Community Corner

Spreckels Mansion Sells for $9 Million

The property was purchased last month well below its listing price almost two years shy of the controversial deaths of Rebecca Zahau and Max Shacknai.

Originally published 12:40 p.m. July 11.

A company with connections to Utah has purchased Spreckels mansion for $9 million, nearly half its asking price, according to U-T San Diego.

Following renovations, the property was listed for sale at $16.9 million.

1043 Ocean Blvd. LLC purchased the property June 25, according to the San Diego County Recorder's Office. Harris Air of Logan, UT is associated with the LLC, according to the state of Utah, where the LLC was established in October 2011.

The 10-bedroom, 12,750 square-foot historic property was originally built for Coronado founding father John D. Spreckels and was acquired for nearly $13 million in 2007 by Jonah Shacknai. 

The mansion was the site of the infamous investigation into the death of Zahau, 32, whose nude and bound body was found in a courtyard to the rear of the property. Her body was found two days after the former homeowner's son, Max Shacknai, 6, was seriously injured in a fall from the mansion's front staircase. His death was announced six days after the accident.

Max's fall took place two years ago Thursday. The anniversary of Zahau's death is Saturday. 

Homicide investigators from the San Diego County Sheriff's Department concluded that Zahau committed suicide by hanging herself from a mansion balcony.

Investigators from the Coronado Police Department called the boy's fall an accident.
Family members on both sides – led by Zahau's sisters and Max's mother Dina Shacknai – have aggressively questioned those conclusions, calling for new investigations and pursuing private inquiries into the deaths. Both mounted media campaigns to draw attention to their causes, alleging that the deaths were suspicious and attributable to neither suicide nor accident.

The efforts have not resulted in new official probes.

Click here to read more about the 2011 investigation and other developments.

Editor Jennifer Vigil contributed to this story.


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