$26.5M?

[sputnut]

It's made by someone who likes the citified look. IT'S HAWAI'I !! Where are the palm trees, flowers, etc? A few thousand on the landscaping would have made a huge difference in price in my opinion. It looks like it could be here in Illinois, except the ocean, of course.

comin' your way soon!

[Hotzcatz]

There's more and more of these types of construction popping up. I'm not particularly a fan of them, although I wonder how many people it takes to keep it tidy? There should be a team of groundskeepers, a few house maids, a pool guy or two, some mechanical repair folks for the elevator & other household mechanicals. How many jobs does a place like this create? Not during the construction of it, but afterwards? You figure whoever buys it isn't gonna be the person mopping the floors.

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"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson

[spunky]

Delta9r is correct, the property did go for slightly under $6 mil.

Yes, it was an absolute steal.

No, you won't roll off the cliff if you stumble by the pool as someone suggested (there's plenty of setback near the cliff not to mention a nice sturdy fence.)

Rob is correct, there is not a single thing tying the place to Hawaii. It could have easily been plucked from any of a number of places on the mainland.

Sputnut is wrong. A few more grand spent on landscaping would NOT have made a difference in sales price. But Sputnut is correct in that it is made by someone who likes a citified look (check out Scott's other spec property on the coast (also located oceanfront near a waterfall and containing gads of concrete.)

Aside from being way too over the top, way out of place, and totally over built for its environment, not to mention poor use of prime ag land, there are, IMHO, several design flaws with the property (aside from anything tying it to Hawaii.)
~It's obvious a woman was not involved in the design of the master bedroom closet.
~The office locale and layout is not conducive to getting work done.
~The slope of the slide for the pool is really steep.
~The bathroom in the main entertaining area on the first floor looks out over the entrance of the house and a side walkway. So if people are gathered out front or walking to the side lanai (as they were on auction day) they can see who ever is using the restroom and whoever is sitting on the toilet has a full view of the folks outside.
~The pathway to the side lanai has a large support column blocking the entrance. (it comes down at an angle and if it were on a clock would run from 11 o'clock down to 5 o'clock.) You either have to take an unnaturally large step to hop over the tile support column (the lower portion) or you have to take a few steps to the left to walk under it near the top portion.) Either, way it's odd.
~The lanai that starts to wrap around the right side of the house purposely stops short of connecting to the lanai on the side of the house. Two people could be standing 2 feet apart but in order to get closer, have to walk all the way through the main part of the house or the exterior of the house to get to each other. Again, odd.
~While the tennis and basketball courts have seating for 450, there is not enough parking for 450 people. There isn't enough parking for 225 people. Or 100. Unless you carpool in buses or park all over the lawn and golf course.

And the people on this thread suggesting that someone spend several million on this property only to tear it down and replace the mac nut trees. Well, that is absolute fantasy. No one is spending $6 mil and tearing down a brand new house. Get real.

I do hope that the new owner is open to the idea of renting out the place to local groups looking to hold fundraisers and functions (Like Wainaku Center does) and school groups looking to hold sporting events.

I can only surmise that Mr. Watson had to have absolutely lost his shirt on this endeavor. Having now built two over the top homes on the Hamakua Coast, I'll be curious as to his next project.
But the market has spoken. You might get $20 mil in the resorts. But not in Hamakua. Not now and not for a very long time in the future.

[missydog1]

quote:

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It's obvious a woman was not involved in the design of the master bedroom closet.

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[8D] That explains the bargain basement price. A perfect master closet is near irresistible (to a woman).

Thanks for the cool assessment, spunky. [] Much appreciated.

IsnÔt the PepeÔekeo Palace is third over the top house, and on its way? I heard (but may not be correct) that the money was from near Silicon Valley and for a corporate retreat place.

I think you are right about the money to be made.
One of my sons has been working on ultra-expensive homes here for about eight years. One at 49 Black Sands was a $30 million house, and it wasnÔt an ostentatious mansion.

The big money is going into island living feel homes.
The use of fantastic looking woods throughout has been a key feature. Massive concrete is not in at all.

He has worked at Hualalai, KukiÔo, Kolea, 49 Black Sands, KaunaÔoa, Jerry YangÔs house, WaiÔulaÔula ... that is where the big money has been going, in these areas. KukiÔo with its own private jet commute club and a clubhouse for KukiÔo residents only that just stole the Four SeasonsÔ Beach Tree chef away for their club. Members only golf, and so forth.

I donÔt know what he was envisioning with this project, but it made me think of "the mob goes to HawaiÔi for a big mob wedding" type fantasies.

Well, the market has spoken.

[rbakker]

Can anyone figure out from this if a profit was made?

http://qpublic9.qpublic.net/hi_hawaii_display.php?county=hi_hawaii&KEY=320030410000

[Rob Tucker]

It doesn't look like there was any profit in the sale.
It's generally a bad bet to build the most expensive property in any neighborhood.

[Delta9r]

I think I heard that the place cost around $12 Million to build...
I figure it's a tax dodge, but have nothing other than my own conjecture to base such an assumption upon.

(I know squat about high finance, sort of like I don't know my ants from a hole in the ground.)

"Life is labor, and all that is good in life comes from that labor..."

[mac nut]

looks like it sold close to the assessed value of 5.8 million and it took several years to build. the concrete alone must have been couple of million!

[Carey]

First page of the Trib Herald - Sold for a "Mere $5.75M"