Sharon Stone’s House From ‘Basic Instinct’ Is Part of This Epic $91 Million Coastal California Compound
It’s been a little more than three decades since Basic Instinct first hit the big screen, but folks are still talking about the erotic thriller that thrust Sharon Stone into the limelight—primarily because of the infamous scene where her character Catherine Tramell goes au naturel during a police interrogation.
More recently making its own headlines is the Carmel Highlands abode Tramell called home in the much-ballyhooed film. Part of an expansive complex of oceanfront residences along a craggy, cypress-lined cliff and known collectively as Seacliff, the 5.4-acre spread was acquired by software entrepreneur Gary Vickers in 2018 for $14.4 million and popped up for sale a year later with a $52.4 million price tag.
Subsequently removed from the market and extensively reconstructed and expanded to the tune of millions in the interim, it’s now returned to the market with Tim Allen Properties of Coldwell Banker Global Luxury, this time asking an eye-popping $91.4 million.
Picture windows frame cinematic coastline vistas from the fireside living room.
Gary R. Vickers/Manager of Highlands Big Sur Gateway LLC
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The Spindrift Road property was previously owned by Steve Fossett and his wife, Peggy, who acquired it in 1996. The renowned financier and aviator perished in a plane crash in 2007, and Peggy held onto the home until her death in 2017, at which time it was sold to Vickers and his wife, Kerry. In addition to appearing in Basic Instinct back in 1992, the scenic estate also made a cameo in the more recent HBO series Big Little Lies.
Spanning five contiguous parcels, the property is anchored by the Lodge—the Basic Instinct house—which has eight bedrooms and nine baths in roughly 12,400 square feet across three levels warmed by 11 fireplaces. Ancillary structures include four smaller cottages, plus a new one-bedroom residence.
The kitchen in the main house, known as the Lodge, comes with a brick pizza oven and wine refrigeration for up to 1,250 bottles.
Gary R. Vickers/Manager of Highlands Big Sur Gateway LLC
The Lodge is highlighted by a two-story Art Deco library boasting built-in oak bookshelves, a custom wrought-iron spiral staircase, and a silver- and gold-leaf domed ceiling depicting a mural of Johannes Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. Other features include a main-level bedroom adorned with early Northern California oil paintings and large-scale photographs of nearby Point Lobos, as well as a fireside formal dining room that seats 10, three kitchens, and two primary suites.
A central courtyard dons a waterfall pool and a hot tub alongside fitness and wellness facilities equipped with top-notch gym equipment, an aromatic steam room, a dry sauna, and three more hot tubs. Stone pathways meander through gardens and meditation areas that include several rock fireplaces, a barrel sauna and cold plunge, a koi pond, and a greenhouse, while two stairways descend to more than 1,000 feet of private shoreline.
The compund’s six rustic cottages are filtered throughout almost 5.5 acres.
Gary R. Vickers/Manager of Highlands Big Sur Gateway LLC
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Per Vickers, the property has served as a jailbreak from the toils of commerce he has conducted over the past 30 years. “In its creation, I reconnected with the nuances of nature—and by all accounts, the storied guests who have visited this property have felt the spell I so overtly set out to cast upon them,” he said in a statement. “In the next chapter, I move to downsize and rejoin family in faraway places. But without hesitation, I fondly admit: My crowning achievement will always be the uncompromising realization of Seacliff.”
Click here for more photos of the Carmel Highlands compound.
Gary R. Vickers/Manager of Highlands Big Sur Gateway LLC
Authors
Wendy Bowman
Wendy Bowman is a real estate writer at Robb Report. Before that, she was a freelancer for Modern Luxury and several other media outlets, where she primarily covered luxury properties for…
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