The former Ziff family estate on the East Coast of Florida has sold once again. The Palm Beach-area property was acquired by Jim Clark — who co-founded Netscape — last March. Clark paid $94 million for the place, buying it apparently on a whim; he told The Wall Street Journal it was a “spur of the moment purchase.” But he ended up staying in New York, so he passed on the home this month to another tech billionaire: Larry Ellison.
Clark’s purchase last year brought to a close a protracted marketing effort that began in 2015, when the compound appeared for sale with a $200 million asking price. Before Clark came along with his offer, the property had been facing a possible subdivision. The stretch of tropical flora and beachfront in Manalapan measures about sixteen acres. Larry Ellison’s more recent purchase of the estate came at a figure that registers as somewhat nearer to the original 2015 ask: $173 million.
Ellison’s no stranger to this corner of Florida: last year, he shelled out $80 million for a little spread in Palm Beach. But his Sunshine State acquisitions, impressive though they may be, are far from the priciest items in his residential trophy case. Back in 2012, he paid a cool $300 million to acquire 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, which now serves as his home base.
The latest addition to his portfolio, which was titled Gemini and built by William Bernhard Ziff, Jr., is anchored by a main house with 62,000 sq. ft. of interiors and twelve bedrooms. But additional residences on the property bring the accommodations count to 33 bedrooms and around 40 baths; supporting homes on the Gemini estate include Mango House, a seven-bedroom retreat in the jungle, and two cottages with four bedrooms each. An apartment building for the staff required to run the estate is positioned a judicious distance from the lifestyle concerns of the owners and their guests. A media room, libraries, offices, a fitness center, a tennis court, and PGA golf are among the amenities.
Gemini’s beachfront comes in at about 2,500 feet total, with 1,200 feet on the Atlantic side and 1,300 on Lake Worth, where a dock and pier stand ready for boating excursions.
Forbes estimated the Ziff family’s net worth at $15 billion in 2020; their fortune was made in the magazine business.
Clark’s worth is around $3 billion. He and Marc Andreessen developed Netscape, a pioneering 1990s web browser that introduced groundbreaking technology still in use today. His net worth is around $3 billion.
Ellison is co-founder—and CTO—of tech heavyweight Oracle. His net worth is around $94 billion.
