Business & Finance
Texas Ranch with 120 Exotic Animals and Underground Shelter Sells for $6.93 Million
A 96‑acre ranch in Dripping Springs, Texas, owned by Patrón Tequila co‑founder John Paul De Joria, sold for $6.93 million to television director Jonathan Nowzaradan. The property, known as “Patrón de Paz,” sits along 2,600 feet of Fitzhugh Creek and includes a 7,540‑square‑foot main house with four bedrooms and six bathrooms, two barns with guest quarters, a stocked pond, a pecan orchard, a pool, a spa, an outdoor kitchen and a wide porch overlooking the Hill Country. An underground shelter measuring 2,700 square feet is also part of the estate. When listed in 2016, the ranch was marketed as an exotic‑animal ranch and came with more than 120 African animals, including gazelles, wildebeest and antelopes. The animals were part of the sale, along with the furnishings and the land. De Joria, who co‑founded Patrón Spirits Company in 1989, had owned the ranch since 2008 and chose to sell it while maintaining other residences worldwide.