GRAND LUXE

On the market for $75 million — by far the largest price tag ever for a desert estate — Porcupine Creek has everything but its own ZIP code

Even the rear of the main house strikes an impressive pose. Just over the hill from the 19th hole, the pool and patio area are serviced by a palapa bar and commercial kitchen equipment. Numerous statuaries, including an oversized chess set, adorn the terraced lawn. On the far left is the master suite balcony.

Offered for $75 million by Christie’s Great Estates, Porcupine Creek hides behind the placid Mirage Cove neighborhood, where houses typically cost less than 1 percent of that price. The 249-acre residential property spreads its triangular girth across the base
of the Santa Rosa Mountains.

Built for Tim and Edra Blixseth (whose 2008 divorce drew attention from The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Bloomberg, and Luxist), Porcupine Creek hit the market after Edra Blixseth filed for bankruptcy.

Tim Blixseth had worked closely with Rancho Mirage architect Narendra Patel to create the idyllic desert retreat in the early 2000s.

“Before designing Porcupine Creek, I took a trip to France and visited many ancient chateaux, studied them, and came back with lots of inspirations,” Patel says. “We walked the raw [Rancho Mirage] land many times and spotted the location of the house in such a way that it would have the view to the mountains, the golf course, and the city lights.”

Certainly the 18,430-square-foot main residence, four 1,860-square-foot guesthouses, and four 600-square-foot casitas hold value and cachet. Patel is an award-winning architect of custom houses in the desert and is now working on a “net-zero” luxury hotel in China.

However, it’s the golf course — designed by Tim Blixseth with a little help from friends (including Tom Weiskopf, Dave Stockton, and Annika Sorenstam) — that makes Porcupine Creek so dear.

SHOW ME THE MONEY
Don’t expect to see an “Open House” sign. Christie’s Great Estates’ vetting process for potential buyers is apparently more stringent than that undertaken for some political candi-dates. And security is tight even for those who prequalify.

Patrick Duffy, founder and principal of L.A.-based MetroIntelligence Real Estate Advisors (he also has a home in the Coachella Valley), suggests that a variety of resort companies — a la Four Seasons, W Hotels, and Donald Trump’s golf oases — could be interested in Porcupine Creek but for a minor detail: a development agreement precluding its use as a resort. That leaves a smaller, albeit global, group of potential buyers. Duffy counts among them aristocrats of the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe and Russian oligarchs. He also suggests a profile for Porcupine Creek aspirants: “People who love golf, love the Palm Springs weather and lifestyle, and also have the money to be able to maintain it."

To read the entire article go to: livethedesertlife.com

First seen in Palm Springs Life by Janice Kleinschmidt