hughes and the Shah of Iran were among the estate's
frequent guests. Some of the property's full time "residents" included lions,
tigers and a baby elephant, all flown in from Whittell's private zoo in the
San Francisco Bay Area and left to roam the Thunderbird's grounds, held in by
ten-foot fences. In the boathouse, blasted out of solid rock, Whittell housed
the "Thunderbird," a torpedo-shaped mahogany-planked custom Hacker Craft,
accessed by a 500-foot-long tunnel connecting the lodge to the boathouse.
Whittell also took some unique measures to protect his fortress. If an
intruder dared to approach the property at night, floodlights and searchlights
spotlighted the grounds, shoreline and water while loudspeakers blared a lyric
line from the song, "Goody, Goody," "I'll be glad when you're dead, you rascal
you."
In the early 1970s, Jack Dreyfus purchased the property known as
"Whittell's Castle" and the adjoining 10,200 acres of prime Lake Tahoe
shoreline as a hedge against inflation. Dreyfus restored the historic lodge in
1985 and added his own touches, including the lighthouse entertainment wing
with sweeping glass walls and a massive beamed ceiling, a master suite
overlooking the lake and woods, two guest suites and a kitchen with a
breakfast bar that wraps around a portion of the old lighthouse.
In 1994, Dreyfus contracted Shari Chase to market the estate. Much of the
original land acreage had been purchased by the United States Forest Service,
but the property still encompassed 140 acres including almost a mile of
shoreline.
For more information about the sale of the Thunderbird Lodge, call Shari
Chase, at Chase International, 800-322-6130.
SOURCE Chase International Distinctive Properties
/CONTACT: Shari Chase of Chase International Distinctive Properties,
800-322-6130/ |
