In the mid 1990s, John Blazevich was looking for a project. At the time, he was president of Contessa Premium Foods, a frozen-food manufacturer he founded in 1984, “and my dream was to build an architectural tribute to California, in the style of the Getty Villa or Hearst Castle,” he says.

After buying adjacent lots in a gated community south of Los Angeles called Rolling Hills, he began a construction process that lasted more than a decade.

First Blazevich knocked down the property’s existing home, dwelling through the construction in a one-bedroom guest house that was completed in 1999. Three years later, he moved into the 51,000 square-foot main house, which was built primarily underground as a result of the community’s zoning restrictions. He named the property Hacienda de la Paz.

But after a few years he got antsy. His company Contessa had filed for bankruptcy in 2011 (it emerged from bankruptcy in 2013, paying creditors in full, according to a release), and “I had other projects I wanted to complete and other challenges I wanted to do,” says Blazevich, who was also the chief executive officer of the shrimp importer, Viva Food Group.

So he put the 7.4 acre property on the market, listing it in June, 2013, for $53 million.

“I wasn’t planning on it being sold right away,” he says. “I would have liked it to be, but I was living here and enjoying it.”

After three years, he took it off the market for a few months, and then relisted it with a $5 million price cut. Yet the home still failed to find a buyer.  Earlier this year, its price was lowered again, this time to $40 million.

“The house is in immaculate shape,” Blazevich says. He acknowledges, though, that, despite its moneyed inhabitants, “Rolling Hills isn’t a well-known area like Beverly Hills or Malibu,” which could deter buyers looking for a recognizable address to match the home’s price tag.

As a result, he’s made the relatively unusual decision to put the home up for auction, listing it with Concierge Auctions, a New York-based property auctioneer.

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