More than 30 of the world’s billionaires call Palm Beach home, some of whom made their wealth – and spent it – in real estate.
And while the majority of the Palm Beach’s billionaires saw their fortunes grow, a select few saw them shrink, including President Donald Trump (net worth: $3.5 billion), developer Stephen Ross (net worth: $7.4 billion) and Russian investor Dmitry Rybolovlev ($7.3 billion), according to the latest Forbes list of billionaires released on Monday, as reported by the Palm Beach Daily News.
Trump, who frequents his Mar-a-Lago estate on the weekends, saw his net worth fall by $1 billion, from 324th place in 2016 to 544th place this year. Ross, chairman and CEO of the Related Companies and owner of the Miami Dolphins, is about $400 million poorer since last year, according to Forbes. And Rybolovlev made real estate headlines twice, when he purchased Trump’s former Palm Beach estate or $95 million in 2008 and then when he moved to divide and flip those properties for more than $30 million apiece last year.
Other Miami-Dade and Broward real estate billionaires on the 2017 Forbes ranking include real estate developer Igor Olenicoff at No. 501, pharmaceuticals mogul Phillip Frost at No. 522, developer Jorge Perez at No. 717, investor H. Wayne Huizenga at No. 745, investor and car dealer Norman Braman at #1,234.
Additional prominent Palm Beach residents on the list include:
- Industrialist David Koch in eighth place with $48.3 billion
- Investor Carl Icahn in 55th place with $16.6 billion
- Private equity titan Stephen Schwarzman in 112th place with $11.8 billion
- Hedge fund manager Ken Griffin tied in 166th place with $8 billion (Griffin is building a sprawling beachfront compound in Palm Beach.)
- Hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones II tied in 348th place with $4.7 billion
- Real estate investor Jeff Greene tied in 564th place with $3.4 billion
- Investor George Lindemann tied in 564th place with $3.4 billion
- Real estate asset manager Jane Goldman tied in 660th place with $3 billion
- Investor Wilbur Ross Jr. tied in 814th place with $2.5 billion
- Casino and hotel developer Steve Wynn tied in 814th place with $2.5 billion
- Investor C. Dean Metropolous tied in 867th place with $2.4 billion
- Netscape founder and investor James Clark tied in 1,030th place with $2 billion
[Palm Beach Daily News] – Katherine Kallergis