Welcome to What Do They Own?, a new Curbed series where we take someone making headlines and try to figure out how much of the world they own, and by extension, how far they've gone to insulate themselves from the world.
Jeff Greene is a billionaire who made the lion's share of his fortune shorting subprime mortgages ahead of the last recession. Jeff Greene took a private jet to the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, along with his wife, children, and two nannies, and then saw fit to tell Bloomberg that "America's lifestyle expectations are far too high and need to be adjusted so we have less things and a smaller, better existence." Which would be a wonderful suggestion coming from someone who, unlike Jeff Greene, does not own a $195-million palace in Beverly Hills with 23 bathrooms and a rotating dancefloor, two other Los Angeles mansions, a mansion in Palm Beach, a mansion in the Hamptons, and a 145-foot party yacht called Summerwind that once severely damaged a protected coral reef off Belize. (Or perhaps from someone with the wisdom to not, as Jeff Greene did, have convicted rapist Mike Tyson serve as the best man at his million-dollar wedding.) Yes, "a smaller, better existence," shouts Jeff Greene from the rooftops of the following completely bananas mansions:
↑ Greene paid $35 million for Beverly Hills's Palazzo di Amore in 2007, when it was still only partly built (it's unclear who gave it that barfy name). He finished the job and today the property has a 35,000-square-foot main house with 12 bedrooms, a 3,000-bottle wine cellar and tasting room, a separate 10,000-bottle cellar, a kitchen with walk-in fridge, a staff wing, and a Turkish spa; a 15,000-square-foot entertainment center with bowling alley, 50-seat theater, "a dressing room for live stage shows," and a disco/ballroom with "state-of-the-art laser light system and revolving dance floor"; a vineyard that produces 400 to 500 cases a year; a total of 23 bathrooms; a quarter-mile driveway; and, of course, as evidence of the rigid restraint on display here, a rotating dancefloor. He put it up for sale last fall for $195 million.
↑ Today when they're in Los Angeles, Greene and fam mostly stay in this three-story, beachfront Malibu house, which he had built in 2010 (he bought the property for a modest $5.5 million in 2007). And he's surely right that all Americans should learn to live in minuscule spaces like the four-bedroom, 4,110-square-foot house with glass walls and direct ocean access. Greene's over it though—he's been trying to sell for years and the house is now listed at $11.75 million.
↑ In 2009, Greene decided to leave California (perhaps for tax purposes?) and move back to Palm Beach, where he grew up. He paid $24 million for La Bellucia, a 1920 estate with a nine-bedroom, 12,000-square-foot main house designed by Addison Mizner and 234 feet of oceanfront. During an extensive renovation of the house he shacked up with his family in six suites at his own Omphoy Ocean Resort hotel, where he was reportedly totally horrible to the staff and also converted an in-use storage room into "a playroom with a photo booth, juke box and movie theater."
↑ Greene paid $36 million in 2011 for a Hamptons spread called Tyndal Point; it's a 55-acre parcel with 3,000 feat of beachfront, three houses, two carriage houses, and two docks.
↑ Greene bought his bachelor pad in Beverly Hills in 2002 for $1.575 million and has been trying to sell it roughly forever. It recently got a very tasteful renovation, but in the Greene heydays it had five bedrooms, a 1,000-bottle wine cellar, a dance club, a theater, a four-story elevator, and two dog runs. Also possibly an observatory. As we were typing this, it closed a sale for $8.9 million. Look how he's downsizing already!
· Subprime King Asking $195MM For Vomitous Bev Crest Palace [Curbed LA]
· Eccentric Billionaire Got A Better Bargain Than Previously Thought [Curbed Hamptons]
· Credit Default Swaps Can Buy a Lot of Dog Runs on Sunset Plaza [Curbed LA]
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