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Billionaire Peter Thiel wins approval for Venetian Islands house plans
6,800 sf waterfront home will have offices, nanny’s quarters and playroom
Billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel won approval for the design of a new house he plans to build on Miami Beach’s Venetian Islands.
Miami Beach’s Design Review Board approved the project at a meeting in February, giving Thiel the OK to build anew on part of his waterfront estate. The tech mogul is splitting up his compound, demolishing one of the houses and replacing it with a modern 6,800-square-foot home, planning documents show. Thiel bought the homes at 441 and 445 East Rivo Alto Drive for $18 million in 2020 from former Ford CEO Jacques Nasser. Since then, Thiel has hosted a number of parties and fundraising bashes for GOP politicians, according to published reports.
Thiel and his co-founders sold PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002 and went on to launch the venture capital firm Founders Fund and data analytics giant Palantir Technologies. He was famously Facebook’s first investor, and has advocated for young adults to forgo college and launch companies with his Thiel Fellowship. He has an estimated net worth of $7.2 billion, according to Forbes.
The aging Venetian Islands compound includes two houses, two pools and 0.6 waterfront acres. The three-bedroom, three-bathroom house at 441 East Rivo Alto Drive was built in 1947, and the 5,500-square-foot house at 445 East Rivo Alto Drive was built in 1956, according to property records. His approved plans show he intends to split the properties and build a new house at 441 East Rivo Alto Drive. The plans do not note his intentions for the adjacent home at 445 East Rivo Alto Drive.
The timing for the construction project is convenient. Thiel, a well-known libertarian who backed Donald Trump in the 2016 election, has declined to fund any politicians in the 2024 race –– so no need for fundraising events.
Thiel’s new house will include two offices, a guest bedroom and bathroom, nanny’s quarters with a service entrance and three bedrooms fronting a playroom, the plans show. He and husband Matt Danzeisen share two daughters, according to published reports.
The house, designed by Leo Marmol and Rod Radziner’s Los Angeles-based firm Marmol Radziner, will also have a redesigned pool and landscaping.
Since Thiel bought his compound in 2020, the Venetian Islands have become a South Florida hub for the so-called “PayPal Mafia” and other Silicon Valley giants. Venture capitalist and PayPal alum Keith Rabois, an early bidder on LinkedIn, Square and Yelp, bought a Venetian Islands mansion for $28.9 million in 2020. Famed WhatsApp investor Jim Goetz bought a pair of adjacent homes for $29.6 million in 2017 and 2019.
This month, the $22.5 million sale of a Venetian Islands house was linked to “PayPal Mafia” member and venture capitalist David Sacks.