Source: The Wall Street Journal
Sandcastle LaJolla
Represented by: Brett Dickinson and Ross Clark
Perched above La Jolla Bay, billionaire Darwin Deason’s ornate mansion isn’t so much a California beach house as a cliff-side Palace of Versailles.
The Sandcastle, as it is locally known, has become a local curiosity with its carved stone columns, elaborate balconies and private elevated beach. Now coming on the market for $108 million, the roughly 13,000-square-foot home would shatter the San Diego County record if it fetches its asking price, according to listing agents Brett Dickinson and Ross Clark of Compass.
The county record was set earlier this year when private-equity billionaire Egon Durban paid $44 million for an oceanfront Del Mar home.
The Sandcastle’s interior evokes old-world Europe, the agents said, with mosaics, marble floors, antique statues and rooms clad in solid-gold detailing. An adjoining guesthouse was inspired by Versailles’s Le Petit Trianon, which was built for France’s Louis XV and was later presented to Marie Antoinette.
Deason is a founder of Affiliated Computer Services, which was sold to Xerox for more than $6 billion in 2009. That same year, Deason paid about $26 million for the Sandcastle and a neighboring parcel. A major Republican political donor who is based in Dallas, Texas, Deason uses The Sandcastle as a vacation home.
The original home was built around 2005 by local builder Doug Manchester. Deason was drawn to the property for its unobstructed views in three directions, he said.
Deason significantly renovated the house, the agents said, tearing it down to the studs and building the guesthouse from scratch. He drew much of his inspiration from France, he said, both from
Versailles and from the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, which he has always admired. For the interiors, he tapped designer Timothy Corrigan, whose clients include Hollywood celebrities and the Qatari royal family.
The roughly 0.8-acre compound has 10 bedrooms. In the main house, a grand living room has detailed coffered ceilings and a series of arched windows overlooking the bay. It leads to a large, wraparound terrace. A dining room, which accommodates at least 16 people, has gold-leaf detailing, antique cabinets and a lavish crystal chandelier. The guesthouse has a nautically themed bar that is reminiscent of the one on Deason’s yacht, he said: The room features hand-painted sea imagery and a pair of 18th-century mermaid statues.
The property also has a pool, a fitness center and a wood-paneled office off the primary suite. Most of the furnishings, including the rugs, drapes and furniture, were custom made for the house, the agents said.
Also on the property, Deason built a small private, elevated beach for lounge chairs. Not a fan of the coarse California sand, the billionaire spent about $40,000 to import the Georgia sand found at Augusta National Golf Club, he said.
“Everyone who watches the golf tournament knows it is a spectacular shade of white,” he said.
The grounds also include two cabanas and a beachfront boathouse with a small kitchen. The slate tiles for the boathouse roof came from a single vein of the rock in a Chinese quarry, which Deason said he deemed the perfect color and pattern. “I bought as much of the material as could be extracted,” he said.
At the base of the property are two naturally occurring caves.
Deason estimated that he spent as much as $60 million constructing the house, in addition to the cost of the land.
He said he is selling the property because he doesn’t use it as frequently as some of his other residences. In addition to his Dallas home, he has recreational properties on Cedar Creek Lake near Dallas and in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. His yacht, Apogee, spends time in both the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, he said.
The Sandcastle is rare in La Jolla for its direct beach access and elaborate sea wall, the agents said. Neither of those features would be permitted today following the California Coastal Act, they said.
Deason said he priced the Sandcastle based partially on its replacement value, estimating that the land alone would be worth as much as $40 million. He said he believes the property has an “X Factor” because of its sea wall and beach access.
