Start a Real-Life Forza Horizon Festival on This $72M Private Island for Sale
Originally bought by a rich car collector, this unfinished automotive paradise in Montana can now be yours.
If only real life were like the Forza Horizon video games, where you're given miles of roads and trails to blast through in the ride of your choosing. Of course, you wouldn't have much luck commandeering a space with public roads and actual traffic laws, so you'd need somewhere private. That's kinda what you get if you buy this $72 million, 348-acre island in Montana.
The guy who originally developed the property had a vision for something similar two decades before the game was released. Essentially, he bought it to host his expansive car collection, and he apparently had plans of driving his vehicles all over the island once it was complete. Now the entire property is for sale at $72 million, and it includes a half-finished, 45,000-square-foot mansion as well as the potential for any kind of road you want to build.
The seller of the island is Anne Brockinton Lee, widow of car enthusiast and former Hunting World owner Robert Lee. Before he passed away in 2016, Lee had amassed a serious collection of classic vehicles. About 200 examples are in a warehouse in Reno, Nevada formerly owned by Bill Harrah of Harrah’s Casinos; Harrah reportedly owned more than 1,400 cars himself. Four of the vehicles in the warehouse are Pebble Beach Concours winners and there's also a slew of Minis, Cadillacs, and Corvettes. A whole row of Ferraris line one wall, including one purchased directly from Enzo Ferrari himself.
Brockinton Lee is an enthusiast herself and has continued to build on her late husband’s collection. One that caught my eye in a walkaround with a curator from the Petersen Museum is a mint green 1954 Kaiser Darrin. She says in the video that she and her husband always wanted one and I can see why; I encountered one at the South Bend Concours last summer in Indiana and the pocket doors are the type of feature you just won't see again.
Take a second to picture it: you have your own island and a whole fleet of exotic cars and off-roaders. Really, it'd be better than any video game or neighborhood in the world because there are no speed traps. Your skills are the only real limit.
At about 350 acres, it's not nearly as big as the 1,900-acre Galloo Island in New York, which was recently sold back to a previous owner for $5.8 million. But that one doesn't include any construction and is being transformed into a nature preserve. The Lee family's mansion doesn't have a 50-car garage like the one that was on the market last year for $12 million, but then again, there's room for one if you wanna add it.
On this remote Montana property, you can rev your engines as much and as loudly as you like. The best part? There's no homeowner's association to complain about it.
Got a tip? Send it to kristin.shaw@thedrive.com.
