An American billionaire who was close to Michael Jackson bought the Neverland estate after many years of this legendary property being abandoned without finding a new owner.

According to the Wall Street Journal , 68-year-old billionaire Ron Burkle just bought the Neverland estate in Santa Barbara, California for 22 million USD (509 billion VND). Ron Burkle is the co-founder of investment company Yucaipa and has a fortune of about $1.5 billion. In the early 2000s, Ron Burkle was an advisor to Michael Jackson on business issues when the king of pop was in financial decline because of his lavish lifestyle.

Ron Burkle (right) bought Michael Jackson’s famous Neverland estate.

Buying Neverland, Ron Burkle not only owns the entire 11 square kilometer land but also owns a castle-like mansion of more than 1,200 square meters and 20 other projects here including an outdoor circus and a 55-seat movie theater. seating, football field, guest house…

Michael Jackson bought this estate in 1987 for $19.5 million. It was originally called the Sycamore Valley estate, but the pop star changed it to Neverland after the magical land in the story of Peter Pan – the boy who never grew up. Michael spent millions more to build an amusement park, circus, zoo… turning this place into a large amusement park. The singer Heal The World has welcomed many children and friends and colleagues to come here to have fun, visit and organize big parties.

Neverland is more than 11 square kilometers wide, including many works associated with Michael Jackson’s golden age.

After nearly two decades of living in Neverland, Michael Jackson moved out in 2005 after being accused of sexually harassing minors on his estate. Even though the court was found innocent, the sad memories of the lawsuit still made Jackson decide to take his three young children away from Neverland. By 2008, due to debt, Michael had to transfer Neverland to Colony Capital for $23 million.

After Michael Jackson’s sudden death, Colony Capital spent money to renovate the estate, hoping to sell it at a good price. In 2015, Neverland was offered for sale for 100 million USD – an “exorbitant” price, but the company believes that there will be tycoons who are crazy fans of the pop legend who want to own this place. However, as time passed, no one dared to spend a huge amount of money to buy Neverland. In 2017, its price was reduced to $67 million. By 2019, the price dropped to 31 million USD due to the negative impact of the documentary Leaving Neverland – a work that revolves around the accounts of former dancers Wade Robson and James Safechuck about their past sexual harassment by Michael Jackson. .at Neverland when they were 7 and 10 years old.

This property was abandoned for many years because no one could find a buyer.

This year, because of the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Neverland’s price dropped even more. The stagnation caused Neverland to be abandoned and seriously degraded. In the end, billionaire Ron Burkle bought it back for a bargain price of $22 million. It is unclear whether Ron Burkle bought it to live or invest, but fans expect the billionaire to preserve Michael Jackson’s once-iconic home because of the two people’s beautiful past friendship.