Costly Ski Chalets - Villa Costa at Tahoe
Posted on March 28, 2008
Villa Costa - this 20,000-square-foot home offers Lake Tahoe access, a multi-boat pier and two sandy beaches, plus eight bedrooms, 11 and two-half bathrooms, staff quarters, a home theater and a five-car garage. Various natural woods such as fir, oak and birch embellish the interior, and the commercial kitchen features a full bar and family area with a fireplace. It is listed with Jean Merkelbach of Sotheby’s International Realty.
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.
» Filed Under Real Estate Tags: Tags:Richard Costa, ski chalet, Tahoe, Villa Costa, William Fisk Harrah, Zephyr Cove
Comments
Leave a Reply
