Today we hear from the ever so plugged in real estate yenta Yolanda Yakketyyak that the nonagenarian billionaire and his significantly younger fifth wife, interior designer Tracy Murdock, have acquired another, nearly 11,000 square foot brick built mansion, this time in the swanky, guard-gated Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, CA.*
The property in question has a rather illustrious history: It was custom built in the early 2000s by ice hockey honcho Wayne Gretzky who sold it in August 2007 for $18.5 million to professional baseballer turned financially embattled entrepreneur Lenny Dysktra. After a long battle with a variety of creditors, Mister Dykstra lost the estate to the gaping maw of foreclosure in late 2010. In early 2011 the property was purchased by billionaire hedge fund fat cat Thomas Barrack Jr.** Mister Barrack flipped the property back on the open market two weeks later. We're not sure what the original asking price was but we do know that in July 2012 it was listed for $18,750,000 and in November of 2012 it was re-listed with a new and improved but in hindsight still way too high $14,995,000.
After almost grueling three years on and off the market, the estate sold in early November for—drum roll please—a steeply discounted $9.5 million to a corporate entity easily linked to our Mister David Murdock. The official owner, according to the property records Your Mama peeped and perused, is the very same Murdock-owned company that developed the Sherwood Country Club in which the property sits.
Listing details Your Mama conjured up out of the digital ether show the gated estate encompasses 6.5 (or so) acres, shares a private promontory with two other similarly sized estates, and has long views of Lake Sherwood and the surrounding mountains. The Richard Landry-designed main mansion was built, according to Your Mama's research, in 2002 and has six bedroom and eight bathrooms with additional living space above a semi-detached two-car garage, perhaps best suited as a home office, fitness facility or staff quarters. There are also two self-contained guest houses that flank the rear of the residence.
Other estate-style features include a circular drive with porte-cochère entrance, a double height entry with curved staircase, grandly scaled and liberally ornamented public entertainment rooms, an all white kitchen with marble counter tops, an adjoining family room, a state-of-the-art screening room with tiered lounge seating for eight or more, and generous family quarters that include a sizable master suite complete with private sitting room and dual bathrooms. A second floor veranda on the rear of the house looks larger than Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter's entire if admittedly fairly modest residence and has sweeping views over the golf course-centric community.
The mansion and its outbuildings are ringed by flat, well-watered lawns, spacious terraces, formal gardens, a fountain or two, a lighted tennis court with fireplace-equipped open air viewing pavilion, a swimming pool with tanning shelf/kiddie pool and inset spa, and an outdoor cooking facility outfitted with a pizza oven and wood and gas barbecues.
*Reports in some of the more respectable property gossip columns have stated that 90-something year old Mister Murdock decided to sell his Bel Air spread so he could spend more time up at his (approx.) 2,000 acre ranch in Ventura County so Your Mama really hasn't a clue whether Mister and fifth Missus Murdock plan to inhabit the Sherwood County Club estate on a full-time, part-time or no-time basis.
**Property records and other online resources show it was purchased at auction for $760,712 but that seems like a ludicrously low number. We imagine, as is often the case with foreclosure purchases,, Mister Barrack assumed whatever outstanding taxes were owed as well as any additional loans that may have been secured by the property, thus making his investment potentially significantly higher than the recorded sale price. We were told Mister Barrack purchased the property as an investment and we're not sure if he and/or his family ever lived on site. Listing details from the time of its most recent sale to Mister Murdock state the house had been recently remodeled, presumably by Mister Barrack and his team of architect, designers and decorators.
listing photos: Coldwell Banker Beverly Hills South
