Story at a glance
- Mark Zuckerberg spent $17 million to purchase an additional 110 acres to add to his Kauai estate.
- The 110 acres includes the Ka Loko reservoir, which burst in 2006, unloading 400 million gallons of water and killing seven people.
- Zuckerberg’s land purchases on Kauai have continued to ignite controversy over the years, with his estate now totaling roughly 1,500 acres.
Mark Zuckerberg spent $17 million to purchase an additional 110 acres to add to his now 1,500-acre estate in Kauai, Hawaii.
First reported by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the new 110 acres includes the Ka Loko Reservoir. In 2006, the reservoir’s dam broke and unloaded 400 million gallons of water, killing seven people.
Zuckerberg first purchased 750 acres of land for $100 million on Kauai in 2014 before acquiring another 600 acres for $53 million in May. May’s purchase included a public beach and cattle ranch.
Zuckerberg’s land purchases on Kauai have continued to ignite controversy over the years.
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In 2017, hundreds of local Hawaiians who owned interest on small pieces of land within his estate were subject to lawsuits by Zuckerberg’s lawyers.
“This is the face of neocolonialism,” Kapua Sproat, a law professor at the University of Hawaii told the Guardian in 2017. “Even though a forced sale may not physically displace people, it’s the last nail in the coffin of separating us from the land.”
Zuckerberg eventually dropped the lawsuits.
Following Zuckerberg’s latest purchase, his and his wife’s spokesperson, Ben LaBolt, told Business Insider on Monday, “Mark and Priscilla continue to make their home at Ko’olau Ranch,” adding that 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.”
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