90-Acre Washington Estate Hits Market for $75M

To live like a former owner of an NBA franchise, all that’s needed is a mere $75 million.

That’s what the 90-acre Halftide Farms estate in Friday Harbor, Washington has been listed for, the Wall Street Journal reported. The listing price could help the sellers fetch one of the highest prices in state history.

The estate is owned by the Ackerley family. Barry Ackerley sold his titular company to Clear Channel Communications at the turn of the century for roughly $800 million. A one-time owner of the Seattle SuperSonics and the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, Ackerley died in 2011, while his wife died seven years later.

Their three children inherited the estate, but are ready to move on.

The 19,000-square-foot beachfront estate is on the San Juan Islands, an archipelago known for its wildlife. It’s roughly 100 miles north of Seattle, sited between the state and Canada’s Vancouver Island. There are orcas and eagles and at one point, Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

The estate includes three main homes, each occupied by one of the adult children. There are also guest cottages, a bunkhouse, a game house, a greenhouse and a cabana. The total estate includes 11 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms, along with perks such as tennis and pickleball courts, a pair of pools, a putting green and four ponds.

Compass’ Tere Foster and Moya Skillman share the listing.

There is no more expensive home on the market in the region, according to Zillow. Here’s context for the priciness of the listing: the median listing price in the county is below $900,000.

There was another home listed in Washington last year that promised to be even more record-shattering. Bruce and Jolene McCaw’s Hunts Point estate was listed for $85 million, the most expensive listing in the history of the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

The status of that listing is mired in uncertainty, though. There haven’t been any news reports on the listing in recent months and the property doesn’t appear in either the “For Sale” or “Sold” section on the brokers’ listing page.

— Holden Walter-Warner