Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin paid $85 million for oceanfront property in Palm Beach next to his own, with plans to build a massive new home there.
It was the second-highest price in a single real estate transaction in Palm Beach history, behind only Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev’s $95 million purchase of President-elect Donald Trump’s mansion at 515 North County Road in 2008, the Palm Beach Daily News reported.
Griffin bought the 4.18-acre estate at 1290 South Ocean Boulevard from Linda and Paul C. Saville. The estate is located in a corridor called Billionaires Row in the South End area of Palm Beach.
Last summer, Griffin announced his plan to buy the Saville estate, now part of a group of nearby properties that he has assembled for construction of a new home. Demolition of the Saville estate, built in 1991, was approved last year in anticipation of the Griffin acquisition.
Before he bought the Saville estate, Griffin already had acquired four adjacent South End properties on Blossom Way totaling eight acres. He bought the four properties for almost $130 million in 2012.
Griffin plans to build a 55,800-square-foot mansion straddling the boundary between the Saville estate and his Blossom Way properties. His new one-story residence would be 405 feet long, or 105 feet longer than a football field.
The hedge fund manager billionaire owns other property in Miami Beach. In September 2015 he closed on his $60 million purchase of its two penthouse units — which were originally planned to be combined — and put them back on the market a few months later after for a combined $73 million.
Griffin founded Chicago-based hedge fund company Citadel LLC and has a personal net worth of $7.8 billion, according to Forbes. [Palm Beach Daily News] – Mike Seemuth