Ｍ・ジャクソンさん「ネバーランド」　大幅値下げで米実業家が購入　推定２３億円

【ロサンゼルスＡＦＰ＝時事】米人気歌手、故マイケル・ジャクソンさんの自宅兼遊戯施設「ネバーランド」を、米富豪ロン・バークル氏が購入したことが分かった。同氏の広報担当者が24日、明らかにした。購入価格は、希望売却価格から大幅値下げの約2200万ドル（約23億円）だと報じられている。（写真は「ネバーランド」の航空写真）
　「ネバーランド」は、米カリフォルニア州サンタバーバラから約６５キロの距離にある。面積２７００エーカー（約１１００ヘクタール）の敷地内に寝室６室を備えた邸宅とゲストハウス３棟、広さ４エーカー（約１・６ヘクタール）の滝のある湖、テニスコート、複数の車庫や動物園が併設されている。
　「キング・オブ・ポップ」の名で知られるジャクソンさんは、広大な自宅におもちゃの鉄道や観覧車を設置し、オランウータンを飼うなど、おとぎ話の世界のような施設を造った。ネバーランドは何曲ものヒット曲が生まれた場所でもある。
　だが、ジャクソンさんが子どもたちを呼び込み寝泊まりさせていたネバーランドでは、少年たちが性的虐待を受けていたとの疑惑もある。施設の名称は、２００９年のジャクソンさん急死後に「シカモア・バレー・ランチ」に変更された。
　購入者のバークル氏は、米モンタナ州を拠点にスーパーマーケットから娯楽業界まで幅広い投資を行っている実業家だ。広報担当者は「不動産開発投資の機会」とみて購入したことをＡＦＰに明かした。
　売却価格については、米紙ウォールストリート・ジャーナルが２２００万ドルと報道している。ＡＦＰも、取引の内情に詳しい関係筋に取材し、この数字がおおよそ正しいことを確認した。２０１５年時点での希望売却価格は１億ドル（当時の為替レートで約１１０億円）で、大幅な値下げとなった。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/12/25-13:34）

Michael Jackson's former Neverland Ranch in California has sold to US billionaire Ron Burkle, his spokesman said Thursday, reportedly at a steeply discounted price of around $22 million.
The late King of Pop famously converted his sprawling, gated home into a fairytale-themed retreat -- complete with toy railroad, Ferris wheel and orangutans -- and penned some of his top hits on the ranch.
But Neverland was also the infamous location where Jackson invited children to visit and sleep over, and where he was accused of molesting young boys. It was rebranded after Jackson's 2009 death as Sycamore Valley Ranch.
Burkle, a Montana-based businessman with investments ranging from supermarkets to the entertainment industry, purchased the ranch as a land banking opportunity, his spokesman told AFP.
The $22 million price tag reported by the Wall Street Journal -- and confirmed to AFP as roughly accurate, by a source familiar with the deal -- would mark a dramatic decline from the ranch's $100 million asking price in 2015.
That lofty fee, dubbed optimistic by realtors even at the time, was slashed to $31 million last year, but the ranch still did not sell and was taken off the market.
Burkle was flying in the region recently to scout a neighboring property as a possible new branch of his Soho House private club network when he spotted the ranch and called its owner, according to the spokesman.
Jackson reportedly paid $19.5 million for the property in the 1980s.
Thomas Barrack Jr.'s Colony Capital investment firm purchased the ranch from the heavily indebted singer for $22.5 million the year before his death.
Burkle previously worked as an adviser for the singer on business matters, including resolving debts incurred by his lavish lifestyle in the years before his death.
The 2,700-acre (1,100-hectare) estate located 40 miles (65 kilometers) from Santa Barbara features a main house with six bedrooms along with three guest houses, a four-acre lake with a waterfall, tennis courts, several barns and animal shelter facilities.
Jackson's ranch was raided in 2003 as part of a child molestation case against him and police at the time seized a large collection of pornography and images of nude children.
Jackson was acquitted in the case in 2005.
Last year, HBO documentary Leaving Neverland aired testimonies of two men who claim Jackson sexually abused them as children all over the ranch, including the attic, the master bedroom and the pool.
The Jackson estate -- which is suing HBO for $100 million over a posthumous character assassination -- denies all the allegations, as Jackson did in his lifetime.