Frank Lloyd Wright’s final residential design, the Norman Lykes House, has been on and off the market since it was listed for $7.95 million in 2020. Now, the owners of the property are no longer seeking a new sole owner in the traditional sense. In fact, a collection of fresh owners may just fit the bill. The property’s listing agent, Deanna Peters, confirmed to AD the home is being offered as a fractional sale, allowing six people to buy into the iconic home for $1.5 million each.
“I do think there exists a group of wonderful people who are Frank Lloyd Wright fans who genuinely want to own a portion of the house with others and work cooperatively to preserve it, update it properly, and enjoy it,” Peters tells AD over email. According to her, the home will close in escrow when all six buyers are confirmed and have signed either a tenants in common agreement or formed an LLC. Potential owners will have the opportunity to meet one another beforehand and will be required to rent the home for a month prior to purchasing in order to do their due diligence. “The owner is offering reduced rent to them and will credit that sum back at closing,” Peters adds.
The residence, also known as the Circular Sun House, was the final home Wright ever designed and was completed posthumously in 1967. Inside, the property includes three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a den, library, office, and pool. Designed to mirror the surrounding bluffs of the Phoenix landscape, the curved home is one of 14 circular houses Wright created over his lifetime.
Though co-ownership has existed for decades, it has grown in popularity in recent years, explains Austin Allison, the CEO and cofounder of Pacaso Homes, a luxury second home platform that specializes in co-ownership properties. “Fractional ownership experienced unprecedented demand over the last few years due to the pandemic and the permanent shift towards remote work, and we suspect this flexibility to continue to feed second-home growth as buyers have more flexibility to spend time away from the traditional definition of the office,” Allison tells AD over email.
According to Allison, one of the biggest benefits to co-ownership is the removed entry barrier for people interested in a second home or vacation property. “For communities, co-ownership means less competition for single-family homes, more spending at local businesses, and more tax revenue,” he adds. The downside, however, can be the lack of autonomy when it comes to the residence. “The drawback for some people could be time and scheduling, as you don’t own 100% of the home, you don’t get 100% of the calendar. A buyer who plans to use their second home for more than half of the year may find that a whole home is a better fit for their needs.”
The Norman Lykes house last sold in November of 2019 following a no-reserve auction for a little over $1.6 million, according to the Zillow listing. In November of 2020, it was listed for sale for $7.95 million before being briefly pulled from the market in October of 2022 and relisted at $8.95 million in January of this year.
Currently, the Wright-designed residence is used as a rental property and is available for guests to book through platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo. Peters says that following the joint sale, the new owners could continue to rent out the property should they want, enjoy it as a collective second home, or offer it as an event space, among multiple possibilities. Should a single owner be interested in purchasing the home in full, that offer is still on the table as well.
