Guy Laliberté, the Quebec-born co-founder of Cirque du Soleil, is selling his home in the affluent Montreal neighbourhood of Outremont for $12.75 million . That’s about $1 million less than it was briefly listed for last year .
The five-storey abode contains 50 rooms, including eight bedrooms, meaning the price works out to about a quarter million dollars per room. Laliberté, 65, co-founded Cirque du Soleil in 1984 with fellow entrepreneur Gilles Ste-Croix. Originally conceived as a one-year project to commemorate the 450th anniversary of the arrival of Jacques Cartier in Canada, it has since grown to include shows on five continents, employing more than 4,000 people.
He is also known as an art collector , high-stakes poker player, space tourist — he visited the International Space Station in 2009 — and, since 2009, the owner of Nukutepipi , a small atoll in French Polynesia, in the South Pacific Ocean. ( You can rent it for just under US$1 million a week.) Laliberté’s Montreal property was built in the 1930s, but underwent extensive enlargement and other renovations from 2007 to 2009, resulting in more than 10,000 square feet of living space on 15,660 square feet of property.
According to listing information, the ground floor features a private office with a fireplace, a living room/library, and a dining room that can seat 20. There’s a g ourmet chef’s kitchen, an auxiliary kitchen and a wet bar. One floor up, accessible by a grand staircase, are seven bedr.
