StarBulletin.com

Cher's house, not home, up for auction


By

POSTED: Sunday, December 20, 2009

We know at least one thing 63-year-old pop music icon, movie star and current Las Vegas stage performer Cher wants for Christmas.

She wants a lot of rich people to get hyped about bidding on her Big Island estate in a Jan. 18 auction.

A Wall Street Journal online write-up describes the humble abode in the Four Seasons Hualalai Resort as having a gated courtyard that leads to the main house. Naturally, it has a swimming pool and naturally, it is an infinity-edge pool. WSJ Online has some drool-worthy photos.

In case the buyer wants to entertain or has a need for numerous mother-in-law quarters, the main house has a detached media room and four adjacent one-bedroom bungalows.

Concierge Auctions anticipates bids of between $8 million and $12 million and has not set a minimum bid but an undisclosed reserve price must be met.

Cher bought the 0.8-acre property in 2004 for $2.9 million and started construction on the house last year.

It is not uncommon for the Wall Street Journal to write about noteworthy Hawaii real estate for sale.

Several years back, its Sunday real estate pages featured Villa Noela, an estate that belonged to longtime Hawaii hotelier Andre Tatibouet at the time.

Its appearance got Tatibouet's phone ringing at the crack of dawn as friends asked him if he'd seen it. He had not, as the ringing phone awoke him.

The home eventually sold in 2007 to developer Steven Metter, chief executive officer of MW Group Ltd., for under $7.5 million.

E-cards rule inbox

For economic, environmental, or creative and technological reasons, it seems fewer holiday cards have arrived via the U.S. Postal Service than in any previous year. Electronic greetings are now the norm.

The first e-card received by TheBuzz this year came from Hawaiian Telcom. The subject line of its first paperless holiday greeting read: A Green (well, Red) Holiday Greeting from HT. Green in concept, meaning, not using paper, but red, as in the color of the subtly animated greeting's background.

A number of others have arrived since, and the most elaborate as of Friday was from Anthology Marketing Group, whose creative and techno-savvy people can be seen at the link below.

Separately, I express to you my heartfelt gratitude for reading this column, for story pitches, talk-story time that leads to columns and for being so passionate about what you do to contribute to Hawaii's economy.

From me and mine to you and yours, wishes for a Merry Christmas (or nonspecific holiday commemoration) and a superlative 2010.

ON THE NET:

» www.hsblinks.com/1k0

Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Her column will return Jan. 5