Sylvester Stallone once put his 23-acre California ranch on the market for $7.95 million, but he ended up selling it for only $4 million, half of what he had first asked for it. The ranch, known as White Eagle Ranch, sat in Hidden Valley and had been turned into one of the most elaborate equestrian estates in the area. The sale was first reported by the Los Angeles Times in March 1992 as quoted by TOI.
Stallone built a modest ranch into a huge estate
When Stallone bought the Hidden Valley property, it had just a six stall barn and a small two bedroom cottage. He had owned it for five years by the time the 1992 sale was reported, and in that time he expanded it into something far bigger.
He added another barn, taking the total number of horse stalls to 29. He also built a 7,500 square foot log cabin with a marble floor, a jade fireplace, an indoor waterfall and a bedroom that took up the whole second floor. The estate also had a 2,200 square foot guest house, two swimming pools, a four car garage, a guard house, rooms for gauchos, a workout ring, a horse Jacuzzi and a lighted polo field.
The scale of these additions made the property far more than a simple ranch. It reflected how deeply Stallone was into horses and polo during that period of his life, and the estate became one of the most talked about celebrity properties of its time.
The sale price was almost half the original listing
White Eagle Ranch was first listed in 1990 for $7.95 million. That price failed to attract a buyer for months, and it was later cut to $5.7 million. Even at the reduced price, the property sat on the market for a while longer before an offer finally came in.
In late February 1992, a buyer stepped forward, and according to the Los Angeles Times, the deal closed within just a few days. The final price was $4 million cash, close to half of the original $7.95 million asking price, and also $1.7 million below the already reduced $5.7 million figure.
The buyers were described by the newspaper as wealthy people from outside the area. They were represented by Prudential Realty in Woodland Hills, and the fairly quick closing suggested a straightforward, well funded transaction rather than a drawn out negotiation.
Stallone was moving away from polo
According to the Los Angeles Times, Joanie Young, one of the agents handling the sale, said Stallone was shifting his interests and was no longer using his polo ponies. Another source told the paper that Stallone had been asked to stay away from polo under the terms of a five year contract to produce and direct films.
That did not mean his connection with horses had ended. Young said he still loved horses and had already moved many of them to his ranch in Maryland the year before. He also kept a polo field in Kauai at the time, although parts of that land were already headed towards a sale of their own.
He was building a bigger property in Telluride
While the California ranch was being sold, Stallone was busy expanding his footprint in Telluride, Colorado. The Los Angeles Times reported that he headed a partnership that bought 160 acres there for about $8.5 million, a holding nearly seven times the size of the California ranch he had just let go of.
Before that purchase, he had already bought 11 lots on a Telluride ski run at an average of $334,000 each, and had an option on another 20 acre parcel. Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson were believed to be among his partners in the 160 acre purchase, though the original report did not confirm exactly how the ownership was divided between them.
At the time, Stallone's fortune was estimated at more than $100 million, built largely on the success of his Rocky and Rambo films. Alongside the Maryland ranch, he also held homes on Anini Beach in Kauai, in Malibu, and in the Beverly Hills area.
Inputs from TOI
