Heavy Metal Star Lists Las Vegas Castle for $28M
If Zoltan Bathory happened to walk past most people at a grocery store, they wouldn't recognize him. He isn't well-known or a regular on reality TV. However, since 2007, his boisterous heavy-metal band, Five Finger Death Punch, has subtly accumulated over 12 billion streams and 28 Top 10 singles.
For this reason, the 47-year-old guitarist is able to market a $28 million replica of a Scottish castle from the 17th century for sale in Las Vegas.
The three-story, 12,720-square-foot estate, which is eight miles west of the Strip, has turrets, imported masonry, and medieval accents that are appropriate for a rock singer who has amassed a fortune in the shadow of pop culture.
With five bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a saltwater pool, a four-car garage, and a double dock on artificial Lake Sahara, Rose Manor is the largest house in the waterfront community known as The Lakes.
With 2019, Bathory first contacted Paul and Gemma Zeppa, the property's previous owners, with hopes of renting the space for a filming project. According to property records, he paid $3.25 million for it outright when they refused.
The castle has a private double dock on Lake Sahara, where only electric (no gas) power boats are allowed.
He has spent the last six years renovating it with architect Michael Murphy, one of the founding partners of the upscale Las Vegas custom home design company Blue Heron, which is why he is requesting so much more.
He and Murphy went all out, bringing in 500-year-old beams and doors, 17th-century fireplace mantels, and European stone gates from the 15th century. They also opened up the interiors, which at first looked too much like a Victorian castle for Bathory's taste due to their narrow rooms and low ceilings.
They even remodeled a rooftop terrace. It currently has a glass enclosure, 360-degree panoramic views, and an elevator that looks like a chimney.
“There is nothing in the home that wasn’t touched other than the exterior walls and the things that are in the home,” listing agent Monica Nalbantoglu of the Rob Jensen Co. told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The castle's history begins in 1991 when Larry and Lisa Miller hired architect Robert Symons to create the design. According to reports, the Millers spent $8.5 million to develop the home, which included $1.4 million for hand-carved mahogany and $1.7 million for 144 bespoke stained-glass windows from the UK. Following a foreclosure, the property ended up with the Zeppas after they sold it to Robert Dyson in 2005.
It seems like Zoltan has the house-flipping bug, which explains why someone would invest so much time and money in something only to abandon it.
He told the metal website Blabbermouth.net, "I'm an artist, and through this process, I realized that, even though owning something like this is amazing, the real thrill for me is in creating it."
"The magic lies in designing and creating something monumental that will outlast me."
High, vaulted ceilings now mark the interior.
