Courtesy of Austin Ashline of Future Home Photos
- The tech billionaire Darwin Deason spent about $86 million creating his own personal Versailles.
- It took years to finish the Sand Castle, his oceanfront estate in La Jolla, California.
- Even after a $20 million price cut, the mansion is still the most expensive listing in the area.
The most expensive home listing in San Diego took a price cut, but it’s still far and away the priciest listing in the city’s history.
The 13,000-square-foot mansion, nicknamed the Sand Castle, is on the Pacific Ocean in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego. After a few price adjustments — it was first listed in October 2024 for $108 million — it’s now on the market for $87.5 million.
The home belonged to the late tech billionaire Darwin Deason, who founded Affiliated Computer Services, an IT company he sold to Xerox in 2009 for $6.4 billion. He died in December 2025.
Even after the $20 million price cut, the estate, if sold at that price, would nearly double the previous San Diego record, set by the private equity billionaire Egon Durban, who spent $44.1 million on a property in 2023.
Deason was inspired by the French Palace of Versailles and Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, a five-star hotel in the South of France that’s a favorite of celebrities. The house’s ornate details include glittering chandeliers, gold-accented ceilings, mosaics, marble floors, and antique statues.
For all the work Deason put into the sand-colored, balcony-laden mansion, the price tag is understandable. After buying the original house and a neighboring parcel of land for $26 million, he spent about $60 million turning the property into what it is today, The Wall Street Journal reported.
However, the original $108 million price tag was hard for buyers in San Diego to stomach, said Compass agent Brett Dickinson, who has the listing along with Ross Clark.
“Buyers are very conscious of being the first person to buy a property in San Diego over $100 million — that would be a very big deal,” Dickinson told Mansion Global. “So when you’re trying to break that barrier, sometimes $100 million is too high psychologically for the first person to do that. Now if we’re below $100 million, we all of a sudden become accessible.”
The Sand Castle is one of the more distinctive homes in the area, and it offers private oceanfront, which is rare in San Diego.
“In the history of La Jolla, there has never been and will never be another property built on the waterfront like the Sand Castle,” Dickinson and Clark told Business Insider via email in 2024.
Take a look inside.
Dan Latu contributed to a previous version of this story.
Courtesy of Austin Ashline of Future Home Photos
Courtesy of Austin Ashline of Future Home Photos
Courtesy of Austin Ashline of Future Home Photos
Courtesy of Austin Ashline of Future Home Photos
Courtesy of Austin Ashline of Future Home Photos
Courtesy of Austin Ashline of Future Home Photos
Courtesy of Austin Ashline of Future Home Photos
Courtesy of Austin Ashline of Future Home Photos
Courtesy of Austin Ashline of Future Home Photos
Courtesy of Austin Ashline of Future Home Photos
Courtesy of Austin Ashline of Future Home Photos
Courtesy of Austin Ashline of Future Home Photos
Courtesy of Austin Ashline of Future Home Photos
Courtesy of Austin Ashline of Future Home Photos
Courtesy of Austin Ashline of Future Home Photos
Courtesy of Austin Ashline of Future Home Photos
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