Late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s iconic French Riviera villa has been bought by Millennium Management founder Israel Englander, filings show.
The property called Villa Maryland is set in the Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat peninsula in the South of France, the country’s most expensive postal code. The selling price isn’t listed in public documents, but local brokers say the property is worth at least €100 million ($105 million).
Overlooking the sea and surrounded by 10 acres of Roman-style terraced gardens, the 18-bedroom villa measures 2,500 square meters (27,000 square feet) and features a cloister supported by red marble pillars, according to the city’s website. It was built in 1904 at the request of Arthur Wilson, a British friend of Edward VII, and hosted receptions attended by Winston Churchill. When he owned the property, Paul Allen visited the villa during summers from his superyacht Octopus.
After the tech billionaire died in 2018, most proceeds from the sale of his assets have gone to support philanthropic causes linked to the arts, communities and conservation. Last year, the executors of Allen’s estate sold 60 artworks from his collection for a record-breaking $1.5 billion.
The new owner, Englander has a net worth of $11.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He reportedly is expanding the French presence of his hedge fund with new offices. Representatives for Englander didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The sale is set to be one of the largest in real estate this year by a private individual. Tucked between Monaco and Nice and jutting into the Mediterranean Sea, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat has been dubbed the “billionaire’s peninsula” after it attracted royals, Hollywood icons, technology billionaires and Russian oligarchs.
As with other prestigious areas including Cap d’Antibes and Cap Martin, property sales in the peninsula have seen a post-pandemic revival as new clients flock to the pristine Mediterranean coastline. The market, which had over the past two decades attracted Russian and eastern European buyers, had cooled after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The Villa Maryland deal was brokered by Savills, people familiar with the matter said.
— With assistance from Gaspard Sebag.
Update: This story has been revised to avoid the suggestion that all proceeds from sales of the Allen estate have gone to a single philanthropic fund.
