Ex-NBA player Geiger sells Pinellas mansion at deep discount

He got less than half the price he wanted, but former pro basketball player Matt Geiger finally sold his 28,000-square-foot mansion in Tarpon Springs.

It took nearly four years to find a buyer for the largest home in Pinellas County. It sold this week for $8 million, down from the $20 million Geiger listed it for in 2007.

The home has six bedrooms and eight bathrooms and is on more than 20 acres on Old Keystone Road.

The property contains a 3,000-gallon shark tank, a custom swimming pool with a rock-diving cliff and a 4,900-square-foot guest house.

Geiger, a 7-foot-1 center who played for the NBA's Miami Heat, Charlotte Hornets and Philadelphia 76ers, used the large acreage to house livestock on the property, which at one time included 12 buffalo.

The Clearwater office of Engel & Völkers handled the sale and disclosed the price. The deal is so new that it is not yet on the county's property appraiser's website, so the buyer is not yet known. The realty office did not release that information.

"Our global exposure included utilizing our Global Guide magazine printed in five languages and distributed on four continents, as well as our property shop concept to display the home in windows around the world," Stephen Kepler, partner and co-owner of the Clearwater and Clearwater Beach offices of Engle & Völkers, said in a news release.

In 2008, Geiger sued a Delaware-based company, saying it agreed to buy the home for $21 million but didn't follow through.

Geiger and Global Asset Holdings LLC entered into an agreement in a cash transaction for Geiger's property, according to the suit Geiger filed.

The company didn't close, but wouldn't release Geiger from the purchase agreement. This knocked him out of selling the home to another buyer for $15 million.

Global Asset Holdings said it decided not to buy the home after all because "market conditions in the real estate market across the country," according to the lawsuit.

At the time, Geiger told the Tribune he had lowered the asking price to $16.9 million but that would not include furnishings.

Years of not selling the home, however, apparently changed Geiger's mind. This week's $8 million deal came with a house full of furniture.

The house, built in 2002, was prominently featured in the 2004 movie "The Punisher." It was shown as the home of John Travolta's character in the movie.

Even though the home didn't sell for as much as Geiger wanted, it's still the second-largest sales price on record in Pinellas County. A mansion in Belleair sold for $10.5 million in 2008.

Geiger told The Tampa Tribune in 2008 that he wanted a more family-friendly home. At the time, he was marketing the home as a rental during the week of the Super Bowl. He had hoped to get $50,000 to $250,000, depending on the length of the guest's stay.

Geiger, who attended Countryside High School, played basketball collegiately at Auburn and Georgia Tech. He was drafted by Miami in 1992 and retired from the NBA in 2002.

Geiger has not yet commented on his plans for the future or where he plans to live now.