Paul Tudor Jones is building a sprawling waterfront estate in Florida‘s West Palm Beach, and he plans to incorporate a chunk of public street into his private domain.
The billionaire hedge funder just won approval from the West Palm Beach City Commission to acquire a portion of Essex Court, a slender, dead-end lane in Southend—also known as the Soso neighborhood—for $220,000, Realtor.com reported. And why does he want this bit of blacktop? So he can create a private, gated compound connecting two luxury homes he’s currently building along the Intracoastal Waterway.
The legendary investor, worth more than $8 billion, already owns three contiguous properties he will combine into a single compound. Tax records show he picked up two side-by-side waterfront parcels for nearly $10 million in 2021—one of the lots had a modest house on it, and together they span almost 2.3 acres, and last year he shelled out another $6.4 million for a neighboring property with an existing home sitting on a .43-acre plot. With this latest land grab, Jones now controls roughly 2.7 acres—plenty of space to craft a secluded estate.
The section of Essex Court he’s acquiring is only about 65 feet long and does not provide access to any driveways of neighboring homes, according to the Palm Beach Daily News. His team, led by planner Brian Cheguis of iPlan & Design, made sure the plan passed muster with the city’s Plats and Review Committee, and they even got the fire department’s green light.
“We left 30 feet from the swale back,” Cheguis explained to the publication, adding that the gates will be set back far enough to allow some road access. “It’s really not that big of a deal.”
Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones is buying public street land in West Palm Beach to build his own estate.
Getty Images
However, not everyone is thrilled. Some neighbors are upset about losing part of the public street, fearing it will shrink available parking and make it more difficult for service trucks and emergency vehicles to access and turn around. “This guy has more money than we do, and as a billionaire, he’s probably used to getting everything he wants,” one frustrated resident told the magazine.
Jones owns several impressive properties across the country, including a $30 million mansion in Cambridge, Maryland, and a waterfront estate in Belle Haven, Connecticut. He isn’t the first finance titan to assemble a mega-compound in South Florida, either. Citadel’s Ken Griffin famously spent years piecing together 25 acres of prime ocean-to-lake land, while Kenneth G. Tropin and William P. Lauder have also combined properties to create sprawling estates.
Until recently, this trend was more common in Palm Beach. But as West Palm Beach gains traction as “Wall Street South,” more and more deep-pocketed buyers are looking to put down real estate roots across the Intracoastal. And, with the new wave of ultra-wealthy moving in, the metro area’s $515,000 median home price is likely to increase considerably over the next decade.
Authors
-
Abby Montanez