Maison de L’Amitié in Palm Beach, Florida. Photo: Sensation White Amsterdam
Monaco resident and majority owner of the AS Monaco football club, Dmitri Rybolovlev, is demolishing the Palm Beach, Florida, mansion he bought from Donald Trump in 2008 for $95 million, according to local press reports.
Backhoe loaders and dump trucks have started crushing and carting away the 5,736 square metre French provincial home on the 2.4-hectare beachfront estate known as Maison de l’Amitié.
Also coming down is 7,618 square metre tennis house, a pool house and a carriage house. While such teardowns have become common in Palm Beach and other high-end resort towns, the demolition of this famous estate represents a new level of disposable wealth, Stuff reports.
Bought by Trump in 2004 for $41 million, the residence has featured as one of the top ten most expensive homes in the world. It has sat empty since the sale to Rybolovlev – a monument to the housing bubble and to Trump’s salesmanship.
Locals are asking what will come next for one of Palm Beach’s biggest white elephants, and whether its value can ever reach its 2008 record price.
According to town planning documents, the owner plans to split the property into three parcels that will be sold. Last week, the Palm Beach Town Council approved a proposal to subdivide the property. It’s unclear when the properties will be listed. Brokers say each parcel, at around two acres, would have to sell for $35 million to $40 million for the owner to make a profit.
Trump put the home on the market in 2006 for $125 million, making it the most expensive listing in America at the time. When no buyers emerged and Trump replaced several brokers, he trimmed the price to $120 million, eventually selling to the current owner. (Source: Stuff)
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BUSINESS/BANKING: Boutique firm CMB Wealth Management has put on hold its expansion plans because of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.
CMB Wealth was launched last year as the UK arm of Monaco-based private bank, CMB, which is a subsidiary of Italy’s Mediobanca. Former Coutts investment director Julian Soper was hired as UK managing director to oversee the business’s growth.
With a core client base in France, Italy and Germany, Mediobanca had partly chosen the UK so it could use its presence in London as a base to passport services into Europe, according to citywide.co.uk.
Additionally CMB Wealth, which uses the investment expertise and teams in Mediobanca, had been planning to build a fund selection team in the UK, but this has now been put on the back burner.
“Inevitably some decisions will be delayed by uncertainty,” said Soper. “There was always the idea we could use our place in London to passport into France and Germany. We will probably lose that passportng right. However, it was not integral to the strategy.
“Plans to develop a fund selection team are being delayed by all of this. Is London in the long-term the right place to build this?”
However, Soper stressed that CMB Wealth’s core business strategy remains intact and that the firm will continue to operate in the UK.
Since its launch, the firm has been on an expansion drive which saw two transfers from the bank’s Monaco office, and three hires from Credit Suisse, SG Hambros and asset manager Lepercq, de Neuflize & Co.
“It does not change things dramatically,” said Soper who does not believe that it will take two years to determine the UK’s new relationship with the EU.
“Our base is in Monaco, which is a microstate, which is not in the EU, so there is a lack of disruption there. Our plan was always to target resident non-doms. Will there be fewer resident non-doms? Possibly but we are not too concerned.”
Monaco is now home to a new Space Affairs Office, a single point of contact for all things space related. It is also a hub for companies in the industry to base themselves in the Principality.
