Asking $72 Million: A Private Island on Montana’s Flathead Lake

The vendor is Anne Brockinton Lee, widow of Robert M. Lee, the founding father of the bags and leather-based items retailer Searching World. The couple purchased Cromwell Island within the Nineteen Eighties, Mrs. Lee stated. 

The Lees found the island, which has about 3 miles of shoreline, throughout a fishing journey, she stated. Driving from British Columbia to their house in Reno, Nev., they stopped at Flathead Lake and began properties. When their agent requested if they might think about an island, “we went, ‘Bingo!” Mrs. Lee recalled. 

She stated she didn’t recall how a lot they paid in 1989 for the island, which had three separate homeowners on the time. Additionally they bought a house on the mainland of Flathead Lake, and supposed the island to be a nature protect. However after shopping for a ship and spending extra time within the space, Mrs. Lee stated they drew up plans for a full-time residence with 5 bedrooms on the island that they might fill with antiques; Mr. Lee was an avid vintage, gun and automotive collector. A part of the imaginative and prescient included driving his 1929 Mannequin A truck and different vehicles across the island, she stated. 

Mrs. Lee stated her husband, being the “sensible, eccentric man” that he was, wished the home to have the ability to stand up to storms and earthquakes. As a substitute of wooden framing, the home is made from poured concrete and clad in Montana limestone. It has a terra-cotta tile roof and mahogany home windows and doorways with stable brass hinges. The island additionally has a 5,000-square-foot guesthouse and a big dock with 5 slips, together with one that may accommodate a 70-foot boat. 

The Lees introduced energy to the island by way of underwater cables, and there’s a backup generator able to producing off-grid energy for 8 to 12 weeks. Additionally they excavated area for an underground taking pictures vary between the villa and the guesthouse. 

The outside of the principle home is now accomplished, however the inside isn’t. Mrs. Lee stated by the late Nineteen Nineties the couple wished a break from the challenge, which had develop into a full-time job. In 1999, the 12 months Mr. Lee bought 80% of Searching World, they purchased a house in Lake Tahoe and moved there full-time. “We began having a lot enjoyable at Lake Tahoe that we type of didn’t look again,” she stated. He later bought the remainder of the corporate, though Mrs. Lee wouldn’t say the value.

Mr. Lee died in 2016. Following her husband’s loss of life, Mrs. Lee stated it’s an excessive amount of of an enterprise for her to finish the home on Cromwell Island, which she stated is “too immense” for one individual. Her main house is in Reno, the place the couple’s 200-plus automotive assortment is situated. She has bought the Lake Tahoe home however nonetheless has properties in Charleston, S.C., and New York, in addition to a working cattle ranch in Montana and property on Flathead Lake’s mainland.

Flathead Lake is the most important pure freshwater lake within the contiguous U.S. west of the Mississippi. Spanning roughly 200 sq. miles, the lake has about 185 miles of shoreline dotted with log cabins in addition to bigger properties that promote for tens of millions of {dollars}.

Former NBA participant and coach Phil Jackson has a home on Flathead Lake, and in 2018, billionaire Ron Burkle paid $10.5 million for Shelter Island, a 22-acre non-public island on the lake. 

Though Shelter Island is seen from Cromwell Island, Mr. McDavid stated it’s not a comparable sale since it’s a lot smaller, and traded earlier than property values skyrocketed through the pandemic. He stated over the previous 12 months, the common sale value for lakefront properties was slightly below $3 million, and the common dimension of bought property was 3.13 acres. The costliest sale was $21 million, he stated, including that there’s nothing else “of this magnitude” on the lake.  

Mr. McDavid stated a potential purchaser may alter the ground plan of the Lees’ home and preserve it as a single-family home, or discover one other use for it.