The clifftop property includes a funicular down to the ocean that was built by late country singer Kenny Rogers.
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Jan Koum, the co-founder of WhatsApp, is paying approx. $109 million for a Malibu, Calif. mansion right next door to one he already owns, according to two people familiar with the deal.
The transaction is the latest big-ticket deal for Mr Koum in the Los Angeles area. In 2019 he purchased the neighbouring Malibu property from entertainment executive Ron Meyer for around $126 million. Then last year Mr Koum spent approx. $157 million for the Beverly Hills estate of Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg.
The seller in the latest transaction is Diana Jenkins, a Bosnia-born entrepreneur and philanthropist. Ms Jenkins, founder of health-drinks company Neuro Drinks, was previously married to British financier Roger Jenkins. Her home came on the market last May for US$125 million, The Wall Street Journal reported. It is on Malibu’s Paradise Cove, and its prior owners include Barry Diller and the late country singer Kenny Rogers.
Sitting on a cliff top, the property has its own funicular leading down to the ocean (Mr Rogers was slapped with a US$2 million fine by local authorities for installing it.). On nearly 3 acres, it includes a single-story, five-bedroom house with vaulted ceilings, herringbone floors and floor-to-ceiling windows that open onto the gardens. It also has a dance studio and a recording studio. On the grounds, there is a three-bedroom guesthouse, a swimming pool, a waterfall and koi pond, a sports court and a guard house.
The funicular leads an oceanfront cabana, which has retractable ceilings, a wet bar, a built-in barbecue and fire pit.
Mr Koum, 44 helped launch WhatsApp, an internet messaging service, in 2009. Following the service’s acquisition by Facebook in 2014, he remained as a Facebook director for several years before stepping down in 2018. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index pegs his net worth at $15.7 billion.
Chris Cortazzo of Compass has the listing. The buyer was represented by Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency.
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The imposing stone structures, with towers, turrets and a hot tub room, lord over the landscape near the mountain resort town of Sandpoint.
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Idaho is not a place that’s often associated with Medieval castles, but a pair have just hit the market for $6.25 million.
The imposing stone structures have towers, turrets, ramparts, arrow-slit windows and even a drawbridge, and might just be the most authentic-looking castles this side of the Atlantic.
“Who expects to see a castle like this in Idaho?” said listing agent Brenda Burk of Coldwell Banker Schneidmiller Realty, who brought the property to the market last week. They are, she said, “extremely unusual.”
Schweitzer Castle and Château de Melusine, as they’re known, stand within Schweitzer Mountain Resort in the Selkirk Mountains and overlook the nearby mountain resort town of Sandpoint. They take in panoramic views of Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho’s largest lake.
The pair of ski-in/ski-out homes each have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and three stories, Burk explained. They are “so authentic,” she said. “Every single stone was handlaid.”
Schweitzer Castle, she said, wasn’t built for “functionality,” but has been modernized and adapted and now has everything a 21st-century residence requires, along with a dungeon, which for some buyers may also be a requisite.
The chateau, meanwhile, has a hot tub room with mountain views, as well as a garage.
The property is being sold furnished, and will come complete with the hand-carved statues, armor, mounted swords, stained-glass windows and a host of antiques dating to the 15th and 16th centuries.
The owner, an antique collector who couldn’t be reached for comment, “is always looking for that hidden jewel and he found that here,” Burk said.
The next custodian is likely to stem from a varied pool of buyers, Burk said, that would include “the trophy-home buyer, someone who can say ‘I own a castle.’”
The property could also appeal to someone looking for a vacation home, or a multi-generational estate, and beyond that “there’s the dreamers,” she said. “We definitely try to market to people who like Medieval history or maybe do Renaissance fairs.”
The seller “really wants it to go to someone with the same passion.”
