Massive unbuilt Arizona estate asks record $75M

Residential real estate’s slowdown isn’t stopping developers from building what would easily be the most expensive home ever built in Arizona.

Cullum Homes and Wow Luxury Properties announced last week they’re building the $75 million Palo Cristi Estate, replete with luxury amenities, in the Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley, according to a release.

The 33,000-square-foot main mansion will have seven bedrooms, two spa locker rooms, four kitchens, four wet bars, a two-story office/library, casino room, two bowling lanes, a movie theater/metaverse room, home gym, recording studio, collector’s gallery, two story aquarium, an ice cream bar, and a spa with a sauna, snow room, two massage rooms and vitality pools, the release says.

Other structures on the estate include a four-bedroom conference building, a one-bedroom guardhouse and a casita that will also have one bedroom.

Outside amenities include two outdoor kitchens, two pools (including a cinema pool with a waterfall and theater screen), three fire pits, a lazy river, a stage, a bocce court, and putting and chipping green. There will also be garage space for up to 15 vehicles — five spaces for regular use, nine for collector’s vehicles and one space for the casita.

It will take four or five years to build the estate, according to The Wall Street Journal, which noted the most expensive recorded residential sale in Arizona was for $28.1 million in Scottsdale’s Silverleaf community in 2022. Another home in the same Silverleaf sold for $24.1 million in 2020.

Last June, Jerry Smith, the founder of Arizona credit card company Integrity Payments, and his wife, announced they are building a 17,200-square-foot home on a vacant 2-acre lot in Silverleaf with an asking price of $32 million.

Last April, a four-bedroom home in Paradise Valley sold for $21 million, a record sum for the Phoenix suburb, which boasts the state’s wealthiest ZIP code.

The 13,000-square-foot home, which sits on 4.3 acres at 6015 East Cameldale Way, was asking $22.5 million when it hit the market in spring 2021.

More recently, Michael Bidwell, the owner of the Arizona Cardinals sold his Paradise Valley home for $5.3 million in January.

— Ted Glanzer