A Corona del Mar house in the tiny bayfront enclave of China Cove with water on three sides is on the market for $23.995 million.
The 5,276-square-foot home owned by the same family for 60 years is marketed as a “unicorn” property where “you may build two significant homes or one epic estate,” the listing reads.
“I’m working with architect Brion Jeannette to see what we can build there, but it’s probably the most iconic lot in all of Corona del Mar because of the location,” said Adrienne Brandes of Surterre Properties, who represents the seller with co-listing agent Jim Weisenbach.
Sited on two lots for a total of 8,125 square feet, the home dating to the late 1950s has five bedrooms, six bathrooms and a section of glass floor in the living room with a view of the shore below.
“I would swim underneath and catch sand crabs, and wave up to the people who were sitting around the table,” said San Clemente resident April Egbert Thompson, 56, whose family are the original owners of the home.
Thompson grew up one of three children to Kathy and Jerry Thompson. Her late mother was known in her younger days as Hollywood starlet Kathy Marlowe, who appeared on television and in B-movies in the 1950s and ’60s. She said her late father, a career charter boat captain, “wanted to be on the water, and we’re definitely on the water.”
They moved to China Cove in 1962. Their house was one of two spec homes on the water’s edge at the time.
When the property next door came up for sale in the late-70s, Thompson said her parents bought it and connected the two homes to create a larger one with skylights running down the middle.
Property features include a rock mound breakwater built in the early 1980s off the rear patio to replace a dock lost to heavy storms, wraparound patios and direct access to the sand. The beach is mainly used by residents of China Cove, which gets its name from the historic China House that department store magnate William Lindsay…
Read the full article here
