Jay-Z and Beyoncé toured Neverland Ranch — Michael Jackson’s shuttered, 2,700-acre Southern California estate — and are even interested in buying it, according to Jackson family sources.
Shortly after the rap mogul released his “Watch the Throne” documentary last year, the superstar couple jetted off to the King of Pop’s abandoned palace, where they toured the property with Colony Capital owner Thomas Barrack Jr., who manages the estate.
“It is something that we want to keep in the family,” Jacko’s brother Randy said, but the estate will do what it wishes.
Getty Images
NEVER! Music power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z deny they’d buy Neverland.
Another sibling told the Post that Jacko’s children, who are heirs to his billion-dollar fortune, get upset each time reports surface of a potential Neverland sale.
“It’s the home they loved, the home their father loved and where they can still connect with him,” the family member said.
Jay-Z didn’t deny touring the $29 million property, but told The Post, “I’ve got no interest in Neverland.”
The Jacksons continue to believe there is a real chance the rap impresario and New Jersey Nets minority owner will make a play for the estate, which has been vacant since Jacko fled to Bahrain in 2005 after winning acquittal of 13 criminal counts related to child molestation.
“If Barrack took them to the ranch himself . . . there has got to be something to it,” a family member said Friday.
It was unclear what hurdles any potential buyer would have to overcome because the property is mostly controlled by Barrack’s Los Angeles-based private-equity firm, which acquired controlling interest in Neverland after taking over a $23.5 million loan on which Jacko defaulted in 2008.
Court documents show that Jacko’s estate still owns an 85 percent stake in Neverland.
The singer originally purchased the property in 1988 for $17 million after shooting a music video with Paul McCartney on the site.
He built an amusement park there, complete with a roller coaster, bumper cars and a Ferris wheel, most of which have been removed or sold at auction.
It was also home to a coterie of animals, a state-of-the-art movie theater, a working train to take visitors around the ranch, a two-story game room, tennis courts, swimming pools and its own fire department.
Barrack refused to answer questions about a potential sale to Jay-Z.
John Branca, the executor of Jacko’s estate — who has been fiercely protective of the late pop star’s image — also declined to comment.
Jacko’s children, Prince, 16, Paris, 14, and Blanket, 10, stand to inherit Neverland when they turn 30.
Jermaine Jackson has expressed a desire for the property becoming a Graceland-like attraction. Elvis’ old home rakes in about $44 million annually, with roughly half that amount earned from ticket sales from visitors there, according to a spokesman.
‘Bey-Z’ took a look at Jacko ranch
This article
‘Bey-Z’ took a look at Jacko ranch
can be opened in url
http://newsflags.blogspot.com/2013/02/bey-z-took-look-at-jacko-ranch.html
‘Bey-Z’ took a look at Jacko ranch
