In Texas, everything is bigger – including the mansions. And apparently, the losses on real estate are also bigger in the Lone Star state. In Hickory Creek, Texas, an estate called Champ d’Or is now up for auction with a reserve price of $10,300,000. While $10,300,000 is a lot of money for a home, it pales in comparison to the $46,000,000 spent to build the 6 bedroom, 14 bathroom, 35,000 square foot property.
Champ d’Or is the product of five years of meticulous planning, construction, and craftsmanship. On an 1.6 million+ square foot lot, the property is comprised of a main house, a pool and tennis house, outdoor swimming pool, tennis court, adjacent lake, and 25 acres of beautiful treed property. Forbes’ Morgan Brennan spoke with Shirley Goldfield, who owns Champs d’Or (which means “Field of Gold”) with husband Alan Goldfield, the founder and former chief of CellStar, who said, “when I built it, I wanted every room to stand on its own…It’s like living in a fantasy land.” While it may be LIKE “living in a fantasy land,” the couple have never officially taken up residence in the sprawling compound.
When Forbes asked why the Goldfields would build a fantasy land just to turn around and list it for sale, Shirley said, “I’m like a painter who creates a beautiful work of art and then sells it…People ask me, ‘Are you sorry to see it go?’ And I say, no, because I feel privileged to have been able to create it.”
At one time, the Goldfields listed Champ d’Or for $72 million, which placed it on Forbes’ list of the America’s most expensive homes for sale. It was reduced to $66.9 million in 2010. In 2011, the Goldfields were still without a buyer in sight, so the asking price was massively chopped to $35 million. On March 30, 2012, the non-distressed property will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Will the Goldfields get close to what Champ d’Or cost? We’ll have to wait and see.
