Amazon founder Jeff Bezos adds to an already mind-boggling property portfolio with a hideaway on America’s most exclusive island.
Jeff Bezos just can’t seem to stop spending at the moment. From his brand new $700m yacht, which could be harbouring some dark and bloody secrets, to his new Beverly Hills mansion and seemingly bottomless PT and nutrition expenses, the world’s third-richest man knows how to flex his cash… and yet, that hasn’t stopped him dropping a cool $100 million AUD (~ $68 million USD) on arguably his flashiest home yet.
Boasting a net worth of $163 billion USD, Bezos has splashed out on a lavish mansion on Indian Creek Island, nestled within Florida’s so-called “Billionaire Bunker”, as reported by The New York Post. The purchase comes just a month after Bezos proposed to his new partner, Lauren Sanchez, aboard his aforementioned megayacht, complete with a dazzling diamond engagement ring and star-studded party.
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The new property was purchased in an off-market deal this June. The 9,259-square-foot mansion is seated on a 2.8-acre expanse within an island that boasts its own municipality, mayor, and police force as well as 40 waterfront properties, an 18-hole golf course, and Brazilian teak docks accommodating luxury vessels. Other residents of the island include Tom Brady, Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner.
WATCH: Bezos’ superyacht will have ample room to dock at the new pad.
Built in 1965 and previously owned by Tulia Soucy de Gonzalez Gorrondona — a former hotelier and manager at MTM Star International Corp — the mansion was worth a comparatively paltry $1.4 million at the time of its last sale in 1982, but has since skyrocketed in value to a staggering $68 million USD. Bezos’ penchant for high-value properties is nothing new: he already has a Beverly Hills estate, the largest home in Washington, D.C., a sprawling Hawaiian villa and a 30,000-acre ranch in Texas to his name.
And yet, there’s something uniquely dystopic about this purchase that we can’t quite put our finger on… perhaps it’s the manmade island upon which all of this opulence sits — separating the billionaires from us mere mortals by a physical expanse of water — or the sprawling golf course around which all the properties sit, adding an almost satirically on-the-nose representation of laid-back life of luxury that these people live.
You could call this out as unfair criticism, especially since this isn’t even the most expensive property in Bezos’ massive portfolio, but sometimes it isn’t just the price tag that gives a place its financial or figurative value. Sometimes, place can function as a powerful metaphor, and if this purchase tells us anything, it’s that Bezos is thinking long-term, looking ahead to a life of wedded bliss and potential retirement, far away from the media spotlight.