Ever wonder what happens when a heavyweight champion’s taste for the extreme meets a rap mogul’s peak "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" era? You get 50 Poplar Hill Drive. This isn't just a house. It’s a 51,000-square-foot monument to excess sitting in Farmington, Connecticut. People call it the Mike Tyson house 50 Cent bought, but honestly, it’s more like a small village that happens to have a roof.
It’s got 21 bedrooms. That’s not a typo. There are also 25 bathrooms (some records say up to 40 if you count the half-baths in the club area). It’s the kind of place where you could lose a houseguest for a week and not even notice they’re gone. 50 Cent actually told a story once about a girl who wandered out of a bedroom four days after a party ended, asking where her clothes were. That’s the level of scale we’re talking about here.
Why the Mike Tyson house 50 Cent purchased became a legend
The history of this place is kinda wild. It wasn't built for a celebrity. A guy named Benjamin Sisti, who founded Colonial Realty, built it back in 1985. It cost about $2.3 million then, which was massive for the mid-80s. But Sisti’s empire was basically a Ponzi scheme. When it collapsed, the house went to the bank.
Mike Tyson stepped in during 1996. He paid $2.8 million. At the time, Tyson was the baddest man on the planet, and he wanted a home that screamed it. He added the legendary "Club TKO," an indoor nightclub that could fit hundreds of people. He put in a shooting range. He even had a black-and-gold lacquered bed that looked like something out of a movie.
But life happened. Tyson went through a divorce from Monica Turner in 2003. She got the house in the settlement and then turned around and sold it to 50 Cent for $4.1 million.
💡 You might also like: Is Randy Parton Still Alive? What Really Happened to Dolly’s Brother
50 Cent didn't just move in; he went to work. He reportedly dropped another $6 million to $10 million on renovations. We’re talking:
- An infinity pool with a grotto (very Playboy Mansion vibes).
- A state-of-the-art recording studio where he finished The Massacre.
- A casino room with gambling tables straight from Las Vegas.
- A "Gucci Room" for billiards with custom fabric walls.
- Stripper poles in the nightclub area because, well, it was the early 2000s.
The $70,000 monthly headache
Buying a house like this is one thing. Keeping it alive is another. 50 Cent later revealed in bankruptcy filings that the monthly upkeep was around $67,000 to $72,000. Just to mow the lawn, you're looking at a $5,000-a-month bill. It takes a certain kind of wealth to just let a house exist.
The house sat on the market for a long, long time. 50 Cent first listed it in 2007 for a staggering $18.5 million. Nobody bit. Over the next 12 years, the price dropped like a stone. It went to $14 million, then $10 million, then $5 million.
Eventually, in 2019, it sold for just $2.9 million.
📖 Related: Patricia Neal and Gary Cooper: The Affair That Nearly Broke Hollywood
That’s an 84% drop from the original asking price. The buyer was Casey Askar, a businessman who owns a bunch of fast-food franchises. He didn't want the "Club TKO" vibe. He and his wife Shera spent another $3 million ripping out the stripper poles and turning it into a family retreat. They added a pizza oven, a dough mixer, and a cigar lounge.
The mansion is back on the market in 2026
If you’ve got a spare $9.9 million, you might be in luck. As of late 2025 and heading into 2026, the Askars have put the property back up for sale. Their kids are grown, and they just don't need 51,000 square feet of space anymore.
The current version of the home is a bit more "refined" than the Tyson or 50 Cent eras, but it still has the bones of a mega-mansion.
- The Spa: It now has a Bulgari-inspired setup with red-light therapy and a Himalayan salt room.
- The Tech: It’s got a green-screen room for content creation, which is basically a requirement for a house this size today.
- The Grounds: 17 acres, a pond with a fountain, and a helicopter pad.
It’s one of those rare properties that acts as a time capsule for celebrity culture. It moved from the "excess is everything" 80s to the "video soul" 90s, through the "G-Unit" 2000s, and into the modern luxury era.
👉 See also: What Really Happened With the Death of John Candy: A Legacy of Laughter and Heartbreak
What to know if you're looking at "Legacy" real estate
If you're ever in the market for a house with this much history, there are some harsh realities. First, the "celebrity tax" usually works in reverse. You often pay more for the name, but when you go to sell, the pool of buyers who want a 52-room house in Farmington, Connecticut (instead of, say, Greenwich or the Hamptons) is very small.
Also, the specialized rooms—like a recording studio or a shooting range—frequently need to be gutted to make the house sellable to a "normal" wealthy family. 50 Cent learned that the hard way by sitting on the property for over a decade.
If you are planning to invest in a mega-estate:
- Check the zoning: Large estates often have specific rules about what can be turned into a commercial space (like an elder care facility, which was a rumor for this house at one point).
- Audit the HVAC: A 50,000-square-foot house has dozens of cooling units. If one goes, they all start going.
- Appraisal vs. Ego: Just because a celebrity spent $10 million on gold toilets doesn't mean the bank thinks the house is worth $10 million more.
The Mike Tyson house 50 Cent made famous is a lesson in the volatility of trophy real estate. It’s a beautiful, massive, slightly ridiculous piece of history that remains the most talked-about house in Connecticut.
To get a better sense of the current market value for estates of this size, you should look into the recent sales data for Hartford County, as properties of this magnitude often set their own price floors regardless of local averages. Reviewing the historical maintenance logs is also a must if you ever find yourself touring a "celebrity" home of this scale.