Billionaire Ken Griffin has added 4 acres to his already-sizable Billionaires Row estate by buying a neighboring oceanfront property for a jaw-dropping $85 million, the price recorded today with the deed.
The price ranks the sale as Palm Beach’s second-highest-dollar single real estate transaction ever. It trails only a deal in 2008 whenPresident-elect Donald Trump sold for a recorded $95 million a renovated mansion at 515 N. County Road.
Griffin’s off-market purchase of Linda and Paul C. Saville’s estate at1290 S. Ocean Blvd on Billionaires Rowhad been waiting in the wings since last summer. With the purchase of the property to the south, Griffin now owns more than 12 acres of contiguous land with about 871 feet of oceanfront, ranking his estate among the largest in Palm Beach. In all, he has paid $229.85 million for his South End property.
> More Palm Beach Real Estate news
The 1991 house already has been approved for demolition in anticipation ofthe 465-foot-long house Griffin plans to build with a new driveway onto South Ocean Boulevard.
The Bermuda Georgian-style house that just sold with 4.18 acres was owned by a trust and homesteaded in Linda Saville’s name in the latest tax rolls. Her husband is president and CEO ofReston, Va.-based NVR Inc., which has homebuilding and mortgage-banking divisions.
Broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates, who has represented Griffin in all of his Palm Beachpurchases, handled the negotiations, his office confirmed. Moens, who couldn’t be reached, also represented Trump in his 2008 record-setter.
Griffin founded Citadel Inc., the Chicago-based hedge fund, and has a net worth of $7.8 billion, according to estimates byForbes.com. Before this week’s purchase, he had spent $144.85 million on 9.29 acres of land on Blossom Way, midway between Widener’s Curve and the Southern Boulevard traffic circle.
Griffin bought the Savilles’ estate using a Delaware limited liability company named Blossom Way Holdings, according to the deed recorded by thePalm Beach County Clerk’s office.
Longer than a football field
Griffin already owned four contiguous lots on Blossom Way totaling nearly 8 acres, along with a 1.5-acre non-adjacent property on the same street. With the addition of the former Saville property, Griffin’s total land measures about 13.5 acres. The Saville estate added 290 feet of beachfront.
News of the impending sale of the Saville house broke over the summer when Griffin announced plans for his property, which he began assembling about four years ago.
Griffin will use the Saville estate to help accommodate the long-and-lean house that San Francisco-based architect Ugo Sap has designed for him. In August, theArchitectural Commission unanimously approved plans for the one-story residence, which will stretch 105 feet longer than a football field. Palm Beach architect Jeffery Smith is the architect of record.
>PHOTOS: Ken Griffin's seaside house plan
With 55,800 square feet, including a 22,300-square-foot service basem*nt,the house will straddle the property linebetween his Blossom Way holdings and the former Saville property. In all, the residence will occupy just 8 percent of Griffin’s total contiguous land.
Griffinbought the bulk of his land in late December 2012, paying nearly $130 million for four adjacent lots in the Blossom Estate subdivision. That deal, which included three houses and a vacant lot, was privately brokered by Moens. Griffin paid another $15.25 million for the non-contiguous guest house at 70 Blossom Way in July 2015.
Demolition planned
In August, the Savilles’ trust joined Griffin’s ownership company as “co-applicants” of a request to raze the house Griffin just bought. The Architectural Commission unanimously granted approval to demolish the 21,350-square-foot house.
The Savillespaid a recorded $32 million for their property in 2005 and carried out a major renovation. The county property appraiser had assigned the property a “total market value” of $56.18 million in the latest tax rolls
One of Griffin’s architects told theArchitectural Commission the design team’s goal was to create for their client an understated, family-oriented beach house in a natural setting reminiscent of an unspoiled Tahitian landscape. With large expanses of glass, the house will be clad in yellow limestone.
Plans call for two swimming pools, a service building and a guard house. The house will be set 287 feet from South Ocean Boulevard with a broad lawn stretching between the beachfront and the house.
In late June, Griffin’s ownership company took out two 30-year mortgages on the estate — totaling $114 million — with lender JPMorgan Chase. The larger of those was a $101.25 million mortgage with language stipulating that construction on the new house would begin “on or around March 2017.”
Griffin’s total South End land holdings exceed the size of Nelson and Claudia Peltz’s 13.07-acre estate, Montsorrel, on the North End.
A spokesman for Griffin declined to comment. The Savilles couldn’t be reached.
Trump’s record-setter
In a deal that set a nationwide record at the time, Trump sold his mansion on North County Road to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who was represented by Carol Digges of Brown Harris Stevens. The mansion was razed last year and the estate subdivided, with one lot sold in November for a recorded $34.34 million in a deal also brokered by Moens.
On the heels of the Saville-Griffin transaction was the 2008 sale of philanthropist Sidney Kimmel’s house at 1236 S. Ocean Blvd., recorded at $77.5 million. Corcoran Group agents Paulette Koch and Dana Koch were the listing agents in that deal, and the buyers, Margaret and John Thornton, were represented by Cristina Condon of Sotheby’s International Realty.
