A Shady Canyon mansion sold last week for $25 million, setting a record for the priciest home sale in the city of Irvine.
The 13,046-square-foot home on a 0.9-acre lot at 76 Golden Eagle surpassed the city’s prior record of $17 million set early this year by another Shady Canyon property a few doors down.
The seller, Joni Rogers-Kante, CEO and founder of Foothill Ranch-based cosmetics and makeup company SeneGence, parted with the home to move back to her hometown of Sapulpa, Okla.
The new, undisclosed owners are said to be from Orange County, and join the ranks of an extensive executive roster that calls the 1,070-acre neighborhood home.
Residents with reported ties to the 800-home community include Kingston Technologies Corp. co-founder David Sun, TGS Management founder C. Frederick Taylor, best-selling author Dean Koontz, Alteryx Inc. (NYSE: AYX) Executive Chairman Dean Stoecker and Masimo Corp. (Nasdaq: MASI) co-founder and Chief Executive Joe Kiani.
It’s the only community in Irvine that offers an inventory of custom homes for sale, with land lots that are far larger than average and with more space in between homes than other communities in the county.
“It has privacy, large lot sizes and is close to everything,” Official Partners’ Ariana Gaffoglio, who represented the seller and buyer of 76 Golden Eagle, told the Business Journal, noting the gated community’s proximity to Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and John Wayne Airport.
Record Setter
This isn’t the first time 76 Golden Eagle set a record for Irvine, whose median sales price for a home this year is $1.4 million, according to Redfin.
The home’s first owner, sports talk show host Jim Rome, sold the property in 2017 for $12.5 million in the highest deal for the city at the time Rogers-Kante then expanded and renovated the home with Newport Beach-based Tony Valentine Construction, including extending the home’s primary outdoor deck.
Amenities of the seven bedroom, 12-bathroom home include an infinity pool, a home theater, a 1,000-bottle wine room, a gym, wet and dry saunas, billiards and poker rooms, a catering kitchen, an elevator and a six-car garage.
The backyard also touts a panoramic view of the Shady Canyon hillside.
“Everybody that came to the property would walk in the front door, see the backyard, walk outside and be stuck out there,” Gaffoglio said. “It feels like you’re somewhere in Europe.”
The interiors, meanwhile, “feel like you’re at a luxury resort,” Gaffoglio said.
$50M Listing
76 Golden Eagle first hit the market in 2021 about a year after Rogers-Kante’s completed her renovation of the home.
The asking price of $50 million was nearly four times what Rogers-Kante bought the property for.
The following year, 76 Golden Eagle’s price was reduced to $40 million. It was pulled off the market a few months later.
The home returned to the market this year, listed for $30 million, before it was taken off the market again and listed once more at the same price some months later.
Suburban Dreams
Shady Canyon residents have access to University High School, which is widely considered to be Irvine’s best public high school.
Local schools are of growing interest for luxury home buyers in Orange County, with prospective buyers looking to more suburban, and inland, neighborhoods as turnkey options along the coast dwindle.
A 5,347-square-foot home in Newport Beach’s Port Streets neighborhood sold last month for $12 million, a much higher-than-usual price tag for an inland community (see story, page 13).
The five-bedroom, seven-bathroom home on 1701 Port Barmouth Place is part of a roughly 1,000-home neighborhood whose Roy O. Andersen Elementary School—the top elementary school of the 22 in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, according to U.S. News & World Report—is a major draw for homeowners.
Record Stretch
The Irvine deal adds to a string of notable luxe sales in OC over the past few years.
The priciest-ever home sale in OC was in 2021 when a $70 million home sold in Abalone Point, an exclusive Laguna Beach enclave in the Irvine Cove Community.
The buyer of that home, hedge fund exec Joseph Edelman, bested the prior record for the area by $9 million; mortgage exec Anthony Hsieh paid $61 million for a home in Crystal Cove in 2020.
There are currently 116 homes for sale in OC with an asking price of $10 million or more, and 39 of those homes are asking more than $20 million, according to Zillow.
Outside Interest
Orange County’s safe, suburban draw has lured buyers from outside the region—such as Los Angeles—since the pandemic.
“It really opened peoples’ eyes to our little paradise here in OC,” Gaffoglio said.
Deals, however, have slowed due to limited inventory.
“We’re kind of in that in-between phase where everyone’s wanting to transact, but some are nervous to make that first step forward of ‘I’ll list my house, and then I’ll find something,’” Gaffoglio said.
International buyers have also marked their return to Orange County after a nearly four-year hiatus, brokers note.
At a broker preview for 76 Golden Eagle, roughly half of the 200 agents in attendance were representing buyers from China, Gaffoglio previously told the Business Journal.
You can read the article on Orange County Business Journal here.