City’s most popular address could cost you millions, but you can never live there

It’s arguably one of the most popular addresses when you think of Palm Springs, even though you can only visit it online. Now, its owners are hoping to earn millions by putting it up for sale.

David Castello, who along with his brother Michael are owners of dozens of popular web domains through their Castello Cities Internet Network, said this week he’s hoping they can fetch top dollar by putting the web address “PalmSprings.com” on the market. Michael acquired the domain in 1995, and David relocated to Palm Springs in 1997 to monetize the site.

“From the beginning, I believed that if we owned PalmSprings.com we owned Palm Springs on the internet,” David Castello said Monday. “My intuition proved to be correct. We made millions and had a blast doing it.”

The decision to sell comes as neither brother plans to return to Palm Springs. David resides in Florida, and Michael is a resident of Moorpark.

“Palm Springs is an incredible destination and the people are wonderful,” Castello said. “However, you must maintain a physical presence to properly monetize it.

“I left Palm Springs in 2011 and the site has been on autopilot ever since. Realizing that neither of us has plans to relocate to Palm Springs, the decision was finally made to sell.”

How much could it be worth? While online valuation tools estimate “PalmSprings.com” is worth between $20,000 and $87,000, Castello points to some history in predicting its value is far more than estimated.

The brothers, who sold Whisky.com for $3.1 million in 2014, are confident that websites associated with popular cities will continue to sell at a premium.

“The most successful city site is Vegas.com,” he said. “It generates nearly $40 million a year in revenue, but they knew they had to acquire LasVegas.com or they’d always be vulnerable. They acquired LasVegas.com – for $90 million.”

The site was close to being purchased by a visionary local publisher years ago, Castello said, but the deal never went through. The late Milt Jones, former owner of Palm Springs Life magazine, once approached Castello about acquiring the domain, recognizing its significance.

“Over dinner he said, PalmSprings.com is the brand for Palm Springs and there is no way around it,” Castello recalled. “Unfortunately, we never did a deal and I regret it to this day.”

What could the future hold for the site’s buyer?

“PalmSprings.com is only limited by the vision of whoever acquires it,” said Castello. “We saw it as promoting Palm Springs and we went with that. Someone else may have a different vision. What I can tell you is that, once fully activated, PalmSprings.com is unstoppable.”

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Details: If you’re interested in making an offer on PalmSprings.com, you can contact the broker for the deal at Fred@GeocentricMedia.com.

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