Auction Set For Muhammad Ali's Onetime Cherry Hill, New Jersey Home
By Mike DeNardo
CHERRY HILL, N.J. (CBS) -- Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali's former house in Cherry Hill, New Jersey is going up for auction next weekend.
"This is the only half-bath in the house -- there are five other baths," says real estate agent Patricia Friedrichs as she shows a visitor around the five-bedroom, 5½-bath Tuscan villa owned by the boxing legend from 1971 to 1974.
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Tony Micale, who owns and operates McDonald's restaurants, has owned it since then.
"The house drew over the years, tremendous attention," he tells KYW Newsradio. "It really did because of Muhammad Ali and his impact on the world, really."
Micale added tennis courts, a glass-enclosed hot tub room, and a catering kitchen to the property. He says Ali visited once.
"He came into the house and he was just blown away by what I had done to the house. And he said he was just amazed at what (I've) done here, you know?"
The house, going up for auction on September 8th, is listed for $1,999,000. Micale says if the mystique of being Ali's former house adds to the selling price, so much the better.
