It seemed like an insane gamble: Spend millions upon millions of your personal fortune to build a house that’s so off-the-charts indulgent – $200,000 “candy wall,” $1 million-plus security system, quarter-million-dollar sculptures (plural) – that the Los Angeles Times won’t feel too hyperbolic declaring it “L.A.’s most extreme home.”
Then charge $85 million (£57m) for it and let the market have its way.
That the market certainly did. The 23,000-square-foot Beverly Hills gargantumansion notoriously sold a year ago for $70 million (£47m) — cash — to Minecraft founder Markus “Notch” Persson, a Swede who sold his Mojang game company to Microsoft and crossed into the billionaire club. Notch reportedly outbid Beyonce and Jay-Z.
Yahoo Real Estate spoke at length with Bruce Makowsky, the ultra-rich man who put a sizable chunk of his personal money and reputation on the line to build the spec house.
And we have to say, the way Makowsky explained his venture, we started to see his logic (though we wouldn’t have gambled our millions … lesson one, perhaps, in why we still don’t have any).
But first you had to think like a billionaire.
The property occupies just shy of an acre in Beverly Hills’ Trousdale Estates.
More Money Than Time
Makowsky had no problem thinking like a billionaire. He wasn’t one, but he wasn’t far off, members of his team told Yahoo Real Estate. He made his fortune in handbags and other women’s accessories, which you might have seen everywhere from QVC to Bloomingdale’s.
“I have a big mega-yacht and toys and planes,” Makowsky told us. “I kind of understand what very wealthy people want.”
Take yachts. (Bear with us, because this circles back to his real estate thinking.) He sat in the Beverly Hills gargantumansion with a prospective buyer who had a mutual interest in boats – who had, in fact, ordered up a 300-footer, at a cost of about $200 million (£136m). Makowsky asked how often the visitor sailed. About eight weeks a year, the visitor replied. The operating costs on that yacht were about $8 million (£5m) a year, or a million for each week of use.
Admittedly, we’re not sailors, but that seems mind-boggling: a boat that’s about twice as expensive as the most expensive mansion ever sold in America (and a mansion comes with land!).
What is so special about a $200 million yacht? we asked Makowsky.
He said that, in a nutshell, “every detail inside that boat is spectacular.” Every single detail. You don’t spend a couple hundred million on a yacht, hire a world-class chef and then tell a guest who wants pizza that you’re out of pepperoni, he said. On a billionaire’s yacht, you can’t ever be out of pepperoni; your fridge had better be big, and it’d better be stocked with every staple imaginable, plus some ingredients you’d barely dream of.
We’ll be honest. We weren’t entirely convinced that 24-hour personal pizzas equal $200 million of special. So he cited too the punishing saltwater, the unremitting barrage of ocean waves, the systems and craftsmanship required to keep the boat afloat.
As he spoke, though, it dawned on us that maybe the truth is something he can’t say out loud, at least not to a non-billionaire: Maybe yachts aren’t exactly $200 million worth of special, but to a billionaire, does that really matter?
“A lot of the wealthy people have more money than time,” he said, and “wealthy people are getting wealthier.”
There’s a backlog for mega-yachts that’s “incredible right now,” Makowsky told us. “I have a big boat – and I take it down to St. Bart’s and I’m the smallest boat in the marina.”
The Lure of the New
So you’re a billionaire, and you’ve spent $200 million on a yacht and $100 million on a jet and maybe a few million on your car collection. By now you may be making money almost faster than you can spend it: At a measly 1 percent interest, a billion dollars would generate $10 million a year.
Your real estate agent, meanwhile, keeps showing you houses that are $20 million, $30 million, maybe $50 million. They don’t knock your Cervelt socks off. Compared to the kind of money you’ve been spending, they might even seem a little, well, piddling.
And while 10,000 square feet may have been considered a big house a decade ago, that attitude has changed among the super-rich, who now demand “super-large,” Makowsky said. The mansion he built is more than twice that size.
There are “a lot of nice homes” out there, “but they’re tired,” he said. “Nothing brand-new.”
Is newness that important to the ultra-wealthy? we asked.
“They want to feel like they’re the first person in that house. … They want to feel like it’s theirs,” he said. That’s why, he said, he didn’t hold any open houses, or even one of the parties that’s become more common for high-end L.A. real estate. He wanted to preserve its untouchability.
Makowsky was emphatic. “People. Want. New.”
The natural conclusion might seem that they should build their own dream house, tailored to their tastes and desires. But remember to think like a billionaire who has more money than time. (And remember, too, that billionaires might easily own a dozen ultra-luxury properties at once; that’s how many homes most Americans have in a lifetime. As ultra-high-end developer Nile Niami says: “Nobody buys a 100,000-square-foot house as their principal residence to use every day.”)
They’d have to scout out the perfect lot – and in Los Angeles, promontories with downtown-to-ocean views are so coveted that a nearby family reportedly refused an offer of $75 million for their house, which developers intended to bulldoze. Then they’d have to get all the necessary local permissions and build the place. It takes “four to six years to do what we did here,” Makowsky said.
Not only that, they’d have to devote time and attention to all the hundreds of details that accumulate as luxury. On a yacht, luxury is made up of sea-hardiness, of masterful design in deceptively limited space, of laid-in pizza supplies. At the mansion Makowsky built, it’s mirrors placed so that wherever you are in the master bath, you can see downtown Los Angeles behind you, right down to the mirror backing within the medicine cabinet; it’s the drawers you open to discover they’re lined with crocodile; it’s “the most beautiful hangers” dangling in the closet.
Makowsky’s idea, in other words, was to “bring mega-yachts to land,” packaged up and ready to go, right down to the administrative staffing.
Which was an interesting proposition, because if billionaires were willing to spend $200 million plus $8 million a year on a boat they rarely used, what would their limit be for the right house?
‘The Air Is Absolutely Thin Up There’
The particular audacity of Makowsky’s venture is that the spec house Notch bought represented only Phase 1. Two more estates were in the works, and he said they’d be even more expensive. “I want to be like the Four Seasons of residential building,” he told us.
We think it’d take nerves of steel to build one spec house priced so high. How many billionaire prospects could there be?
“The air is absolutely thin up there,” he acknowledges, but he says 4,000 people worldwide are worth at least $500 million. Forbes counts a record 1,645 billionaires on the planet.
Meanwhile, brand-new, ultra-high-end houses like his are scarce. “Other than Donald Trump building something down in Palm Beach, this is the second-highest[-cost] spec house ever built in the United States.” We checked with Zillow, and only about 30 homes nationwide are publicly listed at more than $50 million. Just seven of them are asking $75 million or more. (Important caveat: This doesn’t include so-called “pocket” or “whisper” listings, or any other kind of off-market listing.)
The PC/Mac version of Mojang’s sandbox game Minecraft has now sold 22 million copies, according to the sales ticker on the title’s official website. In the last 24 hours, almost 14,500 copies of the hugely popular game were sold. The game passed 22 million over the recent holiday weekend, according to IGN.
PC was Minecraft’s first platform, but the game has since spread to PlayStation and Xbox consoles, as well as mobile devices. That is to say, sales of Minecraft on PC/Mac represent just a portion of the game’s overall success. The game is regularly a top-performer on consoles, while App Annie’s charts show that the iOS and Android versions of Minecraft are also at the top for their respective platforms.
Just today, Microsoft announced that Minecraft is the highest-grossing paid game in the Windows 10 store. It’s held the No. 1 spot since the game launched there in July 2015. Microsoft also said nearly 1 million existing Minecraft players made use of the offer to get the Windows 10 version free.
A group of students were asked what they expect life to look like in ten years, and their predictions ranged from superhuman abilities to world peace.
CTV Toronto asked six Grade 4 and 5 students at Brampton’s Thorndale Public School to write a letter to their future selves, describing what they expected in 2026.
“In 2026, I will look forward to take care of my parents. I will take care of my parents because they took good care of me,” 9-year-old Dishanthan Sutharsan read from his letter.
A group of students were asked to write letters to their future selves, to be opened in 2026.
“In 2026, I look forward to being a good student in university.”
Like Dishanthan, many of the students wrote about going off to university and finding a job.
“I would like to graduate with Masters of Management because I want to be a human resources manager,” Pari Sandhu wrote.
“In 10 years, I want to see myself in Harvard University,” Niket Bajwa read.
Though most wrote about school, the children’s letters also touched on what they hope for the world.
“I am hoping in 10 years scientists find a cure for all cancers and diseases. I also home the world is at peace and the world is a better place,” Bajwa wrote.
“When I will have lots of money I will make clothing for the poor people who don’t have clothing,” Simran Bhinder pledged.
Ganeev Singh filled his letter with questions: “Are we safe from guns? Are buildings taller? Can we fly? Is global warming still affecting the world?”
The students also wrote about current issues, like the conflict in Syria, and all wrote about the importance of peace.
Bajwa wrote, “I desire that the war will end and ISIS will be defeated.”
Atheka Jeyatharan said she hopes that “no such thing as war still exists.”
The letters were filled with hope for positive changes in their lives and the world around them.
“I can’t wait to read this letter in 10 years. I will keep my fingers crossed my wishes and goals come true. Sincerely, Atheka.”
Vivek Wadhwa, an Indian American entrepreneur turned academic, has been called one of the world’s top thinkers on tech policy. Neelam Raaj spoke to the Stanford University fellow on the ongoing controversy over Facebook’s Free Basics plan
What did you think of Mark Zuckerberg’s defence of Free Basics in TOI? Were you convinced by his case for digital equality which cited the example of a farmer named Ganesh, who would be able to access weather information, commodity prices, etc?
Zuckerberg doesn’t realize that Ganesh cherishes the freedom that India gained from its British colonizers in 1947 and doesn’t want a handout from a western company. Ganesh may be poor, but he doesn’t want anyone to dictate what sites he can visit, what movies he may watch, or what applications he can download.
Zuckerberg is right about the benefits of internet access: it will enable village artisans to access global markets; farmers to learn about weather and commodity prices; and labourers and domestic help to find work through sharing-economy applications.
But here is the problem with Free Basics: the internet access on offer is not unrestricted. Facebook and the mobile carriers get to decide what websites people can visit, and Facebook becomes the centre of the internet universe. Zuckerberg compares this limited service to libraries and hospitals. But imagine a private corporation being allowed to decide which books your children could read and which videos they could watch — and to monitor everything that they did. Would you accept that?
The aggressive nature of FB’s campaign in India has surprised many. Will the fate of net neutrality here have a global impact?
This is not an Indian issue; we are fighting these battles in the US. The Federal Communications Commission enacted rules in March 2015 to require broadband providers to treat all data equally rather than provide preference to some sites. A federal appeals court is challenging these rules at the behest of the telecommunications industry.
Google has the same motivations as Facebook — to bring billions more people online. But it is pursuing a more sensible strategy: it is setting up fast and free Wi-Fi internet access points at 400 railroad stations all over India. Facebook could one-up Google by setting up access points at thousands of schools, libraries, and villages. This “no strings attached” approach would earn it gratitude — and signups — rather than resentment.
If the solution to making internet connectivity accessible to everyone isn’t Free Basics, then what is it?
The ultimate solution, unrestricted internet for everyone, is something that Facebook, Google, and others are already working on providing, via drones, balloons, and micro satellites.
With its Aquila Unmanned Aircraft and laser technologies, Facebook has demonstrated the ability to deliver data at a rate of tens of gigabytes per second to a target the size of a coin — from 10 miles away. This is ten times faster than existing land-based technologies. With interconnected drones, it will, within two or three years, most likely be able to provide internet access to the remotest regions of the world.
Google is further ahead in its efforts. Its balloons, called Loons, are essentially floating cell towers that can relay a signal to a mobile device on the ground.
And then there are low-orbit micro satellites, which Oneweb, SpaceX, and now Samsung are building. These beam internet signals by laser to ground stations. Google is launching Loons in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. It was also supposed to launch them in India, but India’s defence, aviation, and telecom ministries raised technical and security concerns and stopped the project. When the telecom providers figure out that with unlimited, inexpensive internet access, their cell and data businesses will be decimated, they too will place obstacles in the way of these technologies.
This, therefore, is the real battle that Facebook should be fighting. If the goal is to provide everyone with internet access, Facebook and the internet-freedom groups that it is fighting should be working together to lobby for a change in government policies — for when the new space-based technologies are ready.
Which tech advance are you most excited about in 2016?
To start with, let’s look at what happened in 2015. Knowledge became globalized, with one quarter of India’s population gaining access to the internet (this is without Free Basics). And then, the medical revolution got in high gear with inexpensive medical devices that connect to smartphones and incredible breakthroughs in genomics. Just watch over the next few years as our smartphones become doctors.
Most important of all, in 2015, we reached a tipping point in clean energy, with solar and battery storage becoming affordable and practical.
By 2030, all of India will have off-the-grid clean energy and this will be cheaper than cellphone calls. India won’t need the nuclear plants that it is purchasing.
Next up, starting in 2016, we will see amazing advances in robotics, self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, internet of things, and the space race.
“Now it’s time for story time, story time. Now it’s time for story time, on the red mat!” Library aide and children’s programming organizer Daryl Anne Stangle sang to six kids at the Winona Public library Saturday morning, signaling the start of the story time pajama party.
The six children in attendance, all in comfy pajamas, cheered and rushed to the red mat in the youth fiction room.
On the menu today: “The Incredible Book Eating Boy,” “Snow on Snow on Snow” and “Rabbit’s Pajama Party.”
“Hey, I got that book from the library. It’s pretty silly!” said five-year-old Vera O’Shea of “The Incredible Book Eating Boy.”
Vera and her three sisters, Evie, Mimi and Nora, attend library story times often. “He eats books and that’s crazy, and I like being crazy,” Vera added.
Kids quieted down as Stangle began reading, drawn into a book whose main character literally devours books to become smarter.
“So everything he ate, he learned,” said Stangle to her attentive audience.
Stangle said she organizes Saturday programs for kids not only because she enjoys working with them, but also because she believes public libraries are a vital part of a childhood and the community.
“For me [the library]…was a place I could find answers,” Stangle said. “Kids learn that books do hold answers and worlds they can travel to in their mind. I think that’s really important.”
Vera’s seven-year-old sister Evie, who Vera describes as a “bookworm,” said her favorite part of library story time is being read to.
“I like that we got to pretend to sleep and that I got to snuggle with Piggy,” she said, clutching her stuffed toy pig to her chest. During “Rabbit’s Pajama Party” — an appropriate book for the pajama party occasion — Stangle asked her audience to act out what the characters in the book did. Rabbit gobbled a snack and so did her audience. Rabbit made an ice cream sundae and the kids pretended to put whip cream and a cherry on top.
Although Saturday programs for kids are irregular now, Stangle said she tries to do them every other month. Tuesday and Friday story times for kids occur weekly.
Saturday programs draw anywhere from five to 50 children, Stangle said, while story times during the week draw 20-30 children.
Each Saturday story time is followed by crafts or games. These activities showcase opportunities for children and parents to learn skills beyond reading at their public library, Stangle said.
“Kids learn that books do hold answers and worlds they can travel to in their mind. I think that’s really important.” Daryl Anne Stangle, library aide and children’s programming organizer
