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Columbia Business Monthly

54 Acres, Eight Fireplaces, One Kangaroo: Inside the $22 Million Listing That Could Set a New State Price Record

Apr 26, 2023 12:19PM ● By David Caraviello

Photos by Jason Ayers

By David Caraviello

Interested parties will be vetted and have to provide proof of funds, but once those steps are cleared, all doors are opened at Circle Creek Farm. A concierge team working through the real estate agency will reach out to handle any needed accommodations.

The tour of the 16,000-square-foot home and 54-acre grounds will take approximately half a day. And afterward? Champagne and charcuterie on the back veranda — where you might even catch a glimpse of the estate’s resident kangaroo.

When it comes to showing potentially the most expensive residential property ever sold in South Carolina, no detail is spared. That’s certainly the case with 2975 Roper Mountain Road, a sprawling equestrian estate near Simpsonville listed for $22 million, which comes turnkey complete with all furniture, six horses, and yes, a kangaroo. A sale anywhere near the listed dollar figure would break the current record for the Palmetto State’s priciest residential sale: the Vanderhorst Mansion on Kiawah Island, which closed for $20.5 million in 2021.

“I think we'll get pretty close,” said Damian Hall, the agent with Blackstream Christie’s International Realty who is listing the property. “I’m pretty confident. If you just look at the quality of construction and the cost to recreate that, the price justifies itself. I think it’s going to be a different buyer than Greenville is used to, but I think they're out there, and I think this is something that will be on their radar.”

Built in 2013 by Bob Castellani, founder of North American Rescue — the medical products company whose headquarters are plainly visible off Interstate 85 near Greer — the six-bedroom, 12-bath home at Circle Creek Farm was designed to evoke an English manor, and is loaded with design elements from around the world. The listing denotes a streetlamp from Central Park, stone planters from the Great Wall of China, cobblestones from Pittsburgh, wood salvaged from Clifton Mill in Spartanburg, and a roof of blue slate dug out of a Pennsylvania quarry which has been in operation since the 1850s.

“Every time somebody came over to the house, Bob wanted them to notice something different,” Hall said. “I think the primary motivator was to add interesting things that really caught the eye and told a story. A lot of the materials in the house tell a story of some other time and some other place in the world. It wasn't like the contractor just went to the high-end Home Depot and bought all the same stuff. These are all materials that can't be replicated. The entire exterior is made of stone. That’s real stone. It’s not like stone veneer or a façade. It holds up the Pennsylvania slate roof which will last for 125 years.”

The feeling of seclusion is enhanced not just by the size of the property itself, but also berms built along two adjacent roadways to keep the sight of any passing cars from impeding upon the pastoral view. The property includes a 12-horse barn designed by Kentucky-based Lucas Equine, along with three equestrian arenas, one of them covered. The turnkey sale means new buyers will also take possession of all artwork, furnishings, farm equipment — and six horses and a resident kangaroo, should they so choose.

“The owners are downsizing. They’re not going to have a barn on their (new) property,” Hall added. “So if the buyers want to keep the horses and kangaroo on site, that is something we would certainly accommodate.”

The kangaroo, named Irwin, is one of two originally obtained by Castellani through a kangaroo rescue group, Hall said. “They raised them from when they were joeys,” Hall added. “There are pictures of them in the house, getting bottle fed in the arms of the estate manager. I think Bob just wanted some interesting animals on the property. They came across the kangaroo, and Bob said one of them just hopped in his bag.”

Marsupials aside, Circle Creek Farm is the rare equine estate with such vast acreage located near downtown Greenville — as opposed to Landrum, Campobello, or other towns in the northern part of Greenville County where most horse farms are found. Castellani, whose company sells medical equipment for military, police and emergency personnel, bought the land in 2010 for $3 million and spent $17 million building the house. The cost to recreate the property today would be approximately $30 million, according to the listing.

The home itself is a showpiece, with a three-inch thick solid wood front door opening into a foyer with a barreled ceiling. The great room is bedecked with wood accents and a limestone fireplace, while the kitchen features a coffered ceiling and a vent hood made from beams of longleaf pine. The lower level is made to resemble an old European pub with reclaimed wooden beams from barns across Kentucky. Some ceilings rise to 25 feet, while the home also features eight fireplaces and an elevator.

“The pictures and video are phenomenal, but nothing can do it justice compared to pulling through those gates, driving through those rolling pastures, and seeing that English manor coming up,” Hall said. “It's just really awe-inspiring.”

So, who is most likely to buy a $22 million, 54-acre equine estate? Hall said similar properties are often found in equine hotbeds like Lexington, Kentucky, and Ocala or Wellington, Florida. “We think it could be somebody wanting to escape the Florida heat and bring their base of operations to the Greenville area,” he added. “We have beautiful horse farms in areas like Landrum and Campobello, but they’re all 45 minutes from town. Here, you have 54 acres and you’re still 10 minutes to Whole Foods and 15 minutes to downtown Greenville. So you have the best of both worlds, really.”

The sale of Circle Creek Farm is certain to shatter the current residential sales price record for the Upstate: $8.999 million for the 38-acre estate in Simpsonville known as Belle Terre, which was sold in June 2022 by Joan Herlong of Herlong and Associates Sotheby’s International Realty. A sale near the list price would also end the Lowcountry’s dominance of the state’s highest-priced residential sales; before the Vanderhorst Mansion went for $20.5 million in 2021, the record-holder was another Kiawah Island property that sold for $20.25 million in 2025.

“Getting that title would be an honor,” Hall said. “By having that ‘most expensive’ tag, we’re getting a lot of press, so there was a little bit of strategy in that. But the property is worth every penny, given what it would take to re-create it in today’s dollars.”