Mark Zuckerberg Expands Kauaʻi Estate With $17M Land Purchase

Mark Zuckerberg has scooped up another 110 acres of land on Kauaʻi, growing his North Shore estate to nearly 1,500 acres, Insider reported Monday.

The $17 million purchase by the tech billionaire and CEO of Facebook parent company Meta, include century-old Ka Loko Reservoir that sparked a deadly flood in 2006, killing seven people, The Honolulu Star Advertiser’s Andrew Gomes first reported.

The reservoir still has not been repaired and is considered high risk, but Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are committed to fulfilling the legal requirements surrounding the reservoir, their spokesperson, Ben LaBolt, told Insider.

This is Zuckerberg’s second and purchase on Kauaʻi this year. According to Insider, he paid $53 million for nearly 600 acres of land on Kauaʻi that included a public beach and a working cattle ranch, adding to 750 acres he purchased nearby in 2014. Zuckerberg has nicknamed his estate Koʻolau Ranch.

“Mark and Priscilla continue to make their home at Koʻolau Ranch,” LaBolt told Insider on Monday. He added the couple has “worked closely with a number of community partners to operate a working ranch, promote conservation, produce sustainable agriculture and protect wildlife and look forward to expanding their efforts to include this additional property.”

However, the couple’s presence on the island has remained controversial since they began putting down roots seven years ago. According to Insider, Zuckerberg first angered neighbors in 2016 after he had a 6-foot wall built around his property with the intention of reducing “highway and road noise.”

One year later, Zuckerberg filed a lawsuit against the families who had legal-ownership claims on parcels of land within his property, saying at the time that he’d filed the suit to “make sure smaller partial owners get paid for their fair share too.

Zuckerberg ultimately dropped the suit, saying he and Chan wanted “to make this right, talk with the community, and find a better approach.” The parcels were eventually auctioned off; three out of four were sold to a bidder who was reportedly backed by Zuckerberg, according to the Insider article Monday.

While Zuckerberg and his family lives in Palo Alto, California, Insider reports that it appears they’ve been spending more time at the island estate over the past two years. In March 2021, the couple gave $4.2 million to a jobs program for residents of Kauaʻi who lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic and recently gave $4.85 million in grants toward affordable housing, Insider reports.