A 51,908-square-foot shell of a mansion on the Willamette River in West Linn is back on the market for $4.7 million, still missing windows and finished floors nearly three decades after construction began. The unfinished estate at 32020 S.W. Peach Cove Road has now cycled through three owners without ever being completed, each one abandoning a different vision for the property along the way.
The saga began in 1994 when Mark Wattles, founder of the Hollywood Video rental chain, bought the 32-acre riverfront peninsula for $1.25 million, according to OregonLive. Wattles built Hollywood Entertainment Corp. in Portland starting in 1988 into a 1,000-store national chain before selling it in 2005, according to 151 Coffee, the Texas drive-thru coffee company he later founded in 2017. He received a building permit in 1996 and construction started the following year on what was planned as a roughly 52,000-square-foot structure about the size of the White House, per the same OregonLive report, with Wattles ultimately investing $12 million into the project.
A Legal Fight and a Redesign
Wattles redesigned the architectural plans midstream, shifting from a traditional style to a Northwest Craftsman look with a stone facade, per OregonLive's account. The original blueprints called for entertaining areas, a grand ballroom, nine bedrooms and 18 bathrooms, along with showrooms for up to 60 collectible cars, garages and mechanic space, and a 25-foot-tall gym large enough for a full basketball court or an indoor pool.
The ambitious build drew a legal challenge in 1997 from a neighbor backed by land-use advocacy group 1000 Friends of Oregon, which frequently monitors large-scale residential development on Oregon farmland, according to background compiled by the Lake Oswego Review. Wattles prevailed and kept his right to continue building on the agricultural land, per OregonLive's reporting. Not long after, Wattles and his family relocated to Las Vegas with his wife and five children, and the mansion was left standing, unfinished, wrapped for the weather.
An Auction, a Fencing Magnate, and a Vineyard Dream That Never Bloomed
Wattles eventually sold the property in 2018 through a live, no-reserve auction at The Nines Hotel in downtown Portland, run by Miami-based Platinum Luxury Auctions in partnership with Luxe Christie's International Real Estate, according to the Lake Oswego Review. Richard L. Stanley, founder of Washington-based Rick's Custom Fencing & Decking, emerged as the highest bidder, and the transaction closed on July 16, 2018, at a final sale price of $2.27 million, per OregonLive. Clackamas County had assessed the property at $5.3 million that same year.
Stanley originally hoped to transform the site into a Tuscan villa-style vineyard estate complete with a wine-tasting room, according to the Lake Oswego Review's reporting at the time. He invested $1.5 million in a new roof and other improvements and added piers for a potential future dock, per OregonLive. Blueberries were planted on the land specifically to comply with Oregon's farm-use zoning requirements, which govern the property under the state's Exclusive Farm Use rules and restrict residential building on agricultural land unless active commercial farming is maintained to preserve tax deferral, according to Oregon Agriculture Authority guidance on the policy. Two years after his purchase, Stanley listed the still-unfinished shell in June 2020 for $3.99 million, a listing that was ultimately removed without a sale.
Back on the Market at $4.7 Million
The mansion resurfaced on regional listing services in May 2026 at $4.7 million under MLS number 543559696, with Clackamas County now assessing the property at roughly $4.1 million and annual property taxes at $46,947, according to Zillow listing data. The property today spans approximately 29 acres with water rights and includes 2,700 feet of river frontage with sandy beaches, per OregonLive.
Listing broker Jason Mendell of eXp Realty described the property as ideal for a visionary buyer seeking something that cannot be replicated, according to OregonLive's reporting. Mendell envisions potential uses ranging from a multigenerational family compound to a wellness destination or legacy estate, while the property has also been evaluated in the past for a vineyard, equestrian or winery estate, or corporate retreat. The current owner's plans reportedly shifted after purchase toward creating a family legacy on the site, per the same report.
The mansion's structural bones remain heavy-duty: steel beams, concrete, and large glulam timber ceiling rafters engineered by Lake Oswego-based Avgerakis Custom Homes, according to marketing materials from Platinum Luxury Auctions. Building permits have reportedly been kept active through seasonal maintenance even as the frame has sat wrapped in synthetic protective material for years. An elevator shaft already runs through the structure, ready to serve all levels once the home is finished, per OregonLive.
A Location Built Around Farmland Rules
Part of what makes the property unusual, beyond its size, is where it sits. A 2018 land-use analysis conducted for the auction marketing campaign noted the mansion sits closer to the Willamette River shoreline than would be permitted under today's setback regulations, a riverfront proximity that cannot legally be replicated under current local rules, per Platinum Luxury Auctions. The property also has agricultural tax advantages tied to its farm-use zoning, which requires active agricultural output, such as the blueberry planting, to keep those benefits intact.
Despite its rural zoning, the estate sits close to the Oregon Golf Club and Aurora State Airport, and less than 30 minutes from downtown Portland and Portland International Airport, according to OregonLive. At nearly 52,000 square feet, the shell is widely cited in real estate databases as the largest single-family residential structure currently under construction anywhere in Oregon, according to the Ashland Chronicle. Three decades after ground was broken, the property remains a monument to unfinished ambition, still waiting for an owner willing to see it through.
