Nicolas Cage sold his Newport Beach, Calif., house last week for $35 million -- a new record for Orange County, local brokers say.
The movie star, who has bought and sold many houses, paid $25 million for the nearly 0.6-acre property in 2005.
The contemporary house on Newport Bay has a view of the harbor's main turning basin. It has a stone loggia with retractable glass doors. The dock, if expanded, could accommodate boats of more than 150 feet. It's next door to the former home of John Wayne. Mr. Cage asked $40 million for the house but never officially put it on the market.
The buyer, 70-year-old Jerry Herbst, is owner, chairman and president of Las Vegas-based Terrible Herbst, which runs gas stations and other retail operations and is known for its "Bad Guy" cowboy logo.
The previous Orange County record is believed to be a north Laguna Beach property that sold in July for just over $30 million.
This past fall, after encountering an intruder within the Newport Beach house, Mr. Cage moved to his walled and gated home in the Los Angeles community of Bel-Air and took that house off the market, a person close to Mr. Cage says. The Bel-Air house, whose owners have included Dean Martin and Tom Jones, had been listed for $35 million. Mr. Cage owns many other properties in the U.S. and abroad.
Local agent Rob Giem of HÔM Real Estate Group represented the buyer. James Chalke of Los Angeles-based Nelson Shelton & Associates represented Mr. Cage.
