Filmmaker James Cameron is selling an amazing 102-acre California ranch, known as “Tranquility Base.” Th estate is located within the much larger Hollister Ranch area in Gaviota California. The asking price?
$33 million
The ranch includes a main house that has 8,000 square feet, with five bedrooms and plenty of great views of the Pacific coast nearby.
Cameron and his wife Suzy Amis Cameron purchased the property sometime in the late 90s, around Cameron’s “Titanic” heyday (one of several heydays for the director). He reportedly spent a little under $4.4 million on it back then, and soon after was finding visual inspiration in the ocean views from his home office, where he says he wrote parts of both “Avatar” and its recent sequel “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
Here’s how the “Tranquility Base” ranch is described in official marketing materials:
“Hollister Ranch is a community rich in history and home to many notable owners, yet rarely has there been a legacy offering quite like the front row parcel of ‘Tranquility Base” with its 102 acres, generous main estate home with swimming pool and tennis court, guest house, two barns, equestrian facilities, and ranch office. This spectacular parcel stands in its own class as one of the most private and secure compounds on the Coast of Southern California. The ultimate in ranch living, with pastures, horse stalls, trails, gardens, a private well, and much more. A perfect retreat offering uncompromising serenity, breathtaking views of the ocean and islands, and the vast expanse of the Hollister Ranch hills and its native vegetation, wildlife, and natural resources unlike any other place.”
Cameon turned the house into a renovation project shortly after purchasing it, transforming it into something with a more harmonic relationship to the surrounding environment. “The previous owner had had a lot of marble,” the director told the Wall Street Journal recently. “We brought it back down to something that felt connected to the land.”
(Photo by Roxanne McCann/Getty Images)
The property’s equestrian barn measures in 24,000 square feet, and Cameron said he’s used it for more than just horses, storing helicopters and his famed fleet of underwater exploration vehicles there. He’s also explored his interest in agriculture by growing food on the land, close enough to the ocean that he can also do a little whale-spotting. The director also talked about the property’s sustainability, with both wind and solar power and a well for irrigation and drinking water:
“I think if the world ends, it’s going to end everywhere, so we’ve got to work pretty hard to make sure that doesn’t happen. But in terms of short-term shocks, where you do want to make sure that your family’s secure, this would be a good place to weather a storm.”
Cameron is selling off the property as part of an effort to reduce his sphere of operation, saying he and his wife had become “scattered around too much” with property in New Zealand and Saskatchewan in addition to Los Angeles and Austin, TX. As he put it:
“We don’t believe in having a gigantic carbon footprint. So we felt it was time to pass the baton to somebody else…One major criticism, especially if you’re seen as a high-visibility, or high-net worth person is, ‘Oh, you’ve got all these properties all over the place. That’s not very sustainable.’ We’re trying to walk the walk of sustainability.”
It goes without saying that Cameron certainly qualifies as a “high-net worth person” thanks to the long list of monster hits to his name (and some smart deals he made in making them), including the “Terminator” franchise, “Titanic,” and the “Avatar” films, all of which are among the highest-grossing movies ever made. His Hollister Ranch property will also be something of a commercial benchmark if a buyer is found at its $33 million asking price, as that will reportedly make it one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in the area.
You can take a look at a photo slideshow of the property below, from Village Properties on YouTube: