Who owns Hawaii?
In the island paradise of 1.4 million people, 37 billionaires control 11% of privately owned land
Original of this material
© Forbes USA02/18/2024, Translation via deepl.com
Phoebe Liu (Phoebe Liu) Monica Hunter-Hart (Monica Hunter-Hart)
A year ago, Oprah Winfrey purchased 850 acres of land on Maui for $6.4 million, adding to the 1,280 acres she already owned on the island. Her property (mostly contiguous) stretches across green hills into a forest reserve on the slopes of the Haleakala volcano. Cattle graze on the undeveloped land she is trying to preserve. “It’s like Scotland, but with really nice weather,” says her fitness trainer-turned-property manager Bob Green.
Winfrey, who lives in Hawaii about four months a year, first bought a ranch on Maui two decades ago. Her property was unscathed when wildfires ripped through Maui last August, incinerating 6,625 acres and killing 100 people. After that, she brought pillows, diapers and other items for victims and, along with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, founded the Maui People’s Fund, to which Winfrey personally contributed $25 million.
But a pandemic-era luxury real estate boom that has driven up home prices has heightened tensions between Hawaiians and wealthy out-of-state landowners, leading to the passage last week of a controversial bill that would ban non-Americans from buying land in Hawaii. Despite trying to help after the fires, Winfrey was criticized for filming her relief efforts and asking the public for money – something she said took attention away from Maui. Others wondered what happened to the $100 million that Jeff Bezos, who owns a 14-acre estate 12 miles south of the fires, and his partner Lauren Sanchez pledged to help. A company spokesperson told Forbes that Bezos has so far given $15.5 million to nine charities.
America’s richest people have been buying property in Hawaii for years, but no one knew just how extensive their holdings were. To find out, Forbes spent months reviewing thousands of real estate records on Hawaii’s six largest islands. The results were astonishing: just 37 billionaires own at least 218,000 acres of land. That’s 5.3% of all state land and 11.1% of all non-state land, although the figure is likely even higher given the lengths billionaires go to to hide their ownership. To put it another way: These 37 people, representing just 0.003% of Hawaii’s total population of 1.4 million, own 11% of the state’s private land.
Some billionaires have long been associated with society. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who first visited Hawaii in 1974, has given $100 million over two decades to causes across the state and in December, along with his wife Lynn, donated 282 acres of land for affordable housing. “I feel a strong spiritual connection to Hawaii,” says Benioff, who has worked to infuse the Hawaiian concept of ohana, or family, into Salesforce’s culture. I have a deep understanding of the people and the spirit of Hawaii, what we call the ‘aloha spirit.’
Others, such as Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, which is rumored to be building a bunker in its partially walled-off compound, appears to be more concerned about its privacy. Real estate broker Rob Kildow, who says he rides his bike with billionaire Ken Griffin of Citadel, remembers one billionaire living at the private resort of Hualalai telling him: “Half the people here don’t know who I am, and the other half don’t care.” “.
Wayne Tanaka, director of the environmental nonprofit Sierra Club of Hawaii, tries to offer hope: “If wealthy residents can overcome their tendency to isolate and begin to connect with the people around them, it can open doors and windows to making a real contribution to the development of this place.” “. In the meantime, he admits, “more and more Hawaii is becoming a playground for the rich.”
Top 10 Billionaire Landowners in Hawaii
Larry Ellison
87,810 acres
Net worth: $140.2 billion
Source of Wealth: Oracle
Hawaii’s largest billionaire landowner and Oracle co-founder bought about 97% of the island of Lanai for $300 million in 2012, immediately making him master of nearly all of the 3,000 residents, many of whom are his employees. Since then, he has decorated Lanai with a luxury Sensei resort, a Four Seasons-branded wellness center, fine restaurants and a sculpture collection, but there is little affordable housing, locals complain.
Steve Case
57,400 acres
Net worth: $1.5 billion
Source of Wealth: AOL
The AOL co-founder was born and raised in Hawaii, where he attended the same school as Barack Obama. Case is now the state’s second-largest billionaire landowner with 57,400 acres, including the 35,170-acre Grove Farm on Kauai, which leases land for sustainable development projects.
Kwek Leng Chan
55,490 acres
Net worth: $9.9 billion
Source of wealth: banks, real estate
The Malaysian tycoon owns a third of the island of Molokai, once known for its leper colony, through his conglomerate Hong Leong Group. Quek operated a huge ranch there, including a golf course and hotel, until 2008, but ceased operations after the state rejected his development proposals. Now the island’s residents are trying to buy it back.
Frank Vandersloot
6,550 acres
Net worth: $3.3 billion
Source of wealth: health products
The billionaire founder of health and wellness company Melaleuca owns the historic 105-acre Valley House estate on Kauai, where the Pirates of the Caribbean and Jurassic Park films were filmed. An advocate for localizing Hawaiian beef, he owns two of the state’s largest meat processing plants and is suing a former ranch manager for allegedly stealing 200 cows. “The pineapple is gone. The sugar cane is gone. The only thing left now is the cattle.”
Neil Bloom
3,900 acres
Net worth: $6.3 billion
Source of wealth: real estate
Blum owns 3,000-plus acres of land through his roughly 30 percent stake in publicly traded land management company Kaanapali Land. These lands include coffee estates, mixed-use residential properties, golf courses and conservation areas.
Brad Kelly
2,750 acres
Net worth: $2.7 billion
Source of wealth: tobacco
Kelly owns more than 1 million acres of land throughout the United States and is one of the country’s largest landowners. In 2013, the former cigarette entrepreneur expanded his holdings to Hawaii, purchasing 2,750 acres from Steve Case’s Grove Farm. Now he leases some of them to American Tower, a company that specializes in cell phone towers.
Oprah Winfrey
2,130 acres
Net worth: $2.8 billion
Source of wealth: TV show
The rolling pastures of Winfrey, Hawaii, feature ancient stone walls, grazing cattle, an inn for entertaining friends, and an (unprofitable) organic farm. Committed to preserving the land, she intends to keep it empty and plant native species to help restore the lost watershed.
Mark Zuckerberg
1,450 acres
Net worth: $166 billion
Source of wealth: Facebook
Meta’s co-founder has spent at least $145 million on the land, which he is transforming into a sprawling 1,450-acre, partially walled, Kauai estate. He raises beer-fed Wagyu and Angus cattle on the land and involves his daughters in the process, according to a January Instagram post in which he shared a photo of a giant steak and noted that “out of all my projects, this one is the tastiest.”
Tadashi Yanai
500 acres
Net worth: $40.1 billion
Source of Wealth: Clothing Retail
Marc Benioff
300 acres
Net worth: $10.2 billion
Source of Wealth: Business Software
Benioff’s bulk of Hawaii land is 160 acres of mostly vacant land that he and his wife Lynn bought in 2022. The couple intends to use it for charitable purposes. One option is to donate it to the Hawaii Community Development Corporation in addition to the 282 acres they have already given to the group. In addition, Benioff has owned his own home in Hawaii for two decades, as well as several houses in which members of his family live, he told Forbes.