Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg
has purchased two massive, adjacent chunks of land on Kauai’s North
Shore in an effort to create a secluded 700-acre sanctuary for his
family, sources have confirmed to Forbes. All told, the
30-year-old billionaire has spent in excess of $100 million to acquire
the land, and he hasn’t even built a house yet.The first acquisition is Pila’a Beach, an isolated, 393-acre parcel with a gorgeous and private white sand beach. Property records show that an entity called Pila’a 400 LLC paid $49.8 million for an 89.2% stake (or about 350 acres) in the property on September 12. Pila’a 400, LLC has an office in Woodbridge, Conn. The property was not officially listed, but was being shopped discreetly as a “pocket listing.”
Zuckerberg’s second acquisition is the adjacent Kahu’aina Plantation, a 357-acre former sugarcane plantation that has been off-and-on-the market for a few years, most recently listed for $70 million. That property features 2,500 feet of oceanfront and a working organic farm. The sale price has not yet been recorded at the county, but local reporter Duane Shimokawa of Pacific Business News pegs it at about $66 million. Sources tell Forbes his reporting is accurate.
Mark Zuckerbert's Kahu'aina Plantation
Mark Zuckerberg paid a reported $66 million for the 357-acre Kahu’aina Plantation, a former sugarcane plantation on Kauai's North Shore, in September 2014. He also purchased 350 adjacent acres at Pila'a Beach for $49.6 million.Though the Facebook billionaire brought an unusually lengthy non-disclosure agreement along on his property shopping trip, the fact that he bought land on Kauai’s North Shore is a well-known secret on the island. Last year, when Zuckerberg dined at burger joint Bubba Burgers he made the local paper’s front page.Zuckerberg purchased Pila’a Beach from Pfleuger Properties, a Hawaii limited partnership belonging to Jim Pfleuger, a retired local Honda dealer. Last year Pfleuger reportedly pled no contest to felony reckless endangerment after seven people were killed in a 2006 collapse of a dam on his property.
The Pila’a Beach property consists of five separate parcels, each which could be developed into private homes. Sources tell Forbes that Zuckerberg plans to build just one home on the parcels. But he will have one neighbor, Denver executive Gary Stewart of Melange International, who purchased the remaining 10.8% interest in the property for $6.04 million under the name Koa Kea International LLC, according to property records. Sources tell Forbes that the billionaire tried to buy Stewart out, but that the oil exec wasn’t interested. Stewart did not respond immediately to Forbes’ inquiry about the property.
But the 30-year-old tech executive is having better luck buying out what a source says are as many as two dozen families who own “kuleanas” on tiny plots of landlocked land within the greater 357 acres that is Kahu’aina Plantation. Kuleanas are basic, even ramshackle huts, many without electricity, which have been passed down through families over generations. They are generally used as rustic weekend or vacation spots. Zuckerberg is said to be paying each family as much as $1 million each for these tiny plots of land, so that his compound can be totally private.
The Kahu’aina Plantation had been approved for up to 80 homes, so Zuckerberg’s buy seems designed to fend off potential neighbors. The seller of the plantation is San Mateo, Calif.-based Falko Partners, which is reportedly owned by a Hawaii landowner named Larry Bowman.
Zuckerberg has a net worth of $32.2 billion at the time of this story.
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