Telecom mogul Bruce McCaw’s sprawling Seattle mansion finally sold after landing on the market in 2022 – but for a massive discount.
The mansion once belonging to McCaw, whose father founded McCaw cellular which eventually sold to AT&T, sold for an eye-popping $47 million under its original listing price last week after sitting on the market for years.
The five-bedroom mansion in Hunts Point, a town on the Eastern shore of Lake Washington, was first listed in spring 2022 for $85 million.
It took its first hit in 2023 when it was relisted for $70 million after failing to sell the first time around, but it finally sold just last week for a mere $38 million – falling far below its original price and $16 million under its assessed value, the Seattle Times reported.
With more than 300 feet of Lake Washington shore, space to land a seaplane and a 150-feet yacht and a swimming pool and tennis court on more than four acres of land, the sprawling estate was still one of the Puget Sound’s pricier sales ever.
McCaw told the Puget Sound Business Journal that he designed the private dock himself.
The home, built in 1995, was originally designed for iconic saxophonist Kenny G, Kenneth Gorelick, by Los Angeles architect Richard Landry, the Times reported.
Craig McCaw bought the home in 1999. While the sale price was never disclosed, it had been listed prior to the sale for $26.5 million, according to the outlet.
The mansion once belonging to McCaw, whose father founded McCaw cellular which eventually sold to AT&T, sold for $47 million under its original listing price last week after years on the market
Telecom mogul Bruce McCaw (pictured), who founded Horizon Airlines and Bellevue-based aviation insurance company Forbes Westar, was sold the home by his brother Craig
The five-bedroom mansion in Hunts Point, a town on the Eastern shore of Lake Washington, was first listed in spring 2022 for $85 million
It took its first hit in 2023 when it was relisted for $70 million after failing to sell the first time around, but it was sold just last week for a mere $38 million
The home, built in 1995, was originally designed for iconic saxophonist Kenny G, Kenneth Gorelick, by Los Angeles architect Richard Landry
With over 300 feet of Lake Washington shore, space to land a seaplane and a 150-feet yacht, a swimming pool and tennis court, the estate was one of the Puget Sounds pricier sales ever
McCaw, who also founded Horizon Airlines and Bellevue-based aviation insurance company Forbes Westar, was then sold the home by his brother Craig.
Craig, now chairman of property firm Pendrell, is one of four of John Elroy McCaw’s sons – Bruce, Craig, John and Keith – who all worked in the business for their father as salesmen, according to Forbes.
Following the death of their father in 1969, the four sons turned the company into McCaw Cellular which later sold to AT&T for $12.6 billion in 1994.
McCaw served as the president of the PacWest Racing Group, served as the director on the board of Championship Auto Racing Teams and co-founded Auto Research Center in Indianapolis, according to the Living Legends of Aviation.
He and his family, his wife Jolene and three children, were also presented with Seattle’s First Citizens award and the Woodrow Wilson award for Corporate Citizenship in 2009.
The 12,600-square-foot home, which also boasts a beach house, a staff house and a cabana, is not the only one in the area that struggled to close a deal.
Weeks prior, Seahawks’ Sidney Rice, 39, sold his Lake Sammamish home for just over $6 million – $2.2 million short of its assessed value, the Times reported.
The 9,300-square-foot Colonial style home was sold to a private couple, according to the outlet.
The sales well under their asking price come as crime in Seattle continues to plague the city.
According to crime statistics tracker Neighborhood Scout, Seattle residents have a shocking one in 129 chance of being a victim of a violent crime.
The robbery rate is over triple the national average at 2.22 cases for every 1,000 residents, and there are an average of 444 crimes per square mile in the city.
The city has also become known as a homelessness hotspot across the nation, and its unhoused population has surged by a staggering 88 percent in the past 10 years.
It has even seen a number of head-turning incidents over the past few months, with a robber biting off an 88-year-old woman’s finger during an attack on the porch her Seattle home in November.
Yet newly-elected mayor Katie Wilson has argued that the city needs more medical professionals and skilled social workers rather than cops.
‘Right now, police response times are unacceptable, and I do think that in the short term, we need to hire more officers,’ she told PubliCola in March.
‘I also think we need to greatly expand our unarmed response systems.’
