Kobe Bryant Drops Plan to Buy O.C. Home

Kobe Bryant and his wife have decided against buying a $13.5-million Coto de Caza home because of business issues and privacy concerns, a spokeswoman said.

The 9.5-acre estate, which includes a 16,000-square-foot main house with 10 bedrooms and a private lake that comes with a replica of a pirate ship, would not be private or secure enough for the Los Angeles Laker guard, the spokeswoman said. The home is in a gated community, but there is a public trail nearby.

If the sale had gone through, it would have ranked among Orange County’s most expensive real estate deals.

“There were various business issues and privacy issues going on that made them decide to leave it be,” said Alyson Sadofsky, a Bryant spokeswoman with Washington-based SFX Basketball group.

Sadofsky said the couple will not discuss whether they are continuing to house hunt in Southern California.

Bryant and his wife, Vanessa, had also been looking to buy a home in Philadelphia, where his parents live, when they announced in June that they were in escrow to buy the Coto de Caza home. They had reportedly settled on the property to be close to her family in Huntington Beach, where she grew up and attended high school.

The Bryants now live in a Pacific Palisades home he bought for $2.5 million in 1999.

Officials at Keystone Pacific Property Management, which functions as the homeowners association for the Coto de Caza community, said the property could have been private and safe for Bryant.

“He announced it to the whole world. So, of course, there becomes an issue of security,” said Cynthia Hunter, a sales and marketing manager for Keystone.