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Inside Neverland 2017 - New Video

I still don't get how people are getting into the house!
 
It is truly sad, that the Estate abandoned the property and refused to buy it. So many people who never got to see Michael during his life, could've been taken through Neverland as a museum exhibit. As for the zoo and rides, they could always get professional services to restore them. Nothing will ever replace how the ranch was under Michael's ownership, but a museum and amusement park run by the Estate would be the next-best thing. I know Michael once said he no longer lived in the main house after the 2003 search, feeling it had been corrupted. But most fans still associate the ranch with him, so it would be the perfect spot for a memorial like Priscilla Presley did with Graceland.
 
Moviefan2k4 said:
It is truly sad, that the Estate abandoned the property and refused to buy it. So many people who never got to see Michael during his life, could've been taken through Neverland as a museum exhibit. As for the zoo and rides, they could always get professional services to restore them. Nothing will ever replace how the ranch was under Michael's ownership, but a museum and amusement park run by the Estate would be the next-best thing. I know Michael once said he no longer lived in the main house after the 2003 search, feeling it had been corrupted. But most fans still associate the ranch with him, so it would be the perfect spot for a memorial like Priscilla Presley did with Graceland.
Click to expand...


i dont think so. it is too far away from a big touristic city. and the santa ynez community wouldnt allow it neither. it is such a small village and they want to live their lifes in silence and not with hundrets of crazy fans hehe.

I guess it will never happen and probably it wouldnt be worth it for the Estate.

Graceland is different. It is just a house in the middle of a famous city. Much lower costs and very easy to handle.
 
I think the Estate would've done it if they could have got round the logistics of transforming a dirt track road into the entrance to a major tourist attraction.

I'm split on this. Part of Neverland's magic is it's seclusion and peace. But to lose it to history is awful as well.

By the way, anyone who suffers from motion sickness should watch the video with caution.
 
there are two sides, it could become a place where people visit and could bring in money for the estate... The other side would be neighbors already were annoyed when Michael lived there with busses of kids/people in and out of the area etc.. To make it a tourist attraction would have backlash by the community... I mean, do I care? no.. lol! but they would.. I want to visit inside Neverland and I want fans to have the capability..
 
All I ever heard about the community where Michael lived, was Aphrodite Jones' descriptions in her book Michael Jackson Conspiracy. I'm paraphrasing, but the gist of her comments were that people seemed to appreciate that Michael lived nearby, and very few believed the media lies surrounding his 2003 trial. Then again, the stress of that trial and the constant media storm could have overwhelmed them after a while; only God knows for sure.
 
Where Neverland is located is agriculture for the most part. There are cows, but mostly grapes are grown for wine. People from the Los Angeles area come up to get out of the big city. Santa Barbara is close by, which is located on the coast. I just don't know if it would be profitable, on a small scale, to turn Neverland into a tourist attraction. To work within what is at hand, with a two lane road and porta potties just doesn't work. It is best to just leave well enough alone. The community would NEVER go for it. The tranquility does touch your core, though.


3923086283_efe30a8521_m.jpg
 
If Neverland will ever be a place in memory of Michael, I would love it to be some recreational / rehab place for children, as some fans have mentioned already. NO place for tourists, please.
 
It's really sad that it's all empty like that, but at least they're taking care of it and not letting it get all dusty and cobwebby.

My personal belief: Michael is gone. The magic is gone. Sell it and turn it into something else, and then make a MJ exhibit somewhere else. That property was never about displaying Michael's music and art, it was a home where Michael lived. Now that he's gone, they should sell it and give what they can to the Jackson family.
 
All I know for sure... I want to visit the grounds of neverland.. I have not gotten myself to make the trip just to see the outside green gate which I never really considered the Gates to neverland anyway.. I'd love to visit and walk on the premises! I still regret not going on that fan day in 2003....
 
It still is sad when it comes to Neverland. Yes, Michael said himself he would never set foot there again after the 2005 trial because paparazzi destroyed it but it would be nice if it was passed down to someone who would take VERY good care of the area. And I don't mean someone famous!!!
 
do any audio or video exist of Michael saying that he would never set foot at Neverland again? :)
 
MiniMJJ said:
do any audio or video exist of Michael saying that he would never set foot at Neverland again? :)
Click to expand...
I don't know of any specifically, but he did tell Ed Bradley he would never live there again. He would visit it, but it was just a house now.
 
SYCAMORE VALLEY RANCH FORMERLY KNOWN AS NEVERLAND RANCH
City of Los Olivos in Santa Ynez Valley

A property of quintessential California beauty and rare privacy, Sycamore Valley Ranch formerly known as Neverland Ranch, is both residence and retreat. Three parcels, totaling approximately 2,700 acres, border on historic family ranches and the Los Padres National Forest in Southern California’s most unique wine-growing region.

Five miles from the charming town of Los Olivos in the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County, the property was named for the majestic sycamore trees that populate the landscape, along with magnificent oaks, distinctive rolling hills, pastoral vistas and exquisite manicured grounds.

Created for a lifestyle of relaxation and entertaining on a grand scale, Sycamore Valley Ranch is a pleasant 30-minute drive to Santa Barbara, where, in addition to world-class dining and shopping, Santa Barbara Municipal Airport offers service by major airlines and private aviation services.

The approximately 12,598 square foot French-Normandy style main residence was designed by internationally renowned and award-winning architect Robert Altevers of Altevers Associates as the personal home of builder William Bone. Crafted to perfection with exposed timber beams, handsome brick and stonework, five fireplaces, and 18th century French oak parquet flooring from two chateaus in France, the home exudes welcoming warmth and comfort.

The first floor master wing includes a private loft and two master baths, two walk-in cedar-lined closets, and a private outdoor garden. There are four additional bedrooms in the main residence.

Surrounded by manicured lawns, gardens, and magnificent trees, as well as a gorgeous lake with waterfall and swans, boat stops and beach, the house has an expansive covered outdoor entertaining area with a copper Santa Maria-style woodburning barbecue and a full kitchen. Nearby is a 14-foot deep lagoon-style pool with a high dive and a sunken, lighted tennis court with a viewing area. The approximately 3,655 square foot tennis pavilion/pool house has a loft, fireplace, laundry, dual bathrooms, and an underground wine cellar/tasting area with a wet bar.

Adjacent to the main home is a separate staff annex above the five-bay garage, with a ground-level estate manager’s office, which has a gas fireplace and bathroom. The property also includes separate staff facilities, a movie theater and dance studio, barns, and corrals.

The primary guest house, about 150 feet from the main house, consists of four units, each with a separate entrance, HVAC, and full bath. The hill house, with sweeping views, was used by William Bone during the construction and could now be used as guest or staff quarters.

In a separate building of approximately 5,500 square feet, there is a movie theater and dance studio. The spacious, 50-seat inclined cinema has theatre-grade projection and sound system, private viewing balcony, and a stage with trap doors.

A Disney-style train station has a kitchenette, loft, and two fireplaces. There is also an approximately 1,900 square foot private fire station and administration building with three restrooms and a shower.

A ranch house, adjacent to the stables, has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, laundry, full kitchen and woodburning fireplace. The large red barn was built originally for Clydesdales and the property is perfect for extensive horse facilities.

A wine grape feasibility report has been completed by a top vintner, and the land is well suited to provide high quality wine grapes. The Ranch is served by private water wells and holding tanks within the property. These feed two reservoirs with a combined capacity of approximately four million gallons.

This is a rare and truly remarkable estate of 50 maintained acres surrounded by some four square miles of natural beauty running to the distant mountain ridges. Structures of magnificent quality and comfortable luxury make this a singular residence designed for an extraordinary California ranch & naturalist lifestyle.


[video=youtube;Sh-dtTaHTX4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh-dtTaHTX4[/video]​


I hope somebody wins the lottery and then invites various fan's to come and visit in the future. Your new home could become a winery and have a Michael Jackson label, too, just for us fan's and beyond!

http://www.joycerey.com/beverly-hil...-known-as-neverland-ranch-luxury-real-estate/
 
If I had that kind of money you better believe I would buy it!
 
Colony needs to make that train station a selling point. They have the money to buy a little steam engine. The station and tracks are there.
I'd love that for my kids.
 
The Williamson Act is probably a real selling point, as in tax breaks.

Officials to Revisit Tax Break for Jackson's Neverland as Cattle Ranch
March 21, 2003

SANTA BARBARA — County officials plan to inspect Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch to see if the 3,000-acre spread qualifies for a tax break as a cattle ranch.

The inspection, expected sometime in the next two weeks, will determine if Jackson's Santa Ynez Valley ranch is violating the state's Williamson Act, which provides tax breaks for large agricultural tracts but limits development on such properties to two acres.

Estimating that Jackson must have six acres or more of his estate devoted to 13 amusement park rides, barns and a private steam train line, the county's Planning and Development Department alerted county agriculture officials to the potential conflict.

County Agricultural Commissioner Bill Gillette requested a full report from the planning department to the county's Agricultural Preserve Advisory Committee by May 2. Larry Appel, a county planning official, said he plans to make a low-profile visit with no media coverage sometime before then.

Planning officials this week noted that Jackson legitimately leases most of Neverland to a cattle ranching operation, and has routinely complied with permit procedures for his various amusement rides and other facilities over the years.

But they said that they may have missed something, and that some adjustments may be required for Jackson to retain the Williamson Act tax benefits.

The Santa Barbara County assessor's office puts the 2002-03 assessed value of the Neverland Ranch at $12,292,618. Jackson's property taxes this year are estimated at about $13,000. If the property were not eligible for the tax break, the value would increase by about $6 million.

Officials said Jackson representatives have expressed interest in working out the problem, possibly by a lot line adjustment that would allocate more room for amusement park rides. But that might not solve the Williamson Act problems, they said.

Kathleen Weinheimer, an attorney representing Jackson, did not return calls for comment.

Jackson recently lost a breach of contract lawsuit to producer Marcel Avram. A Santa Maria jury earlier this month ordered him to pay $5.3 million to Avram for failing to perform two Y2K concerts planned for New Year's Eve in 1999.
http://articles.latimes.com/2003/mar/21/local/me-jackson21

I wonder about the cattle ranching operation, if they will continue leasing the land's, once the property is sold.


balcony-view-neverland-ranch-NEVERLAND0317.jpg
 
It looks like whoever buys the property would have to provide their own train, as there isn't one. Also, there are "two water reservoirs that can hold approximately 4 million gallons.

The property’s eventual buyer would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in property taxes each year—more than $325,000 as of April 2016."

That seems awfully high, considering the taxes were $13,000 in 2003. 50 acres of vineyards could be planted on the property. Plus more homes, if the new owner chooses. It is now move in ready!


bathroom-neverland-ranch-NEVERLAND0317.jpg



grill-patio-neverland-ranch-NEVERLAND0317.jpg
 
AliCat;4197521 said:
It looks like whoever buys the property would have to provide their own train, as there isn't one. Also, there are "two water reservoirs that can hold approximately 4 million gallons.

The property’s eventual buyer would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in property taxes each year—more than $325,000 as of April 2016."

That seems awfully high, considering the taxes were $13,000 in 2003. 50 acres of vineyards could be planted on the property. Plus more homes, if the new owner chooses. It is now move in ready!


bathroom-neverland-ranch-NEVERLAND0317.jpg



grill-patio-neverland-ranch-NEVERLAND0317.jpg
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These pictures are just breath taking. I just wish that one day the fans can see Neverland.
 
Jackson first saw the 2,700-acre property off Figueroa Mountain Road when he visited Paul McCartney, who was staying there during the filming of the “Say Say Say” video.

Jackson subsequently found himself in default on the loan and sold the ranch for $22.5 million to Colony Capital, which is headed by Thomas Barrack Jr., a confidant and fundraiser for President Donald Trump.

The company reportedly spent $50 million on repairing the facilities.

At one point, Assemblyman Mike Davis proposed having the state buy the ranch and turn it into a state park, but California was shutting down state parks at the time and the idea fell by the wayside.

http://syvnews.com/news/local/never...cle_be137fb7-4967-5a66-886f-34ad0b556db2.html
 
I found this video last week and I am thankful to the person who posted this.
It is sad to see it so empty and abandoned, especially when it is still so beautiful. I'm torn about NL. I know Michael said he didn't want to go back, but as a fan who wants to hang onto every bit of MJ that we have left, I wish it could be restored to MJ's vision and preserved.

I imagine the property will take a while to sell.
 
I'm with you on being torn. I find it hard to look at the ranch now since it's been up for sale. I wish there would have been some way for his kids to keep it. I know Paris has been there a few times fairly recently.

No matter who does buy it, it is always going to be attached to Michael and fans will always show up there.
 
Why fabled Neverland Ranch still hasn’t sold

Almost a year ago, in May 2015, Michael Jackson’s former Neverland Ranch hit the market. The 12,598-square-foot French Normandy-style home sits on 2,698 acres in the Santa Ynez Valley, northeast of Los Angeles. It has six-bedrooms, a four-acre lake with waterfall, an outdoor barbecue, a pool house, three guest houses, a tennis court, and a 5,500-square-foot movie theater and stage. Asking price back then? $100 million.
Asking price 10 months later? $100 million.
The reason for the lack of movement on the price tag isn’t a stubborn seller or the lack of draw. (It really has a fairytale feel.) Homes in the highest echelon of the real estate market — everywhere — simply aren’t selling fast. The key to unloading a $100 million dollar property these days? Patience.

“The uber-luxury high-end market is not anywhere near where it was three, four, five years ago,” said Brendon DeSimone, real estate expert with listings site Zillow.com. “That market has just really slowed down, and there are only so many billionaires who can afford to buy these homes.” (Bloomberg, by the way, counts at least 200 global billionaires, but not all of them are looking for a far-flung ranch.)
Dropping oil prices, fluctuating stock markets, and weak currencies have led to slowdowns in the world’s priciest markets. International buyers are still a force in the American real estate market, in part because high-net-worth individuals are looking for safer places than the stock market to park their cash. But it’s a little riskier to invest in a property that’s off the beaten luxury path, no matter how storied its pedigree. Sycamore Valley Ranch, as Neverland is now called, has three major hurdles to overcome: location, location, location.

The property — purchased from a financially ailing Jackson in 2008 with a $23.5 million note from Thomas Barrack Jr.’s Colony Capital LLC — is in Los Olivos, a town of around 1,100 residents about 130 miles northeast of Los Angeles. That’s pretty far from the proliferation of the highest-end homes. “Most of the homes in these price ranges are waterfront, or with ocean views, or they’re in the cities,” said DeSimone. “They’re concentrated in L.A., New York, San Francisco, and Miami.”Take this $125 million, 12-bed, 13-bath home located an hour from Neverland, right in Montecito, with those ocean views and almost 30,000 square feet. It has been on the market since 2014, repped by the same folks who took on Neverland. There hasn’t been a price cut.
On Zillow, only four other properties were asking $100 million or more this year. One is the Playboy Mansion, which listed earlier this year for cool $200 million. (Bunny lovers even get Hugh Hefner as a roommate.)
The others include a $135 million, 8,000-square-foot Beverly Hills estate (yes, in the 90210 zip code) with seven beds and 10 baths; it has been on Zillow for about 150 days. On the East Coast (there’s no public listing between the coasts in this price range), a 13-bed, 35-bath (!) home on Long Island Sound in Great Neck, N.Y., is asking the same price as Neverland; it has been on Zillow for almost 200 days.
Some sellers do consider price chops. Take Elk Mountain Lodge in Aspen, Colo. Owned by Bill Koch, the 27-bed, 32-bath mansion hit the market last year for $100 million. It was delisted and then came back a couple of weeks ago, asking $80 million.
According to Zillow, Neverland is asking nearly 200 times the median home value of $548,500 in Santa Barbara County. Wayne S. Natale, real estate broker for nearby Village Properties and a 30-year veteran of real estate in the Santa Ynez Valley, said there are few truly high-end properties in his domain. (He doesn’t represent Neverland but has toured the property many times.) Only a couple of homes above $4 million sell each year. There’s almost nothing to compare Neverland to — no comps to settle the stomachs of nervous buyers. Just as the singer was inimitable, so is his property.

“There’s never been a $100 million sale in the Santa Ynez Valley,” Natale said. “If it was in Aspen, it would be a $100 million property, or maybe if it was in upstate New York or the Hamptons. But here, that asking price has a lot of blue sky in it.”
To be clear, he’s not saying the property won’t fetch that price, just that it might take a long time. While for-sale homes in Santa Barbara County stayed on the market for an average of just 75 days in 2015, according to Zillow, it’s perfectly normal for unique, high-end homes to stay on the market for much longer. (Despite rumors last year that China’s version of EBay unsuccessfully tried to auction Neverland off, its sellers aren’t resorting to wild techniques; a source close to the property called that report a hoax.)
“Any property in the valley that’s even $3 million and up, it’s typically on the market for two to three years,” said Natale.

In truth, not much is selling for those prices, anywhere — at least not publicly. The most expensive home sold on Zillow in 2015 went for $46.3 million. That was Kenny Rogers’s old place, with 23,988 square feet in Bel Air. The most recent property on Zillow’s list of the 10 most expensive homes sold last year is in Great Neck, N.Y. It went for a wee $19.9 million.
That doesn’t mean that supply is truly limited. Many high-end properties aren’t listed publicly.
“When you start getting north of $10 million, it’s a lot of that stuff never goes to market — a lot of pocket listings or quiet listings,” said DeSimone. “They’re only sold through brokers you know.”

While many of the country’s most expensive homes are in high-end hot spots, Los Olivos is not an obvious place to invest in luxury real estate. It’s not just that the town is sleepy—it’s totally zonked. In a good way. For those who like that sort of thing.
“People who come here are looking for a place in a rural community where they can have peace and quiet and relax,” said Natale. “They’re not into the cocktail parties every Friday night.” He calls it a Levis and t-shirts kind of place, for people who love horses or vineyards, but not the limelight.
“When Michael Jackson was up here, he didn’t go around the community much,” said Natale. “He had his own environment, his own kingdom out there.”

Even if Jackson wasn’t a presence in the town, MJ’s legacy could still help the property fetch a premium price. “If somebody wants to buy it and thinks that because Michael Jackson owned it, that has monetary value, it’ll sell for $50 million or above,” says Natale. “It’s going to take somebody that falls in love with it, and then the $100 million doesn’t make any difference to them.”

http://finance-commerce.com/2016/03/why-fabled-neverland-ranch-still-hasnt-sold/
 
I'm new to the forum, hello everyone.

One way around the tourist aspect of it, if NL ever became a museum/exhibit, would be to allow advance bookings only - people cannot turn up on the day.
Those who have tickets for entry, would have to go to a designated meeting point, park their cars, and entry/exit to NL would be by bus only.
This would reduce the excess traffic in the Los Olivos area. I mentioned this idea to Navi whilst on holiday with him last year, and this idea had already been pitched to the Jackson family.
 
I always thought they should do this. Or why not make it a high end place. Make people pay $500-$1000 to visit in small bunches. Advanced bookings. No crowds. Man I would pay for $1000 to visit any time.
 
Absolutely, I would pay 500 to 1000 pp to enjoy a day there. I need to find a way of speaking with Thomas Barrack.
 
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