The Dream Home That Never Was
Concert Promoter to Auction Mansion He Built Then Gave Up On

By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 4, 2007; F01

It has been two years since legendary local concert promoter Jack Boyle decided to sell the 25,000-square-foot dream house he had built in McLean but never moved into. After attempting unsuccessfully to sell it the old-fashioned way, he has decided to try an auction.

The mega-house sits on five acres off Georgetown Pike. It has nine bedrooms, 12 full baths and five half-baths, two fountains, a sauna, and a six-car garage with two bays for limousines. Boyle, whose shows have featured such acts as Paul McCartney and Jimmy Buffett, asked $18 million when he listed it with Fairfax Realty in 2005, just as the real estate market started to soften.

"I just don't think we hit the right market," Boyle said, speaking from his home in Maine.

Now he is hoping he'll have better luck selling the place with Alabama-based J.P. King Auction. Bidders will be required to present a $50,000 cashier's check to register for the auction, which is to take place at the property on Aug. 23. For two weeks before that, anyone interested in the house can set up an appointment to tour it.

Boyle, 73, has a bittersweet history with the property. He and his wife, Janet, spent more than a year searching for the perfect lot. Then they spent another four years waiting for the house to be built. The construction delays frustrated them so much that they decided to renovate their Florida home and live there instead. They also spend time in Maine.

"At the time, I was very sorry," Boyle said. "But then after, we got going into Florida in the winter and Maine in the summer. No regrets at all."

Boyle has longtime ties to the Washington area. He started out as a bartender at the Cellar Door club in Georgetown in the 1960s. He then co-founded Cellar Door Cos. and became the highest-grossing U.S. concert promoter for much of the 1990s. The company owned and operated entertainment venues in the Southeast and Midwest, including Nissan Pavilion in Prince William County.

In 1998, he sold Cellar Door to SFX Entertainment, which was the nation's largest producer of live music, theater and sporting events.

Boyle became chairman of SFX's music division. SFX was later sold to Clear Channel Communications.

The McLean house was meant to be a private sanctuary for the Doyles. It is filled with personal touches, especially for Janet Boyle. It has a grooming room for her cats. Her office is oval-shaped and has two-story bookshelves. And the his-and-hers closets are huge.

"There's a closet in there big enough for my wife or any wife," Jack Boyle said.

Craig King, president and chief executive of J.P. King, called it a "trophy" property that could appeal to Washington's movers and shakers, such as diplomats or politicians, because it's so big and private.

"Many owners of properties like these, they do a lot of entertaining and they have a lot of important people that they have to entertain," he said.

Neither Boyle nor King would say what the minimum is that they would take for the house. Boyle said he lost track of how much he spent on construction.

"There's about everything in that house that you could want," he said -- everything except a swimming pool and a pool house, that is. It will be up to the new owners to build those.

Boyle said he's not giving up on Washington. He calls himself a "chairman emeritus" of the area. Though retired, he said he sometimes gets involved in an event here when someone has "troubles with a major act." And he still owns Mie N Yu restaurant in Georgetown.

"I think I never quite got over the experience of Georgetown," he said.

House.gossip is an occasional look at interesting places owned by interesting people. To let us know about houses worth covering, e-mail us atrealestate@washpost.com.