When Jeff Bezos announced plans to step down as Amazon’s CEO, discussion immediately turned to his legacy and to what degree he revolutionized not only e-commerce but also real estate.
Over the years, Amazon bought out space once occupied by traditional department stores for its offices, started a partnership with Realogy (later suspended due to COVD-19) and acquired over 318 million square feet of real estate across the world for company operations. When the company announced that Amazon would be opening its second headquarters in New York’s Long Island City and later pulled back on the decision amid criticism from local lawmakers, real estate prices fluctuated in tandem with the news.
But along with commercial impact, Bezos has been amassing a massive personal real estate portfolio ever since his company’s stock began soaring in the 1990s. In recent years, Bezos has been among the richest men in the world, competing with Elon Musk and Bill Gates, and often the homes he buys break similar records. Below, a look at Bezos’ massive real estate portfolio:
Most Expensive Sale In LA:
Google Maps
One year ago, Bezos’ purchase of a $165 million Los Angeles mansion shattered records as the most expensive sale in the city to date.
Purchased from Hollywood mogul David Geffen, the sale took place off the market and without an agent. Known as Warner Estate, the property sits on nine acres of land and was designed by original Warner Brothers head Jack Warner in the 1930s. Heavily guarded, it is still a well-known sight to local real estate aficionados.
Medina Home Base:
Medina, Washington | Shutterstock
Bezos’ main home is based in Medina, Washington, a wealthy Seattle enclave also home to billionaires like Bill Gates and Starbucks founder Howard Schultz. The 5.3-acre estate is heavily guarded and not often photographed but records show that it includes a 20,000-square-foot home and an 8,300-square-foot home.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Bezos paid $10 million for the entire lot when Amazon was just starting to take off in 1998.
Texas Ranch:
Since 2004, Bezos has owned a 30,000-acre Figure 2 ranch outside of West Horn, Texas. More than just a place to get away from city life, it serves as the base for Amazon’s space company Blue Origin. The company’s goal is to eventually make space exploration accessible to the masses and it regularly makes headlines for its approach to that goal, such as when it launched its reusable rocket New Shepard in 2015.
All Those New York Apartments:
212 Fifth Avenue
New York City has been on Bezos’ real estate radar for a very long time.
It has been widely reported that, in 1999, Bezos used a limited liability company called Jetima to buy three apartments in the Century building on the Upper West Side for $7.65 million and, in 2012, added another unit in the same building for $5.3 million. A spokesperson for Bezos, however, insisted to Inman on Friday that he does not own any units in the building.
News of Bezos’ return to the city broke most recently when, in 2019, he bought a penthouse and two adjacent units inside historic 212 Fifth Avenue. It was the first real estate purchase Bezos made after announcing his divorce from his wife 0f more than 25 years, MacKenzie Scott.
More Mansions In LA:
Los Angeles | Nick Fox | Getty Images
While endless resources poured into maintaining privacy make it difficult to keep track of all that Bezos has bought and sold over the years, his real estate portfolio includes several LA homes within close range of one another. He first bought a 11,891-square-foot, Spanish-style mansion in Beverly Hills for $24.45 million in 2007 and, in 2017, bought a smaller property right next door for $12.9 million. It is a 4,568-square-foot, four-bedroom home with a swimming pool and half an acre of land.
Presence In The Nation’s Capital:
The Textile Museum
In a city known for tiny properties and sky-high real estate prices, the largest home in Washington is currently also owned by Bezos. He was revealed to be the anonymous buyer of a 27,000-square-foot Georgian-style property for $23 million back in 2017. Located in the wealthy and power player-friendly Kalorama neighbothood (the Obamas also call it home), what once used to be two mansion structures of the Textile Museum were renovated by architect Ankie Barnes into a single, massive private residence.
UPDATE: This article has been updated to clarify, as per a spokesperson, that Bezos does not currently own units in the Century building.