Primm Ranch may not have a railroad, a zoo or a Ferris wheel, but it does have a water park, an underground shooting range and an auto museum with an ionized-water car wash and gas station. Oh, and a grotto guest suite behind a waterfall.



Pop icon Michael Jackson visited the the 10-acre compound at 7000 Tomiyasu Lane in Las Vegas in 2007, and was so impressed that he declared he was going to buy it and call it “Wonderland,” the Las Vegas Sun said. He’d reportedly first wanted the nearby 73,000-square-foot mansion of the Sultan of Brunei, who wasn’t selling at the time.



Well, that didn’t work out, but now it can become your own private Neverland, Wonderland, Whateverland as it goes on the auction block Saturday, October 10.



And the owners are taking a big chance, because Concierge Auctions is selling it without reserve — meaning there’s no minimum bid. So although it had recently been listed at $14.5 million, the highest bidder could get it for a quarter of that price. (In fact, a doomsday scenario even worse than that happened to the Hawaiian spec mansion known as Waterfalling not long ago: Its $26.5 million list price failed to attract buyers, so the owners went to auction with no reserve … and it sold for just $5,750,000. The listing agent acknowledged that the no-reserve decision was “high risk” and “unfortunate” and said that they’d “underestimated the auction process.” The sellers were said to be “very disappointed with the results.”)



Of course, it’s an auction, so the property could also go for more than it was listed for.



It certainly seems to have all the features that a King of Pop, or any millionaire with a sense of whimsy, could want. Located in the same Las Vegas celebrity neighborhood as Wayne Newton’s newly opened museum of himself, it has some pretty prominent fanciful features, including but not limited to:

A dancing water fountain, along the lines of those at the Bellagio, which greet you when you drive through the main gates and up to the mansion.

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A water park of a giant pool, with slides, caves, chutes, waterfalls, a spa, diving cliffs, a rock bridge, and an elephant statue spouting water from its trunk.

A 1,000-square-foot grotto suite behind a waterfall, with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchenette and bar — making for one of the most unusual guest rooms in Las Vegas, and that’s really saying something. Jackson’s real estate agent described it as “something very much out of ‘The Flintstones.’”



An automated golf driving range, fenced and lighted, with three separate teeing spaces.

A casino with a full-size bar, fireplace, pool table and lounging area.

A three-screen theater with seating for 16, plus a purified air system to clean out the smell when cigar aficionados light up.

A beauty salon just off the kitchen, and a barber shop chair in “His” bathroom in the upstairs master suite.

A resort-style spa with a steam room and sauna.

An underground, soundproofed shooting range (could easily be converted to a music studio).

A 20-car auto showroom with a deionized-water car wash, power lifts for on-site vehicle maintenance, and two gas stations with diesel and unleaded fuel.

A “doggie villa,” once used for prize Rottweilers.



World-class equestrian facilities that include stables with indoor and outdoor stalls and a two-stall horse wash bay. Also, pastures; a 100-by-200-foot arena; a 100-square-foot round pen; and a 500-square-foot trainer’s quarters with a bath and a half.

And those elements don’t even include the security features, which are off the charts:

Secret tunnels and doors, some of which blend into the walls and cabinets to fool anyone who might be chasing a resident.

Bulletproof doors, of course.



A panic room with its own oxygen supply, and a buried phone line so the wires can’t be cut.



When you’ve amassed a fortune like the Primm family’s, you can’t be too careful.

The Primms are prominent in the casino, hospitality and entertainment industries, and if you’ve ever driven between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, the name “Primm” is probably sounding familiar to you right now.

That’s because the area known as Primm sits right on the California/Nevada border along Interstate 10. There are three hotels with casinos, including Whiskey Pete’s and Buffalo Bill’s, a big roller coaster, restaurants, gas stations, an outlet mall—you get the picture. Everything for the traveler who either can’t wait to get to Vegas, or wants to get a little more fun in before leaving the state.

It’s likely that more gold has been mined from this resort than from any Nevada claim, and the Primms had reason to be concerned about security when they finished their compound in 1995: Casino owner Steve Wynn’s daughter had been kidnapped the year before.

You can see why the property would have been so appealing to Jackson. He reportedly told real estate agent Zar Zanganeh that he planned to offer $16.5 million for the estate after he returned from his London concert tour, where he planned to make enough money to put his troubled finances in order. But Jackson died not long afterward, in June 2009.

So now the 12-bedroom, 19-bath property is up for auction. It actually comprises two parcels, available for subdivision, with 21,000 square feet of living space spread across several buildings, including a 3,000-square-foot guest villa and 1,500-square-foot staff quarters. The property has two wells and water rights.



Now that their children are grown and gone, Gary Primm and his wife find the property a little expansive for their needs.

“My family and I spared no expense when it came to building this home exactly the way we wanted, which I love, and always will,” Primm said in a news release. “But now that my children are older, I’m motivated to sell. I’m looking forward to shaking the hand of the new owner on auction day.”

If you’re interested in making a bid on the property or want to know more about it, contact Concierge Auctions. We’ll keep you posted on the auction results.

And if nothing but Neverland will do, well, Jackson’s former Neverland Ranch just so happens to be for sale, too, now bearing the name Sycamore Valley Ranch and asking $100 million.

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