Robert Taylor Ranch sells for $12 million to Chicago buyer

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The 112-acre Robert Taylor Ranch in Mandeville Canyon has sold at auction for $12 million to a buyer from Chicago. The property had recently been listed by Hilton & Hyland of Beverly Hills for just under $19 million.

At a live auction Friday at the property, 12 bidders vied for the 34-room, 11,700-square-foot estate. Bidders were wined and dined under a canopy on the lawn.

The sale was conducted by Concierge Auctions of New York in cooperation with Hilton & Hyland.

Concierge Auctions said in a statement that more than 7,000 interested parties from all 50 states and 97 other countries checked out the property online in the month before the auction. About 760 potential buyers expressed interest.

The expansive ranch with rolling lawns and wooded hillsides was the longtime home of actor Taylor, who died in 1969. In the 1970s, Ken Roberts, founder of Los Angeles radio station KROQ, bought and remodeled the estate. He put it on the market in 1990 for $45 million, then $35 million, but no serious buyers emerged.

Roberts later took a high-interest loan from New Stream Capital, a Connecticut hedge fund. In 2010, when he could not repay New Stream a court-ordered $27.5 million, the fund seized the ranch. It subsequently was owned by a trust, which decided to sell the property to the highest bidder.

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