Larry Ellison is betting that a sleepy strip of sand just south of Palm Beach can be remade into one of the most rarefied addresses in the country. By pouring roughly $450 million into a resort, club concept, and surrounding properties, the Oracle cofounder is trying to turn a tiny barrier island into a magnet for the ultra-wealthy who want proximity to power without the crush of Palm Beach crowds.
His wager centers on Manalapan, a 400-resident town tucked between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway, where oceanfront estates already trade in the tens of millions. Ellison’s plan is not simply to own a trophy hotel, but to reengineer the local luxury market and social scene so that the richest buyers treat this enclave as their primary Florida base rather than a spillover from Palm Beach or Miami.
The tiny town Ellison wants to put on the map
Manalapan has long been one of those places that wealth whispers about rather than shouts, a narrow island town where privacy matters more than name recognition. Officially, it is a 400-resident municipality in Palm Beach County, wedged between the Atlantic surf and the calmer Intracoastal, with a single main road and a patchwork of gated estates. The geography alone limits growth, which is precisely what makes the land so coveted among buyers who want ocean frontage without the spectacle of Palm Beach proper.
That geography also means any large-scale investment can quickly reshape the town’s character. Manalapan’s built environment is dominated by waterfront homes and a handful of commercial sites, so a billionaire with the appetite to assemble multiple parcels can effectively redraw the social and economic map. Ellison’s $450 million push is landing in a place that already has some of the highest per square foot prices in Florida, but until now has lacked a marquee hospitality brand or club to rival the social gravity of Palm Beach or Miami Beach.
Inside Ellison’s $450 million Florida bet
Ellison’s move into Manalapan is not a casual beach-house purchase, it is a coordinated campaign of acquisitions and upgrades that adds up to roughly $450 million in Florida real estate. At the center is his takeover of a major oceanfront resort in the town, a property that gives him both hotel rooms and a large footprint of beachfront land to work with. Around that anchor, he has been buying adjacent and nearby parcels, effectively stitching together a campus that can support a private club, branded residences, and high end amenities aimed at a global elite…