Who knew San Diego had so many A-List Celebrities?
Scott Eastwood
Here is Scott Eastwood cruising down PCH enjoying his Encinitas, Ca life style. Encinitas is small beach town that is known for it fitness, health eating, and beach life style. Encinitas is not only home to A-List Celebrities but is also home to the famous
Self-Realization Fellowship. Scott Eastwood calls encinitas home for
"It's a really healthy, active lifestyle," the 29-year-old told KUSI of why he chose Encinitas. "...The people in North County are just amazing — good people."
Shannon
Shannon, mother to
Kardashian matriarch
Kris Jenner, is a tall, slender woman in her “mid-70s” who leads a quiet life in the sleepy beach town of La Jolla, just north of San Diego. She’s recognized occasionally on the street as the grandmother to the
Kardashians and has appeared a few times on the family’s E! reality-TV show, Keeping Up With the
Kardashians. She has been snapped alongside granddaughter Kim on several shopping trips.
But Shannon stays largely out of the limelight. When she greets me at her cozy store, Shannon & Co., the day before the Fourth of July, she looks elegant in a pair of high-waisted red pants and a Gucci belt, Ralph Lauren sneakers, a white T-shirt, and a blue-and-white-striped sweater—in theme, of course. There are no assistants or paparazzi, no publicists, and no fans. “Kids tear the place apart!” she says of her usual clientele.
A small mom-and-pop store she founded in 1980,
Shannon & Co. is filled with light that streams through two big windows edged with Spanish tiles. Inside, circular racks are packed tightly with kids’ clothes, for boys as old as 7 and girls as old as 14. There is a miniature baseball jacket, pink pajamas printed with palm trees, “nana blankets” hand-knit by a friend, and a tiny fireman’s costume. The carpet, business cards, and notepads are all leopard print—a “family signature” since 1985, she says—and a large picture of Kim Kardashian at age 7 hangs on the wall.
Bill Gates
Microsoft founder Bill Gates has purchased weight-loss icon
Jenny Craig’s 229-acre thoroughbred training center in Rancho Santa Fe, which he plans to turn into a grand prix circuit for hunters and jumpers.
Gates, whose teenage daughter jumps horses competitively, paid $18 million for the facility in a deal that closed Sept. 12. It’s one of the highest prices secured for a property this year in San Diego County, where Gates also owns a home in the Del Mar Country Club. A spokeswoman for the Gates family confirmed the deal to buy the ranch Wednesday in a statement to U-T San Diego.
“The family has enjoyed visiting the San Diego area with friends and family for many years and has purchased the Rancho Paseana property in Rancho Santa Fe, California,” she said.
Craig closed the facility in May 2013 for financial reasons amid upheaval in the horse racing industry nationwide. At the time, Inglewood’s Hollywood Park was approaching its fall season, and talk was that some of the races would be shifted to Del Mar after it closed. They ultimately were, and Del Mar hosts its second opening day this year on Nov. 7. Before it shut down, Craig’s horse ranch was being used as training grounds for top quality thoroughbreds, but mostly was known as a “layup” facility for horses to enjoy downtime and rehab from injuries.
Craig had been trying to sell the property called long before it closed. In 2010, she put it on the market for nearly $30 million. The price tag was reduced to almost $25 million before it was pulled off the Multiple Listing Service entirely in fall 2012. The property was not listed when it actually sold, said listing agent Catherine Barry, of Barry Estates in Rancho Santa Fe.
Craig, who declined to name the buyer, said she has many happy memories of her time at the ranch but that it was expensive to maintain. She said it was time to put it behind her as she is on to a new chapter in her life.
“I was happy that the buyer is someone who can afford to turn it into the showplace it was meant to be,” she said. “It will be kept as a horse barn so the neighbors will be thrilled ... the person who bought it will make it like it can and should be.”
The property includes a white fenced, three-quarter-mile dirt training track, four 30-stall barns and rehab equipment for injured horses. Barry said the parcel also features two apartments with a French motif. She said Craig received offers that involved building a golf course or a hotel on the property, but she wanted to keep it for its original purpose: for horses.
“At one point she was thinking maybe she should look at potentially doing some subdivision ... but her dream was always to sell it to someone else to keep it for horses,” said Barry, who also declined to name the buyer.
Forbes reports that Gates, whose net worth of $81 billion makes him America’s richest man, has spent money on horses before. A few years ago, Gates leased a home in Palm Beach, Fla. for $600,000 so his daughter Jennifer could be near Wellington’s Equestrian Festival, according to Forbes. Further, the Daily Mail reports that around that time Gates leased four elite jumping horses for $50,000 to $75,000 each for his daughter to train.
Carl Hilliard, a former Del Mar City Councilman whose horses have competed at Del Mar, said it was a loss to the equestrian field when Craig closed the facility some years ago.
“There are a number of training facilities and they range from very good to not so good, and this was one of those that was very good,” said Hilliard, whose thoroughbred Johnny Eves won the 2007 Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita. “There’s a lot of hunter-jumper facilities in Rancho Santa Fe, so this is sort of a center for it.”
Hilliard said his preference is for the facility to be used for thoroughbred training, but that would require a lot of work, such as enlarging the stables.
Once known as Rancho del Rayo, the property originally belonged to former San Diego Chargers owner Gene Klein, who built it in 1985. The Craigs bought the facility in 1995 for $6 million, public records show.
The $18 million sale price is among the highest secured in the county in 2014. A home at 420 Avenida Primavera in Del Mar sold for $22.9 million in June. Last year, the most expensive home sold in the county was at 1936 Ocean Front in Del Mar, which sold for $18.75 million.
Cory Wilcox, a San Diego Realtor with Keller Williams, said unique properties like Craig’s ranch command a higher price.
“Estates like that, are very hard to put a price on,” she said. “The fact that it will not be developed is a win for the community.”
Craig also recently listed her home at 2936 Ocean Front in Del Mar, for $39.5 million. That home is still on the market.
