This is an update to a previous blog story we did back in February. To date, vacation home buyers have purchased more than $20 million of luxury real estate at The Chateau at Heavenly Village, in Lake Tahoe’s South Shore.

Prices for the luxuriously furnished studio, one, two and three bedroom hotel-condominiums started at $500,000 and topped out at more than $3.4 million.  This highly anticipated Lake Tahoe real estate offering broke new ground in many areas and has already exceeded the 2007 total volume of home and condo sales in all of South Lake Tahoe.

Construction began last summer with an anticipated completion date of fall/winter 2009. After completing the excavation and foundation phase ahead of its winter schedule in late December, The Chateau at Heavenly Village anticipates vertical construction to commence this spring.

The home was originally completed in 1963, it was called the “Villa Harrah,” after then-owner and gambling pioneer William Fisk Harrah. Harrah was well known for securing big-name headliners—Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Judy Garland, Bill Cosby, Wayne Newton, and Dean Martin, among others—for his Mint Club at South Lake Tahoe.

The casino owner made fast friends with these stars, and Harrah built his estate, you’ll learn, as a haven for them. He rarely stayed there himself.  Harrah’s house, for which he paid $23 million, occupied 17,000 square feet across four lots.Richard Costa, who renovated the house shortly after his purchase in 1993, now has plans to sell it. He went to great lengths to maintain the home’s rich history. Costa’s two biggest changes were adding a second story and reducing the house’s size to make it fit on the two middle lots. The remaining two lots were sold and are separate residences.

Villa Costa and its surrounding grounds add up to 12 main rooms, 8 bedrooms, 11 full bathrooms, 2 half bathrooms, 5 fireplaces, 4 wet bars, a commercial bar, staff’s quarters, 4 laundry rooms, 5 indoor spas, a theater and a 5-car garage. The surrounding property features a pier, 2 beaches, an outdoor spa and a negative edge pool with 2 waterfalls.

The exterior of this international style was crafted almost entirely of imported Italian hand-quarried quartzite rock, hand-cut and hand-fitted by stone masons from Italy. The construction is wood frame with heavy cedar shake roofing and hidden gutters. The circular driveway and porte-cochere are heated with a snowmelt system. The residence has natural gas fired heating and a back-up generator. The interior décor features various natural woods – vertical-grain fir, oak and birch presented in a wide range of finishes and applications – decorative walls, glass, 120 granite slabs, marble and brick, creating an air of quiet understatement.

Stal tre hus

His contemporary design utilizes a tree house theme. The house is lifted high into the canopy of the surrounding trees. The residence is 2,500 square feet and a breathtaking marvel of design and construction.  Full article