Behind the (Pearly) Gates at 1280 North Preston Road, Former Prosper Pad of Deion Sanders

Just when I think I’ve seen it all in a home, all the amazing homes I have been privileged to tour in North Texas (or anywhere) in the last 30 years, I walk through the gates of yet another amazing, loaded, luxurious, totally high-flying, so very over-the-top property — the former home of Deion Sanders.

Once again, I marvel at how and why people, especially rich people, build their homes as they do. I see how homes are such an extension of someone’s life, personality, background, education, career, and tastes.

With a personality as big as Deion’s, only a 30,000-plus-square foot estate could handle him.

We told you earlier in the week that Deion had sold the spread, basically to a developer, Bloomfield Homes, and a small portion to Don Silverman, who is working on a retail corner. Tuesday I got to go inside and check it all out. A couple things stood out:

Deion likes curves and circles, which are at the centerpiece of his decor. Almost every room has a round center or circle theme — the carpet in the family room, the round floor turntable that spun in the master bedroom foyer, the round sunken jacuzzi tub spa in the middle of the master bath, the round master bed, and the rotunda in the round foyer. Note: I saw the house right after move out, the new owners are in the process of cleaning it up.

Deion is a great son, a good boy — his mother lived with him, and she even had her own suite. It’s a lovely space with a sitting area and an all-white marble bathroom, en suite, of course. There is a gold plaque on her door that says, “Ma.” There is also a super-serious, take-no-chances, lock on the door. And if she had trouble walking up the stairs, she could always take the gilded elevator. The front hall chandelier, which was gone, has a winch so you can lower and raise it with a key to clean and replace bulbs.

The main outdoor pool has three components: Olympic swim pool, spa for 30, and a beach entry, and a lagoon kid’s pool.

There is also an indoor pool and spa.

The bowling alley is a blast and works. I think the balls go with the house, especially the red ones.

The barber shop! Every home needs a private barber shop with a locker room and four shower stalls!

There is Champ d’Or, there is the Phil Romano estate on Strait Lane now owned by Mehrdad Moayedi, there is Lisa Blue’s 15,000 + square foot Deloache estate listed for $37.5 million, Mark Cuban’s, The Crespi Estate, The Stanley Marcus house, The Oats residence on Strait Lane, Lisa Besserer’s place on Strait whose names I cannot reveal, Ross Perot’s, Paigebrook in Westlake, and Mount Vernon. Chateau de Triumph, RIP. Highland Park, oh my: Gerald Ford’s home and half of Beverly Drive and Armstrong Parkway (sniffle). The homes of Hunter’s Glen. I’m sure if we go to Vaquero, we will find a handful of over-the-top residences, like the Jonas family compound, or Sean Payton’s place with the disco dance floor. Come to think of it, the M Mansion was pretty amazing, too, up there at the North Dallas Forty where that freaky guy was trying to blow things up a few weeks ago. All of these homes are way over the top, so high they are flying, but none of them, not a one, has a football field, an outdoor basketball court, indoor gym and basketball court, a bowling alley, a beach volleyball court, a hike and bike trail, a pond stuffed with Florida bass and catfish, and that barber shop.

Full disclosure: t\There was a bowling alley and beauty shop at Champ d’ Or, and a home being built on Harry’s Lane has one, too. I like to get my hair blown dry in front of the computer so I can blog, so I think the concept of an in-house salon is something we need to advance and possibly cultivate.

What can I say? I’m a whore for square footage.

Deion’s home defines together the quintessential Dallas sports star celebrity’s spread out spread,  combining oceans of polished marble, columns, gold, black granite with gold flecks, Colorform-bright kids rooms plus fun recreation wings that look like the offspring of a marriage between Dave & Busters and an AMC. It’s the ultimate party animal house with a mailbox in the shape of a cross. They also like a lot of shag carpet.

One thing was missing, only one — a wine cellar. For all the partying this home was set up to handle, I found only one bar tucked off the family room, and no wine cellar. I wondered if Pilar might have had some locked up in her mammoth closet — or were all those locked drawers really for jewelry?

The entrance from North Preston Road is impressive, with those huge gates and that cross-shaped mailbox. The drive is long and winding, enough for two cars to pass. There is a circular drive at the front of the home. I imagine you could park 3000 cars in the front, side or back somehow — why did they never have Cattle Barons up here? There’s 110 acres, 30 of which now are going to become commercial at the corner of Prosper Trail and Preston Road. Don Silverman tells me his company kept 30 of the 110 acres for development, and it has already been approved by the city of Prosper to re-zone it commercially.

“It’s a great site,” says Don,” and I have to say Deion was a total gentleman to work with. He did everything he said he would do. He’s busy, yes, but dealing with him on the business side was great.”

Vitals:  2-story entry, sunken living, banquet dining, kitchen, family room with multiple TV’s, kind of reminded me of a TV newsroom,  indoor basketball court and bowling alley, indoor and outdoor pools, movie theatre, billiard room, hall of fame gallery, football field, 12 acre lake, tennis court, guest house, 10 car garages, 29,112 sq. ft. of living area and 38,831 gross square feet in the main home. There is also a maid’s quarters upstairs. Oh and a detached guest house, too.

Which reminds me of a sweet story I’ve heard about the first time Ebby Halliday visited Deion Sanders at the house. Apparently, Ebby Halliday had either sold Deion the land or the actual house, which, if he bought new, surely he enhanced on a Bionic level. Ebby went into the living room and one of Deion’s little sons was in the house. He came up to Ebby, sweetly polite, and said, you look just like our maid!

Deion played not just football but professional baseball. (I think one of his son’s has baseball talent, too. ) He played for the Atlanta Falcons, the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys. In 1995, Deion pulled in $35 million for a 7-year contract that included a $12,999,000 signing bonus. After the Cowboys, he later played for the Washington Redskins and the Baltimore Ravens.

The house is so humongous that you could probably hit 5 miles on your fitbit by noon. When I saw the girth from the inside, I understood why Deion had a Rascal scooter. But I was very surprised NOT to see a walkalator.

The sprawling, two-winged mansion is divided into the master wing on the north, and the entertainment wing on the south. The center is the formals, kitchen and family rooms, the kids and mother suites are upstairs. The home has 10 bedrooms, nine huge full baths, four powder rooms, multiple staircases, an elevator, five fireplaces, three dining areas, seven living areas — makes you wonder why he and Pilar just could not have remained under the same roof.  Well, guess not: the first floor master bedroom suite comprises pretty much the entire north wing.

Heading left from the hotel-lobby-sized living room, you encounter first Deion’s formal office and trophy room, across from his working office. There is a powder room here, too. Then you enter the master WING. It has a sitting room/foyer with a spinning turn-table floor. I guess the idea was you could be watching the giant TV,  spin 90 degrees to look into the vast bedroom, or spin 90 degrees to look out the huge window at the grounds at the touch of a button. (The new owners are going to carpet over this unique feature.) Before we all utter something about how lazy this is, think of how much fun this must have been for the kids or Deion’s ma to play with.

The master still holds the huge round, orgy-beckoning bed surrounded by smoked glass and black lacquer. (I wonder if the bed is on a turn-table, too? Now, THAT would be fun!) It, too, faces the vast outdoors. Because this room is so far away from the kitchen, there is a kitchenette prior to entering the two-story walk-in closet, his and her’s, his about 1400 square feet and bigger than her’s, the behemoth bathroom with a sunken jacuzzi tub and cover, and huge double waterfall shower with TV’s. There is also a private 2-car attached garage separate from the 10 or 12 other garage spaces. Mama the Realestalker once reported that this garage houses “Mister Sanders extensive collection of tricked out whips located at the opposite end of the house.” Whoa Nelly. 

 I did not see any whips, just the private entrance from the garage with a small bathroom right inside the door with a urinal as well as a commode. These days, I am very into having bathrooms as close to the garage as possible.

One the other side of the house, the the right if you are walking in, you have the dining room with tons of built-ins for silver, flatware, china, a bedroom off the dining room — curious as to why it was there. The dining room is connected to the kitchen by a large Butler’s pantry.

The kitchen really is vast and includes maple cabinets, marble floors, stainless steel appliances and black marble or granite counter tops with accents. The cabinets were custom-made with those Euro-style metal racks. Enough ovens to cook five Thanksgiving turkeys. The step-down family room has at least eight wall-mounted TVs plus two security monitors. I think a couple of fireplaces, too. There is a wet bar that leads you down a hallway to the vast entertainment wing, which is really where the party begins. Here you find, along the way, the multi-level and very red movie theater. Then the huge bowling arcade …

“The entire room was filled with arcade games,” Don Dykstra, President of Bloomfield Homes told me.

On the far right is the two lane bowling alley and booths. Cross the arcade room, you get to the exercise room and gymnasium, or the natatorium/solarium. The barber shop with locker room is off the gym, and there is a locker room with four showers.

Outdoor facilities include those three pools, including the lagoon one with a concrete island in the middle, the spa for 30, a 12-acre lake stocked with fish, equestrian facilities, sports court, children’s playground, sunken trampoline, batting cage, lighted tennis court, football field with goal posts, hike and bike trails and pasture lands.

I’ve got the track on where Deion has moved, and it isn’t nearby. All I know is that the spread was once listed for $21 million, and it was sold off market for an undisclosed price “a week ago Friday,” said Don, so Aug. 29. I’m thinking maybe pretty close to Collin County tax appraisal at a little over $11.7 million, give or take a few million. Wonder if Deion was able to pay off my pal Larry Friedman?

Sources told me they think the divorce with Pilar had maybe soured Deion on the house. An agent said he had at least two interested buyers, one from in town, another out of town. (The in-town guy was on vacay, otherwise he might have bit that day.) If they don’t bite, I think the home will be auctioned by an auction house like Concierge Auction.

And that, my friends is going to be quite a party!