Billionaire hedge funder Ken Griffin’s plans for a long, 11.5-acre waterfront Palm Beach estate received unanimous approval from the town’s architectural commission.
In a city where homes can cover up to 25 percent of their lots, Griffin’s mansion and other structures planned for the Blossom Way assemblage will take up less than 8 percent of the property, according to the Palm Beach Daily News.
The “family-oriented” beach house will include 33,500 square feet of space on the ground floor and a 22,300-square-foot service basement, two swimming pools, a service building, guard house, and 875 feet of beachfront. The single-story house will have floor-to-ceiling windows and be set back nearly 290 feet from South Ocean Boulevard, the newspaper reported.
Like something out of a James Bond film, the mansion’s glass doors and windows as planned could lower electronically into the basement. San Francisco architect Ugo Sapp is designing Griffin’s property, which will be surrounded by dense landscaping and palm trees. Hundreds of trees will be moved and more than a dozen kept in their original spots, according to the Palm Beach Daily News.
In July, Griffin closed on two loans for his Blossom Way properties (20, 30, 40, 50 and 70 Blossom Way) totaling $114 million. He’s paid more than $145 million to collect them over the past four years. And in August, the newspaper reported that Griffin is including the 4-acre property at 1290 South Ocean Boulevard in his plans. That would bring his total to 13.5 acres.
Griffin, who was born in Daytona Beach, is the founder and CEO of Chicago-based Citadel, one of the world’s largest hedge funds with more than $25 billion in assets under management. He’s worth about $7.5 billion. [Palm Beach Daily News] – Katherine Kallergis