2008-11-13 09:38:52
By ROBERT JABLON, Associated Press Writer Robert Jablon, Associated Press
Writer Wed Nov 12, 8:54 pm ET
LOS ANGELES Michael Jackson has given up title to his Neverland ranch,
transferring the deed to a company he partly controls.
The singer filed a grant deed on the ranch Monday that makes the new owner an
entity called the Sycamore Valley Ranch Co. LLC, Tom Pearson of the Santa
Barbara County clerk-recorder's office said Wednesday.
Sycamore Valley Ranch Co. is a joint venture between Jackson and an affiliate
of Colony Capital LLC, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction
who was not authorized to speak on the record and requested anonymity.
The person could not say what would become of the 2,500-acre property in the
bucolic, oak-studded hills of Santa Barbara County's wine country, 120 miles
northwest of Los Angeles.
A call to an attorney for Jackson, L. Londell McMillan, was not immediately
returned Wednesday.
Jackson had gone into default on the $24.5 million he owes on the property and
had faced foreclosure before Colony Capital bailed him out earlier this year by
purchasing his loan.
Pearson said the deed did not indicate who owns Sycamore.
A listing on the California secretary of state's Web site says the company
filed with the state in June. It does not identify its owners, but the company
has the same Century City address as Colony Capital LLC.
Colony Capital is a Los Angeles-based real estate investment company run by
billionaire Tom Barrack. It owns several properties in Las Vegas, including the
Las Vegas Hilton.
The property was called Sycamore Valley Ranch before Jackson bought it in 1988
and began turning it into a miniature amusement park with a zoo, Ferris wheel,
roller coaster and other rides.
At the height of his popularity, the superstar invited thousands of children to
play on the grounds.
He renamed the ranch after the mythical land of Peter Pan and set about
creating the magical childhood experiences he said his career as a child star
had denied him.
"It's like stepping into Oz," he once said of Neverland. "Once you come in the
gates, the outside world does not exist."
Jackson has struggled to pay his debts since his financial empire began to
crumble following his arrest in 2003 on charges that he molested a 13-year-old
boy at the ranch. He has not been seen in the Los Olivos area since a jury
acquitted him of all charges, and recent aerial photos show the ranch falling
into disrepair.