Tom Cruise’s Action-Packed Colorado Estate Lists For $50 Million

Tom Cruise’s Telluride, Colorado, estate—which is full of sports-oriented amenities befitting an action star—is returning to market for approx. $50 million.

This isn’t Mr Cruise’s first effort to sell: Seven years ago, he tapped a real-estate agent to market the property for around $76 million, though it was never publicly listed, according to current listing agents Eric Lavey of LIV Sotheby’s International Realty and his colleague Dan Dockray. “I’m not sure [Cruise] was ready to sell it yet,” Mr Lavey said.

Ultra-private, the roughly 320-acre property is located at the end of a gated mile-long driveway that is surrounded by a forest of Aspen trees. It borders a national forest on three sides and is a few minutes downtown Telluride. Located on a hillside, the property sits at an elevation that allows the owner to look down on planes arriving at the nearby airport, the agents said.

“Everybody knows who owns this property, but you can’t see it from almost anywhere,” said Mr Dockray.

Mr Cruise spent several years designing and constructing the native stone-and-cedar home, which was completed in 1994. Roughly, 10,000 square feet, the four-bedroom house is designed in classic mountain style, with wood-beamed ceilings, wood-panelled walls and stone fireplaces. There is also a three-bedroom guesthouse on the property.

The activity-oriented features include a large sports court, a dirt bike and snowmobile track and an extensive network of trails for hiking, snowshoeing and all-terrain vehicles. There is also a spa, an office and a three-car garage.

A spokeswoman for Mr Cruise didn’t respond to a request for comment on his reasons for selling. The listing agents said they believed the actor hadn’t used the house in quite some time. They noted that the market in Telluride has been extremely active over the past few months as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, with buyers coming in from major cities across the country.

“People sat down during this lockdown and said ‘What am i doing with my life? I want a better lifestyle,’” Mr Dockray said.

Mr Cruise, 58, has appeared in movies like “Top Gun” and the “Mission Impossible” franchise. He has recently been filming in Europe.

For years, tech entrepreneur Asher Waldfogel and his wife, Helyn MacLean, dreamed of building a modern house in Palo Alto, Calif.

The couple, however, worried about clashing with the Mediterranean-style architecture typically associated with their neighborhood of Old Palo Alto.

So they tapped architect Steven Ehrlich to create a design that paid homage to its surroundings with stucco, mahogany and titanium zinc cladding. They spent $20 million over several years building the house, completed in 2005.

Designed for indoor-outdoor living, the house has matching mahogany paneling and limestone both inside and out. Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

The dining room is between an outdoor garden and the staircase. Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

Now looking to be closer to their adult daughter on the East Coast, they are putting the five-bedroom home on the market for $44 million—the most expensive listing in Palo Alto.

Waldfogel is an angel investor who co-founded Redback Networks, a telecommunications-equipment company. MacLean previously had a career in fundraising.

The kitchen and family room open to the garden and pool. Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

Cast alcoves and mahogany shelves house the couple’s books and ceramics. Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

The couple purchased the roughly 0.4-acre site for $7.1 million in 2000 and demolished a circa-1930s Spanish Colonial home. The house they built pinwheels around a central staircase. It has 7,900 square feet of livable space, with four distinct courtyards and a pool.

A key feature of the home is a cast-in-place concrete wall, or spine, that is two stories high and about 80 feet long. “There’s a little bit of controlled chaos in what comes out of the form,” unlike a perfectly uniform surface, Waldfogel said. “If you want that, you do it in plastic.”

Ehrlich said it took a few tries to get the concrete wall right. Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

‘It’s a really hard material to tame,’ Ehrlich said of concrete. Workers learned as they went, and Waldfogel and Helyn grew to appreciate the imperfect material. Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

A central staircase is housed in a glass tower. Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

Waldfogel said he and his wife are thinking about the next phase of life now that their daughter is grown, although they have not decided where they will move. They also have a home in Sun Valley, Idaho.

“Right now we’re just trying to emotionally let go and decide what to do next,” he said.

Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

Two wings of the house are connected by horizontal planes. Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

Palo Alto, an epicenter of venture capital and tech startups in Silicon Valley, is home to some of the country’s biggest tech titans. Sales volume and prices are rising, with a median sale price of $3.5 million for the three months ending in August, up 5.8% year-over-year, according to real-estate brokerage Redfin.

Arthur Sharif of Sotheby’s International Realty—San Francisco Brokerage has the listing.

Tom Cruise’s Action-Packed Colorado Estate Lists For $50 Million

The actor’s Telluride property is as action-packed as his films.

A five-bedroom Palo Alto home designed by Steven Ehrlich is listed for $44 million, making it the city’s most expensive listing. Built around a dramatic concrete spine, the home features four courtyards and a pool.