Kaiser estate
auction fails, price set
at $22.5 million

Bishop Estate sought sealed bids
on the Portlock home

By Rob Perez
Star-Bulletin

The auction was a bust, so now they're trying the more typical sales approach: putting a price tag on the home.

But this isn't your typical home, and it's certainly not a typical price.

Owners of the former estate of industrialist Henry Kaiser are asking $22.5 million for their unique piece of Portlock.

Bishop Estate tried to sell the famed spread earlier this year through a sealed-bid process, hoping the absence of specific price parameters would work to the estate's advantage. But no acceptable bids surfaced.

Now the estate has listed the oceanfront home for about half what Japanese billionaire Gensiro Kawamoto paid for it -- excluding the land -- in 1988. Bishop Estate's price includes the dirt.

The list amount is even less than the $26 million the estate sought for just the land in 1993. Kawamoto refused to pay that price and eventually surrendered the leasehold property, with its $1 million annual ground rent, to Bishop Estate. The complex has been vacant since.

"My initial feeling is that it sounds like a good asking price," real estate appraiser Harlin Young said of the $22.5 million price tag.

The agent for the listing referred inquiries to a Bishop Estate spokeswoman, who declined to comment.

Mary Worrall, president of Mary Worrall Associates, a real estate brokerage, said she wasn't surprised the sealed-bid process failed to produce a buyer.

"I haven't seen these other methods of selling real estate to be terribly successful," she said.

Worrall said the property needs to be aggressively marketed internationally. "It's a beautiful site ... It's just a matter of finding the right buyer."