Terrible Herbst owner buys actor’s home
Jerry Herbst, the 70-year-old owner, chairman and president of Terrible Herbst, which runs gasoline stations, retail operations and casinos in Southern Nevada, recently bought Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage’s home in Newport Beach, Calif., for $35 million.
The purchase price set a record for Orange County, Calif., topping last summer’s $30 million sale of a shorefront house on Laguna Beach, Calif.’s Riviera Drive that Las Vegas real estate developer Ken Sullivan bought. Cage paid $25 million for the nearly 0.6-acre property in 2005.
The contemporary house on Newport Bay has a view of the harbor’s main turning basin. It has a stone loggia with retractable glass doors, and a dock capable of accommodating 150-foot-long boats. It also is next door to John Wayne’s former home.
Cage decided to move after encountering a naked intruder in the Newport Beach home in October. No one was hurt. Cage, who was at home with his wife and child, escorted the intruder, 45-yeare-old Robert Dennis Furo Jr., outside and called a security guard. Cage has since moved his family to a walled and gated estate in Bel-Air, Calif.
The movie star had asked $40 million for the residence.
Tony Illia writes for the Review-Journal’s sister publication, the Las Vegas Business Press. He can be reached at (702) 303-5699 or tonyllia@aol.com