CdM beachfront property listed for $75 million

Couldn’t score that reservation at the Crystal Cove cottages? You still have a shot at a slice of coastal Orange County.

Real estate mogul John McMonigle has just listed a cozy, 30,000-square foot home not too far from the Shake Shack. Asking price: $75 million.

If it sells for that price, the Corona del Mar property, known as the Portabello Estate, would match the record for the most expensive residential property in the United States and triple the price of the most costly estate ever sold in Orange County.

But some in the real estate business scoff at the idea it will sell for that much.

“It’s ridiculous,” said realtor Mark Whitehead, who sells homes near the recently listed property. “My personal opinion is that it’s an ego trip.”

Located on the 4600 block of Brighton Road, the half-acre property sits on three oceanfront lots. Designed to look like a nautilus shell, the property has eight bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, multiple pools and a grotto with ocean views.

McMonigle did not return several phone calls requesting information about the property.

Real estate records list Frank Pritt, founder of Seattle software firm Attachmate Corp., as the owner of the estate, which 2005 tax records value at about $29.5 million.

“I think it’s desperately overpriced,” said broker Bill Cote, who pointed out that the most expensive property ever sold in Orange County was a $26-million estate in Emerald Bay. “How could something be worth [three times] more than that?”

While the property’s oceanfront location is a major plus, Whitehead said the house has very little privacy.

“You could walk out the door and get hit by a truck,” Whitehead said. “There is virtually no private security. Someone who has that money is extraordinarily well off and does not want to live in that type of situation where they’re totally exposed.”

Besides the street access, the home is located next to a beach pathway used by surfers and beachgoers accessing a nearby cove. Whitehead also said nearby estates are going for much less.

“The house next door is a $5-million tear-down,” he said.

The price of the property makes it the most expensive home on the market in California, according to a 2005 report on luxury homes by Forbes magazine.

The next most expensive property in the state is a seven-acre, 11-bedroom Malibu ranch with panoramic ocean views. Forbes named a Bridgehampton, N.Y., home with its own golf course and 75-foot pool as the most expensive in the nation at $75 million.

Cote and others doubted McMonigle would be able to sell the home for $75 million, arguing the asking price could hurt the property in the long term.

“You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression,” Cote said. “If he puts it on the market for $75 million, every Realtor and prospective buyer is going to say it’s an overpriced property and they’re always going to think of it that way.”

Whitehead also pointed out that it could be costly for Pritt to maintain the property while waiting for it to sell. A real estate report showed Pritt paid $307,000 in property taxes for the beachfront estate in 2005.

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