To most folks, spending $10 million on a house seems like an unfathomable extravagance, the kind reserved for lottery winners and nouveau riche celebrities. But in reality, it’s a different kind of group altogether that (generally) buys those homes. Most folks spending eight figures on a property are successful businesspeople who are looking to invest and don’t blink twice at the price — after all, they usually already have three or four other homes that are worth just as much.
Take Amazon gazillionaire Jeff Bezos, who was recently (and briefly) listed as the world’s richest person. Although he lives a relatively frugal lifestyle in comparison to his unfathomable $84+ billion net worth, he still spends like — well, a billionaire.
Astute real estate watchers may recall that almost exactly a decade ago, Mr. & Mrs. Bezos laid out $24,500,000 for a major (and majorly gorgeous) estate located in what is often considered to be the best neighborhood pocket of Beverly Hills. Homes in this area have a decidedly low turnover rate, so it was big news when Mr. Bezos decided to buy his privately situated compound.
Well, Yolanda has heard that Mr. Bezos apparently spends a significant amount of time in LA. And given that his current net worth is nearly 20 times more than what it was back in 2007, Mr. Bezos’s place is apparently no longer private enough for him, or maybe he just needs additional space for more staff and/or security. Or maybe he just wants to expand his compound because he can? Hmmm. In any case, Mr. Bezos just coughed up (through a blind trust) another $12,900,000 for his next-door neighbor’s house.
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The deal was done completely off-market, of course. Unfortunately, that means Yolanda has no listing photos to share with y’all. But we do know that the property spans .49-acres and the existing structure measures a roomy 4,568-square-feet with 4 beds and 6 baths. The house — which is unassuming to the point of being dreary — was originally built in 1956 in a typical mid-century single-story ranch style.
Although the house sits on a knoll above the street, is double-gated for privacy, and sits behind a riotous collection of mis-matched hedges, the whole exterior/yard looks in dire need of editing/updating, at the very least. Yolanda is not sure what plans Mr. Bezos has for the property, but rest assured y’all he will never spend a night in this place. Unless he’s some sort of billionaire masochist. Oh, wait…
Yolanda does not know the full extent of Mr. Bezos’s residential real estate holdings — we’re not VIP enough for that — but we do know he has at least three super-luxe compounds. The first is, of course, the Bezos family’s main residence in swanky Medina, Washington, just outside of Seattle.
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The gated, high-hedged, and heavily fortified spread lies on well over 5 acres of waterfront property along Medina’s super-posh Evergreen Point Road, the very same street where Bill Gates’s world-famous compound is also located.
It would seem that Mr. Bezos has kept a remarkably tight lid on many of the features of his Washington home, but Yolanda can tell it has multiple meandering structures. And thanks to a $28 million building permit that was issued and completed several years back, we know the estate now contains a colossal total of 29,000-square-feet of living space.
Mr. Bezos also keeps a combined three-unit “mansion in the sky” on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, which he purchased way back in 1999 (in a gutted state) from record exec Tommy Mottola for about $7.65 million. Located on Central Park West (on the Upper West Side) in a 1930s Art Deco-style building known as The Century, the high-floor spread weighs in at 10,000-square-feet of living space, which is Goliath-sized for NYC.
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Perhaps the most interesting property in Mr. Bezos’s portfolio, however, is his epic (and historic) compound in Washington D.C. In October 2016, Mr. Bezos steamrolled his way into politics city with the $23,000,000 purchase of the former Textile Museum, which is actually two side-by-side mansions and reportedly the largest residential compound in the city.
Well, the largest other than President Trump’s house, of course.
Image may be NSFW.
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The house y’all see on the left was built back in the day (1915) by a guy named George Hewitt Myers and designed by Jefferson Memorial architect John Russell Pope. Sometime in the 1920s, Mr. Myers made a classic baller-style move and snatched up the even larger mansion immediately next door, which was designed by architect Waddy Butler Wood. Our Mr. Myers needed a place to store his extensive textile collection, you see, and apparently found his own home far too cramped.
Mr. Bezos reportedly plans to combine the 27,000-square-foot compound (no doubt at considerable expense) into one colossal mega-mansion. What better way to show his richie-rich political star neighbors who the real boss is, right?
Some of the surrounding are home to a whole slew of foreign embassies, not to mention the homes of Barack and Michelle Obama and Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
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Most important to Yolanda, however, is the future of the Bezos famiy’s Beverly Hills compound, which now spans 2.52 acres, encompasses more than 16,000-square-feet of living space and cost a whopping $37,400,000. Will the somewhat eccentric tech billionaire turn it into a exclusive shipping facility for Amazon packages heading to the 90210?
We’re sure his neighbors — the closest of whom include Ellen DeGeneres, Casey Wasserman, and Mexican investor Isaac Oberfeld — will appreciate that. Or will they?