La Jolla’s Foxhill estate is listed for sale for $49 million

La Jolla’s expansive Foxhill estate is positioned to make local real estate history.

The approximately 30-acre property at 7007 Country Club Drive has been listed for sale for $49 million, which would make it the highest-priced residence ever sold in San Diego County. It is listed with Drew and Tim Nelson of Willis Allen Real Estate in La Jolla.

The estate includes the Foxhill mansion, which was built in 1959 by San Diego Union and Evening Tribune publisher James Copley and has 10 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, additional guest houses, a pool and sport courts, along with walking trails and garage parking for 12 cars.

Two additional “development sites” are the Romero (off Romero Drive) site and another off Country Club Drive, Drew Nelson said.

The Romero site is 22.4 acres containing native vegetation and about four developable acres. A conceptual plan for the site calls for building a 20,000-square-foot home with six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, two powder rooms, a gym, a game room, a theater and a guest house, Nelson said.

The site “is probably the best undeveloped piece of ocean view real estate in La Jolla and maybe in San Diego or even Southern California,” he said.

The Country Club site is 1.77 acres with a coastal development permit. “It’s about six months away from having shovel-ready plans to build” a 10,000-square-foot, six-bedroom, six-bath home with a pool and garage, Nelson said.

The Foxhill mansion was built in 1959.

(Lucas Parodi Ronalds)

The three sites are unique, Nelson said, because they “all offer amazing privacy but also phenomenal ocean views” — two qualities difficult to combine in La Jolla.

Nelson said the estate’s current owner, Doug Manchester — the former owner of The San Diego Union-Tribune and La Jolla Light who bought the property for about $27 million in 2015 — approved the possibility of each site being purchased separately.

The choices for buyers are:

• All three sites for $49 million

• The Foxhill home and its accompanying 6.24 acres for $28 million

• The Romero site for $24 million

• The Country Club site for $8 million

The Romero and Country Club sites would come with their respective development plans “to the extent they’re done and approved,” Nelson said.

Noting the extensive work Manchester put into the property to improve its value, Nelson said the price, albeit potentially record-breaking, is “very low relative to what this home would be listed at in places like Los Angeles and Orange County. … The topography is really conducive to … the grandeur and privacy that Foxhill has.”

A home in Del Mar set the San Diego County record for most expensive sale — $48.2 million in 2007. The same house was sold in 2020 to Bill and Melinda Gates for $43 million.

The record in La Jolla was set by a house at 8466 El Paseo Grande, which sold for $24.7 million in late 2020.

A new home in Bird Rock is listed for $32.5 million.

For more information about Foxhill, visit bit.ly/FoxhillListing. ◆