Meet Henry T. Nicholas III. He made a killing when the company he formed with a friend -- Broadcom -- went public, in 1998. He cashed in, and it netted him over a billion dollars.

A billion bucks is not a bad lump of a cash -- but what to spend it on? You can only have so many yachts, Lamborghinis, islands, and gold-plated iPods before you get bored. So Henry T. Nicholas III decided on a plan, and thought it was 'high' time he brought his partying up a notch. Making good use of his keen business acumen, Mr. Nicholas (III) invested money into copious amounts of cocaine, veritable mountains of ecstasy, a continuously restocked treasure-chest full of prostitutes, and ludicrously amazing stereo equipment. Using powers of logical thought processes, Henry figured he needed a suitable location for all of these investments -- so, it seemed like a good idea to build a semi-secret, underground, unqualifiedly debaucherous mega-party grotto -- right underneath his house.  

A mega-party grotto is one way to spice up your life. Perhaps taking inspiration from the Batcave, Nicholas had hidden doors, mysterious levers, and secret tunnels built to connect him to his lair. Making use of his acute business-sense and "maniac obsession for prostitutes", he had the prototype of his party-lair built close by, in a warehouse. Some people referred to this place as his "personal brothel." One unhappy time, his wife caught him involved with in the middle of a fluid-exchange service transaction with a prostitute. Usually, however, Mr. Nicholas kept things a bit more under wraps: he had his party-lair finished up while he was in wife was in Hawaii.    

This ultimate venue of subterranean terror went by the name of the "Pond", or "Ponderosa." According to one source, the place was "infamous for its excessive extravagance  [. . .] sex rooms [and] million-dollar sound equipment." Exploring levels of convenience that can only be bought by millions of dollars, Mr. Nicholas often had guests flown in by private helicopter. He rented the pad off of a nearby hospital. Using logic, one can presume that the hospital had no better use for their helipad.

Shuttled to his purported party-palace, Mr. Nicholas was a generous -- if not an arguably indulgent -- host, and on hand for his guests, he often had "cocaine, Ecstasy, methamphetamines, marijuana, mushrooms, and nitrous oxide [laughing gas]" kicking around his place. To keep things organized, Mr. Nicholas appointed a personal assistant -- a certain Kenji Kato -- as caretaker and overseer of his various illicit consumables.    

Mr. Nicholas' underground vortex of inebriation also featured a bar. It was known as "Nick's Cafe", and was about 2,000 square feet.

In 2000, Nicholas told news journalists that his newly built underground construction project was "a pump house." The $30 million dollar subterranean building was nothing more than a way to deal with bothersome water runoff from local horse trails, he claimed.