|
|
Plate I · Google co-founder Larry Page bought this Coconut Grove estate, the Journal reported
|
The Lead · Houses · Miami-Dade
California votes Tuesday on a one-time 5% tax on its billionaires' wealth, a tax Florida does not have. A UC Berkeley poll released Thursday has 42% of likely voters for it and 50% against.
Google co-founder Larry Page paid $71.9 million for a Coconut Grove bayfront estate, The Wall Street Journal reported. For Florida's waterfront owners, the price is the point: it is about 57% more than the estate sold for in 2021, by our arithmetic from county records. Page's representatives say he lives in Florida, Forbes reported Oct. 21. Forbes said it found no updated voter records or declaration of domicile, the filing that states a legal home, to show it.
Why it matters: Miami-Dade now figures the estate's school property tax on a value of about $56.1 million, up about $13.3 million in one year, by our arithmetic. California's measure, Prop 40, would take a one-time 5% of each billionaire resident's net worth. Florida has no state income tax on residents and repealed its yearly tax on stocks and bonds in 2007.
The story so far: Fortune reported in January, citing the Journal, that Page bought two neighboring Coconut Grove estates in late December and early January. County records show a trust bought this one for $71.9 million on Dec. 26, 2025. They do not name Page, but the price and timing match the Journal's report.
What's new: California votes on Tuesday, Nov. 3. A UC Berkeley poll released Oct. 29, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, found 42% of likely voters for the tax and 50% against, the Times and The Mercury News reported. The same poll had the tax ahead in mid-September. A Public Policy Institute of California poll released Oct. 27 found 46% for it and 52% against; in September, 52% backed it.
What's next: Californians vote on Tuesday, Nov. 3. Prediction markets expect the tax to fail, CNBC reported Oct. 22. If Prop 40 passes and outpolls two rival measures on the same ballot, it values each billionaire's net worth as of Dec. 31, 2026, its text says.
Old Florida Money desk · Fri Oct 30 · Part of OFM's running story, The Great Migration. Page's ownership rests on press reports; no public record we read names him. · Sources: Miami-Dade Property Appraiser; California Secretary of State (voter guide, Prop 40 text, contribution totals); UC Berkeley poll via the Los Angeles Times and The Mercury News; Public Policy Institute of California; Florida Constitution; Florida Department of Revenue; Fortune, citing The Wall Street Journal; Forbes; CNBC; CalMatters; San Francisco Standard; CNN via KEYT; CalMatters via KPBS;
Meta's SEC filing
Read the full story
|
|
|
|
|
Plate II · The Dale Mabry campus, where the Rays plan their ballpark; a divided Tampa council accepted their community benefits promise
|
Money Pulse
|
Tampa approves the Rays' $21 million benefits promise, with $4.2 million due by 2031
Tampa's city council voted 4-3 on Oct. 29 to accept the Tampa Bay Rays' promise of cash, programs and services for the city, valued at $21 million, and to let the team skip the benefits process the city code normally requires. Only $4.2 million is fixed, due by 2031; the rest depends on a new project list the team must bring the council for approval every five years. Separately, Tampa owes up to $80 million toward public works at the ballpark, and if the team falls short on benefits, the city cannot hold back those payments; its only remedy is to ask a court to
order the team to deliver.
|
|
Miami votes Tuesday on giving a Suntex venture Virginia Key's marinas for up to 75 years
Miami voters decide Nov. 3 whether to lease about 28 acres of city waterfront on Virginia Key to a venture of Suntex Marinas and RCI Group, for rent of at least $2.2 million a year. Political Cortadito, a Miami political news site, reported Oct. 24 that Suntex executive David Filler was at an early-voting site with Vote No campaign workers; Filler told it he was "approaching them to have a normal, intelligent conversation." Suntex Marina Investors LLC, a Dallas marina company, gave all $2.35 million the Yes committee raised through Oct. 9, and the current operator $1.1 million of the
No's money, city filings show.
|
|
Endeavor sues Carl Icahn, saying he illegally acquired the shares behind his buyout fight
Endeavor, the company behind UFC and WWE, sued billionaire Carl Icahn and his Sunny Isles Beach company in New York federal court Oct. 28 over shares it says he "illegally acquired," Law360 reports. It wants his company and another hedge fund to give up any profit from their bets against its buyout, Bloomberg Law reports. Silver Lake, the private equity firm that bought Endeavor, paid $27.50 a share; at that price Icahn's company held stock worth about $755 million, by our arithmetic from its SEC filing. In September, Silver Lake sued Icahn and hedge funds in Delaware, saying they worked
together; that suit said they denied coordinating, Reuters reported. No court has ruled.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Plate III · Illustration: Palm Beach investor Nelson Peltz and partners offered to take Wendy’s private
|
From the desks
|
Nelson Peltz offers to take Wendy's private, valuing the chain at about $1.4 billion
The Palm Beach investor, who chaired Wendy's for 17 years, and his partners would pay cash for shares they do not own, taking the chain off the stock market. Blackwells Capital, a Wendy's shareholder, says the price dramatically undervalues the company.
Sources: Trian Schedule 13D/A Exhibit 46 (proposal letter); Wendy's release; Food Business News; Trian Form ADV; Wendy's Form 8-K; Blackwells Capital statement
|
|
|
|
That is the edition. Every story above, with its records, is on the site.
|
About
Old Florida Money is a Florida newsletter on where the money goes: the named checks behind houses, teams, races and public votes across the state.
Illustrations are Old Florida Money editorial art. Portraits of public figures are caricature or silhouette, never photographs. Each image carries its credit.
Drawn after reference photographs: Plate I, USGS The National Map, NAIP Plus orthoimagery (US government work, public domain). Plate II, U.S. Geological Survey, The National Map, USGS Imagery Only basemap (US government work, public domain). Plate III, Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS CA-2863), Library of Congress (public domain). St. Petersburg · Est. MMXXV
|
|
|
|
|
|
