A property formerly owned by hotel developer Doug Manchester sold for $35 million this week — making it La Jolla’s biggest-ever sale.

The more than 30-acre property at 7007 Country Club Drive beats the previous biggest La Jolla sale by more than $10 million. The purchasers of the property were an investment group called Foxhill Invco Two LLC, which includes Larry Hershfield, CEO of San Diego-based investment firm Ranch Capital. He also serves on the board of several companies, including Hawaiian Airlines.

Manchester, a former owner of The San Diego Union-Tribune, bought the property previously owned by the Copley family, also former owners of the newspaper, in 2015 for $17 million. That sale was strictly for the 8-acre Foxhill Estate, but Manchester purchased adjoining lots over time, bringing the total to 32 acres.

The people that go up there say it feels like they are up in the mountains. You don’t hear neighbors or cars. It’s like it’s its own country club.

Manchester had been trying to sell the property, with expansive ocean views, for more than three years. It had been marketed either as just the Foxhill Estate, or the full 32 acres. It also had a lot of real estate groups try to find a buyer, including the Altman Brothers of Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing.”

At one point, the property was listed for $55 million.

The hilltop estate includes orchards, gardens, a gym, eight-car garage, greenhouse, staff quarters, formal dining room, three-hole golf course, pool pavilion and the 23,000-square-foot Foxhill Estate with 10 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms. There are four gated entrances to the property.

Foxhill Estate was home to high-society dinner parties while owned by the Copleys, including once hosting President Richard Nixon. The property is adjacent to the La Jolla Country Club. The French-style home was built in 1959 but went through many changes over the years, including its expansion by Manchester. It was not considered historic in a 2015 vote by the San Diego Historical Resources Board.

Dickinson said the investment group intends to turn some of the property into additional luxury homes.

Manchester already had approvals to build two to three luxury homes on the property but ultimately decided not to pursue. That leaves open the opportunity for the new owners to construct homes to sell off. Either way, it is likely whatever development takes place on the site will be low density, not a large mutlifamily development.

The biggest sale in San Diego County was 2940 Sandy Lane in Del Mar, which sold for $44.1 million in October. The Foxhill Estate is around the third or fourth biggest sale, according to the latest publicly available data.

Source: SDuniontribune by Phillip Molnar