Ken Griffin Makes Another Major Real Estate Play. This Time in St Tropez.

Time：2024-08-01 Click：

The billionaire hedge funder spent more than $90 million on a roughly 2-acre French waterfront estate
BY KATHERINE CLARKE AND
BY E.B. SOLOMONT
 | ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JULY 26, 2024 | THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The property has at least four structures.
PHOTO: WOLFGANG KUHN/UNITED ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
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Billionaire hedge fund giant Ken Griffin is known for purchasing some of the world’s most expensive homes and assembling properties to form sprawling private compounds for himself and his family.
Griffin’s latest target: St. Tropez, where the financier recently purchased a lavish roughly 2-acre waterfront estate with at least four structures for more than $90 million, according to a person familiar with the situation. The deal, which hasn’t previously been reported, closed in late June, according to that person.
The estate is on Tahiti Beach, at the northern end of St. Tropez’s Pampelonne Beach. It was previously owned by celebrity photographer Gunter Sachs, who died in 2011.
PHOTOS: WOLFGANG KUHN/UNITED ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
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The property is in a small enclave with just a handful of homes. It is unclear if Griffin plans to make offers on any of the other homes there. Griffin’s plans for the properties weren’t immediately clear. He declined to comment.
The main property, known as Domaine de la Capilla, was previously owned by celebrity photographer and heir to an industrial fortune Gunter Sachs, perhaps best known as the onetime husband of actress Brigitte Bardot. Sachs died in 2011 and the sale was handled by his sons, Rolf Sachs and Christian Gunnar Sachs. The Sachses couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Sachs was once married to actress Brigitte Bardot. They are pictured around 1966.
REPORTERS ASSOCIES/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images
The property is on Tahiti Beach, at the northern end of St. Tropez’s Pampelonne Beach. The area has long attracted the rich and famous, who are seduced by the glitz and glamour of the French Riviera, with its beaches, picturesque coastline, nightlife and yachting. Bardot’s iconic role in the 1956 film “And God Created Woman” helped cement the town’s appeal to a global audience. 
Griffin is a prolific home collector.
Zak Bennett/Bloomberg News
Griffin’s deal is among the most expensive ever sold in St. Tropez, which has been experiencing a luxury real-estate boom over the past few years thanks to a resurgence of international buyers, including from the U.S. Prices of homes valued at over $16 million along the southeastern coast of France rose between 15% and 20% in the five years through 2023, according to brokerage Beauchamp Estates.
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For Griffin, the French Riviera deal is the latest in a long string of real-estate purchases over the past few years. His portfolio includes a $122 million mansion in London near Buckingham Palace and a roughly $240 million apartment in New York. 
In South Florida, Griffin has spent hundreds of millions putting together massive estates on both Star Island in Miami and in Palm Beach.
Corrections & Amplifications
Ken Griffin was not the purchaser of a $165 million home in Los Angeles. A previous version of this story said the home was a part of his portfolio. (Corrected on July 25.)