Israel Englander, who made his fortune at the Millennium Management hedge fund, buys the iconic French villa of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
The Villa Maryland house is located in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat in the south of France. That peninsula is located between Monaco and Nice and is considered the most expensive place in France. Because it attracted numerous royals, movie stars, tech magnates and Russian oligarchs, it is sometimes called the billionaires’ peninsula.
Those tech magnates also included the late Paul Allen. The Microsoft co-founder bought the 2,500 square meter villa built in 1904 with 18 bedrooms and a 4-hectare garden. He often visited them in the summer by sailing there on his superyacht Octopus.
The villa will now be in the hands of Israel Englander, according to documents that the Bloomberg news agency was able to consult. The sales price is not stated there, but according to local real estate agents it is at least 100 million euros. That money will flow to charity, according to Allen’s will.
It is one of the most expensive private real estate purchases this year. Such deals are rather rare in the real estate sector. Englander has an estimated net worth of $11.4 billion, according to Bloomberg. He made his fortune at the Millennium Management hedge fund. The transaction becomes known now that several media are reporting an impending strategic partnership between Millennium Management and its sector peer Schonfeld Strategic Advisors.