Real Estate Millions marks 10 years: A look at our favorite homes
Real Estate Millions celebrated its 10th anniversary this summer. The feature is published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Sunday real estate section. An archive from the past 10 years can be viewed online at reviewjournal.com/homes/real-estate-millions.
Our editor and staff have selected their Top 10 favorites from the past decade that feature the wild, flamboyant, fabulous and creative.
10. Liberace mansion
Wladziu Valentino Liberace was a renowned piano virtuoso, showman and frequent Strip headliner. He created a 14,393-square-foot luxury mansion during the 1970s by connecting two smaller homes on Shirley Street, near Tropicana Avenue and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Liberace designed an eclectic interior of imported copper tiles, a grandiose staircase, marble bathroom spa with gold fixtures, custom swimming pool and art from all over the world. A ceiling mural above the master suite was painted by a descendant of Michelangelo. The showman lived at the home part time from the mid-1970s, where he entertained friends until his death in 1987.
Martyn Ravenhill, a businessman and longtime Liberace fan from the United Kingdom, bought the mansion out of foreclosure during 2013 for $500,000. Ravenhill spent more than $3 million to renovate, restore and maintain the mansion. With the help of Friends of the Liberace Mansion organization, he has opened the luxury home for viewing during appointment tours and scheduled public and private events that honor Liberace’s legacy. In 2016, the mansion received a Nevada historical building designation from the Clark County Commission.
9. Siegfried and Roy’s Jungle Palace
George and Brett Carden, owners of Carden Circus International, have done extensive renovation and restoration work within the former “Jungle Palace,” home of Strip performers Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn.
They have said they hope to open the property for guided tours and private events after restoration is complete and operating permits are received from Las Vegas.
The Jungle Palace was one of the illusionists’ first residences while they performed at the nearby Mirage resort from 1990 to 2003.
The main structure was originally built in 1954 and measured 8,750 square feet. It had two bedrooms, two full baths, two partial baths and an indoor Jacuzzi. The site also included three smaller guesthouses, three swimming pools, additional water features, a bird sanctuary and animal enclosures for their exotic pets.
Horn and Fischbacher later purchased the 100-acre “Little Bavaria” campus in North Las Vegas. They resided at that location until their respective deaths in 2020 and 2021.
Little Bavaria was sold to property developers in 2021, who divided the 100 acres into smaller housing development parcels and a proposed apartment complex.
8. Wayne Newton’s Casa de Shenandoah ranch
The 39.5-acre Casa de Shenandoah ranch was owned by entertainer Wayne Newton. The expansive acreage on the corner of South Pecos and Sunset roads served as a grazing area for Newton’s prized Arabian horses with a personal zoo that included peacocks, penguins, monkeys and more than 200 exotic pets. The entertainer and his family have not lived there since 2013.
Newton purchased the original 5 acres of the property in 1966, then spent more than 10 years designing and building a Southern-style mansion that included a 14,000-square-foot main home.
At the same time, he acquired more adjacent land to expand the living space for his animal habitat. Other support buildings, such as horse stables, a bird sanctuary, animal pens, exercise pools, guest houses and garages were added over the years for a total of 57,000 square feet of living space.
The interior entrance into the main home featured white marble tiles and an ornate, double-winged staircase built on classical columns that led up to the second floor.
A custom garage showcased Newton’s luxury car collection of classic Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Mercedes-Benz models, while the hull of a Fokker F28 personal jet was refurbished into an entertainment space and installed permanently on the grounds of the property.
Newton sold a majority stake for ownership in the ranch to a development group in 2010, with the intent to create a themed museum and zoo supported by guided tours of the property for public and private events.
Coming out of the Great Recession, financial, logistical and public relations obstacles delayed the project. The Casa de Shenandoah destination attraction opened in September 2015 but closed less than three years later in April 2018.
Prince Jefri Bolkiah’s 16-acre estate in Spanish Trails sold for $25 million. An unnamed buyer in STLV Properties LLC was secured by Ivan Sher of IS Luxury during November 2023.
The compound of 10 interconnected residential buildings within the 16-acre property contained 110,320 square feet of total living space. The luxury residences overlooked the Spanish Trails community golf course, tennis court and landscaped grounds that included multiple resort amenities such as guest facilities near pools and water features.
The centerpiece of the complex was the main house that contained five bedrooms and eight baths within 37,466 square-feet of living space. Descriptions of the interior of the home frequently used the word “grand” to describe the great room with its soaring ceilings, the dining hall with its opulent kitchen and its usefulness as a catering stage for “culinary mastery” and extravagant feasts. The main house also included a separate music room, an entertainment room and a billiard parlor.
Building plans for the property were started in 1996 by the Prince of Brunei, and the project was 90 percent completed at the time of sale. The compound was located at the westernmost end within the Spanish Trails guard-gated community near Durango Road and Hacienda Avenue.
Randy Johnston started building a custom home during the year 2000 without knowing what the result would be. All he wanted was a place that would provide some seclusion.
He had purchased the 40-acre Hard Luck Mine site with its existing cabin when it came onto the real estate market during 1998. It was located 35 miles south of Goldfield and about 20 miles east of Death Valley National Park in Esmeralda County.
He wanted to build a desert retreat that would escape the snows of Lake Tahoe, where he owned a plumbing business. Nearby Scotty’s Castle in Death Valley provided inspiration.
Johnston initially designed a 50-foot diameter round house because of the high desert winds in the area. Over the next dozen years, the project grew into a four-story, Gothic-style castle with 16-inch-thick cinder block, concrete and steel walls.
The castle housed 22 rooms within 8,000 square-feet of living space, including two kitchens, four bedrooms, three baths, wine cellar, theater, game room, glass solarium, planetarium and fountain room. The great room included a vintage 1920s Wurlitzer pipe organ.
Other buildings on the 40-acre property included a workshop for automotive repair, a miner’s cabin, shower house, powerhouse and an existing gold mine tunnel. The original Hard Luck Mine claim was prospected until just before World War II.
The remote location of the castle near a ghost town mine meant that utilities were not available. The home had to rely on off-grid power, heating fuel and water. Johnston harnessed the desert sun and steady winds of the region to create electric power. Solar panels and a wind turbine generator were backed up by a diesel fuel generator to provide electricity when needed.
A 3,000-gallon propane tank provided cooking and heating fuel while a water-hauling trailer brought fresh water to a tank at the site.
During 2018, after turning 72 years old, Johnston decided to sell his castle and use the money to travel cross-country in a recreational vehicle trailer with his two dogs.
He listed the Hard Luck Mine Castle on the real estate market for $1.2 million during October 2018 but reduced the price again to $900,000 when the property had not sold for over a year.
Richard Socher, an entrepreneur from the Bay Area in California, also loved the solitude and beauty of this desert region. He enjoyed a lifestyle of exploring gold rush mining history while driving off-road vehicles on rugged terrain and had been looking for a ghost town property to buy.
Socher purchased the property from Johnston for $500,000 during 2021. He planned to renovate the infrastructure of the Hard Luck Mine Castle to create an Airbnb tourist destination for eco explorers and event planners.
Craig Tillotson was inspired by Disneyland, the Treasure Island resort and the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series to put his own stamp on a “Pirate’s Cove” collection of homes that became a private theme park for family and friends.
Tillotson originally bought a standard stucco home in a secluded Boulder City community overlooking Lake Mead National Recreational Area as a vacation home for his family.
He started upgrading with the addition of a second floor, a wing on one side, a standalone garage and a casita for visiting guests.
When the Treasure Island resort on the Strip was changing its brand and dumping much of its pirate gear from its nightly water show, Tillotson began buying pirate-themed exhibits.
Tillotson then purchased two adjacent lots next to the original home, redesigned them with a pirate theme and dubbed his new compound “Pirate’s Cove.”
The complex of five buildings occupied more than 20,000 square feet of living space that included 18 bedrooms and 22 baths. Each room within each building had its own pirate theme such as the Davy Jones Suite, Pillage Room, Plunder Room, Egyptian Treasure Suite and the Voodoo Room.
The compound also included a water park built around three swimming pools and two hot tubs, including a 50,000-gallon swimming pool that was 15 feet deep. A water slide snaked through a replica of a pirate ship with cannons while swimmers could dive from a tall ship’s mast and crow’s nest platforms at heights of 40-foot, 30-foot and 20-foot marks or from a lower cliff structure.
Waterfalls, water slides, fire pits and mist systems were operated by automated timer systems that controlled a dozen different water pumps and multiple valves.
Tillotson employed a landscape manager and two assistant caretakers, who kept all the features of Pirate’s Cove operational for private family and guest events that added up to more than 600 visitors each year.
4. Queensridge mansion with subterranean garage
Benjamin Girardin had a passion for classic German cars. He designed and built a $3.5 million home in Queensridge to showcase them.
A custom basement encompassing 5,100 square feet was partitioned into a showroom of 3,000 square feet to display as many as 10 cars. The remaining 2,100 square feet of space in the basement was configurable for any type of recreational area or multiuse space.
Girardin could swap out his vehicles through a PhantomPark two-deck car lift that was accessed through the main garage above ground. The lift was concealed below ground in the basement to enable the primary two-car garage to be used to its full capacity.
A spiral staircase with custom ironwork allowed access between the basement and main floor of the home. Clear glass windows were built into the floors at the main entry and the office, so that residents and guests could view the car collection below without descending the staircase.
Overall, the Queensridge custom home encompassed 10,507 square feet of living space with five bedrooms and eight baths in addition to the cavernous basement space. It was modeled on a French chateau but included a Las Vegas nod to indoor/outdoor living through an open floor plan.
The Queensridge custom home sold for $3.35 million in August 2020 and was listed by Las Vegas luxury Realtor Anthony Spiegel.
3. Seven Hills “Tony Stark” mansion
Some of his friends and acquaintances called him Tony Stark (the famed Marvel Comics character) of Seven Hills. Mark Lindsey was the owner of an insurance company, but he also owned a business that sold electronics and alarm systems.
During August 2021, Lindsey listed his amazing, high-tech Seven Hills mansion for $32.5 million.
The custom three-story home included four bedrooms and nine baths, was located on an acre of land, and encompassed 14,207 square feet of living space within an exclusive guard-gated enclave inside the Seven Hills community of Henderson. It was built during 2017 by Elegant Homes and designed by Quinn Boesenecker of Pinnacle Architectural Studio.
Lindsey wanted the home to be an entertainment center for guests when he hosted large parties. He challenged Boesenecker “to build him something crazy, to do something that had never been done.”
There were a lot of “never-been-done-befores” within the mansion:
■ A skylight in the ceiling above the bed in the master bedroom retracted to view the stars at night.
■ A spa outside the bedroom on the covered balcony was made of glass that allowed views of Las Vegas with an illusion of hanging over the edge.
■ A cantilevered dining table without legs in the dining room looked like it was floating in the air.
■ There was even a “Tony Stark” touch with an elevator to lift a car from a single-car garage to the upper level next to the master bedroom. Two more climate-controlled garages could house a dozen cars and one included a basketball half-court.
■ Other amenities included a glass hot tub with a see-through view of Las Vegas, a master shower with 53 shower and steam heads, 20,000 square feet of heated floors and patio, and a nine-hole miniature golf course in the backyard, next to an infinity-edge swimming pool that held 37,000 gallons of water.
■ A casino-inspired man cave included a wet bar, pool table, Texas Hold’em card table, shuffleboard and air hockey table. A rock-climbing wall in the basement extended upward to two levels.
■ Cutting-edge electronic technologies included full-spectrum LED lighting, advanced security systems with 32 cameras and biometric scan entry access, 13 integrated motorized door systems, high-fidelity music distribution throughout 32 interior and exterior areas, 32 video display screens throughout the home with 4K video distribution signals, a Barco DLP laser projector in the master bedroom coupled with a 145-inch Stewart motorized double-sided screen that presented a mirror-image on both sides of the display.
All these features were digitally connected and controlled by a Crestron Pro smart home operating system.
Glass walls throughout much of the home created a feeling of transparency to a spectacular view of the outside world, including a glass elevator that carried guests up to the third floor.
Tony Stark would definitely have felt at home.
The Aurora Estate in the Marquis Seven Hills community was a house of many colors — more than 16 million shades of the rainbow.
Daniel Murphy had started his career as a lighting technician two months after the Fremont Street project opened in downtown Las Vegas during 1994. He worked his way up to technical director. In 2004, he went on to work for the Lake of Dreams attraction at Wynn Las Vegas.
Murphy and his wife contracted with Blue Heron to design and build a custom 5,442-square-foot home that featured five en suite bedrooms, six baths, a temperature-controlled wine room, movie/entertainment room, office, panic doors, outdoor rejuvenation room, outdoor kitchen and high-tech pet door with dog run.
Murphy designed and programmed more than 100 LIFX brand lights throughout his entire property that could be controlled individually or as a zone. All of the LED lights were Wi-Fi-controlled by using an app that was compatible with Amazon Alexa.
“I knew I wanted to be able to change the color of the entire house,” Murphy said about his lighting system that cost more than $50,000.
He could choose a specific lighting theme for the entire house, such as holiday colors or seasonal ambiance.
“You can animate your scene,” Murphy said about another dimension of the lights. “So, the house slowly morphs from one room to the next.”
The lights were synced to the home’s integrated sound system throughout the property, providing the ability to have the lights even bounce to the music.
Over 50 full-color LED exterior landscape lights and a MagicStream Laminar in the pool created arcs of illuminated water that rippled outwards for a dramatic light show.
1. Celine Dion’s Summit Club home
In May 2023, singer Celine Dion sold her custom luxury home for a record $30 million. She originally purchased the unfinished home on a 1.4-acre lot for $9.7 million during 2017 but had never lived in it.
The home measured 30,985 square feet with four bedrooms, seven full baths and five partial baths. The living space was divided into 11,979 square feet on the first floor; 4,458 square feet on the second floor; and 14,548 square feet in a basement that included 3,300 square-feet for a garage.
In May 2024, a custom home on a 1.5-acre lot next door to Celine Dion’s home set a sales record within the Las Vegas market for $35 million.
The home was also originally built in 2017 and measured 11,427 square feet with five bedrooms, seven baths and a six-car garage. It also had a pool with a waterfall and a spa. The price per square foot was estimated at more than $2,900.
The Summit Club, a joint venture between the Discovery Land Co. and the Howard Hughes Corp., has redefined the high end of the market by creating a new ultra-luxury community.
The 555-acre development in Summerlin sits on an elevation between 2,800 to 3,100 feet and was built around a golf course designed by architect Tom Fazio.
