7:10pm Tuesday 19th August 2008
A SELF-MADE millionaire is putting his luxury lifestyle up for sale - with a price tag of just £25.
Wayne Connell swapped British soil for the Spanish sun 12 years ago to set up his own tourist business, now valued at £4m.
The former entrepreneur is living the ex-pat dream 15 minutes from Benidorm, in a £1m villa complete with pool, Jacuzzi and gym.
Now he is preparing to give it all up in a prize draw, and is selling tickets at £25.
In an unusual bid to beat the credit crunch, he is sidestepping the gloomy housing market by raffling off his villa and business instead.
And to make sure the winner can afford to upkeep the eight-bed mansion, Mr Connell is throwing in his £4m Wild West ranch too.
The restaurant's shows pull in huge crowds of tourists who love the can-can dancers, gunfights, cowboy show and live music.
Mr Connell is planning to give up the business to move to the US to join his sons Liam, 23, and Blaine, 18, who are in the process of buying a property in Orlando.
He hopes to sell 200,000 draw tickets to cover the value of the £5m prize, which also includes his £35,000 Harley Davidson bike.
Developers are desperate to buy him out, to build homes on the land where his ranch stands.
But Mr Connell is determined not to see his beloved business bull-dozed, and would rather give someone else the chance to step into his shoes.
He hopes to make someone else a millionaire by the New Year, when the competition closes.
Mr Connell, 45, originally from Dunston, Gateshead, who lives with wife Suzanne, 45, said: "Friends always say they love the villa.
"So we thought this would be a fun way to make it happen for someone.
"We love the thought of someone having the life-changing opportunity of winning this dream lifestyle. And it gets us out of the hassle of the property market with broken chains and viewings.
"As far as we know, we are the first people to give players an opportunity to win a complete, fully-paid for property and business, with no additional costs whatsoever.
"People who enter competitions for cars or property don't think about the maintenance costs later.
"So that's why we're including an established, successful on-going business in order to give someone the millionaire lifestyle as well as the property."
Mr Connell built up his Spanish success story after nine years running his own haulage firm in Dunston, where his mother Jean, 65, still lives.
The former boxer first enjoyed a taste of life abroad during his six years in the army, serving as a rifleman in Germany, Cyprus, Belize, Northern Ireland and the Falklands.
Mr Connell saved up every penny to move permanently abroad, and in 2000 opened the ranch and restaurant 500m from his villa. The 10,000sq ranch featured in an ITV documentary four years ago.
Now his children love life abroad too, with sons Liam, 23, Blaine, 18, Hahley, 17, Shea, 11, and daughter Scarlett, nine, having all learnt Spanish by attending an International school, where they have also picked up Portuguese, Italian and a bit of French.
The ranch has enjoyed visits from celebrities including boxing legend Joe Calzaghe, who was visiting Benidorm last week for a boxing show, and banned sprinter Dwain Chambers, who enjoyed a show while trying to escape the Olympics hype.
Mr Connell would prefer to pass his £4m empire on to a Geordie, but the competition is being advertised nationwide to make sure he sells the 200,000 tickets needed to cover the cost.
Mr Connell said: "We know how lucky we were finding the right properties and also getting the chance to build a very successful business.
"Not everybody gets this chance in life - we have made it and we would like to give someone else the same opportunity.
"We would be happy for the winner to continue working our tourist attraction so that all our hard work did not go to waste, however the lucky winner is at liberty to sell it on if they prefer to sit back and relax," he said.
To enter the draw, log on to www.newyearmillionaire.com before January 5, 2009.
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