Jack Boyle, the Washington concert promoter whose Cellar Door Cos. built the Nissan Pavilion, plans to put his brand-spanking-new McLean dream house on the market for $18 million.
The sprawling 25,000-square-foot stone house, which has a six-car garage (two bays for limousines) and 19 bathrooms, sits on a five-acre lot off McLean's tony Georgetown Pike. It is scheduled to go up for sale in mid-April.
Jack and Janet Boyle are asking $18 million for their 25,000-square-foot house in McLean.
(James A. Parcell -- The Washington Post)
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Boyle, 71, and wife Janet, 57, have never lived in the place. The couple, who hang out with some of the world's most famous rock stars, have been building the mega-house for more than four years with Northern Virginia builder Winthrop Construction Inc.
But now that it's practically done, they say they want to sell and instead settle in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
"The house is probably one of the most beautiful homes I've ever seen, forgetting it's mine," Jack Boyle said. "If I lived in Washington, it would be perfect."
He said he and his wife are renovating their smaller, just 12,000 square feet, waterside house in Fort Lauderdale, which they have owned since the 1970s.
Boyle is a legend in Washington's music scene and the nation's concert promotion business. He worked his way up from bartender at the Cellar Door club in Georgetown in the late 1960s to become the highest-grossing U.S. concert promoter from 1993 to 1998 through his Cellar Door Cos. The company owned and operated entertainment venues in most major markets in the Southeast and Midwest, including the Nissan Pavilion.
In 1998, Boyle sold Cellar Door, the country's last major independent concert promoter, to music giant SFX Entertainment Inc. for $106 million. Boyle became chairman of the music division of SFX, the nation's largest producer of live music, theater and sporting events, and was responsible for bookings in the company's dozens of venues. Clear Channel Communications later bought SFX. Boyle is now retired.
Boyle has spent much of his life in the Washington area, and in McLean, in particular. He said he thought when he bought the lot off Georgetown Pike that it would become his permanent home.
The Boyles searched for the perfect lot for more than a year. When they designed the house, they put in such touches as a pet grooming room for Janet off the kitchen, where she could have her seven cats professionally seen to. A nature lover, Janet planned to feed deer in her back yard. The couple bought a house in Oakton to live in while they waited for their new home.
Delays in construction and problems soured the Boyles on the project, however. About two years ago, they decided to renovate their long-time Florida home for the fourth time -- adding 3,500 square feet -- and make their base there.
"I love the house in McLean," Janet Boyle said. "I'm just disappointed that it's taken as long as it has to build. It's been a lot of aggravation."
Gail Kent of Fairfax Realty Inc. in Falls Church, the listing agent for the house and a friend of the Boyles, said the house would appeal to a high-end buyer "who wants a lot of space, who wants privacy, but also wants to be minutes away from D.C., who has a lot of staff and children, perhaps."
The home has a sauna, eight fireplaces, five kitchen areas, an elevator, several guest suites and extensive staff quarters. There are his-and-hers offices -- hers with 12-foot-high built-in dark cherry bookcases -- and his-and-hers closets about the size of squash courts. A two-story foyer with double floating staircase and huge focal point chandelier greets visitors when they come in the oversized front door. (The chandelier moves up and down for cleaning.)
But the house is missing some of the goodies that multi-million-dollar buyers have come to expect in their mansions, such as a swimming pool, an outdoor kitchen, tennis courts, a fitted-out home theater or a safe room. All those amenities can be added, Kent said, admitting the home needs "personalizing" by its new owners.
Boyle, who owns Georgetown's Mie n Yu restaurant as well as other real estate in the Washington area, said that even though he is selling the Virginia estate, he is not pulling up stakes.
"We're never going to totally leave Washington," he said from North Carolina, where he has rented a house while he waits for work to finish in Florida. "Washington has been very, very good to us. I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up buying a condo there soon."
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