The founder of Amazon, billionaire Jeff Bezos, made a substantial real estate move this summer. He invested $68 million in acquiring a neighboring property, followed by a recent purchase of a waterfront estate in Indian Creek Village for $79 million. This latest acquisition, located at 12 Indian Creek Island Road, spans nearly 2 acres and features a 19,000-square-foot, seven-bedroom mansion. The sale, facilitated by agents Dina Goldentayer and Danilo Tavares of Douglas Elliman, closed on Thursday.
With this purchase, Bezos now possesses 4.6 acres of contiguous waterfront land on the island, amassing a total of $147 million for both properties. Indian Creek is an exclusive, guard-gated island north of Miami Beach, accessible only to residents and invited guests. Bezos’ notable neighbors on the island include billionaire Carl Icahn, hedge funder Eddie Lampert, Tom Brady, Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner, as well as singer-songwriter Julio Iglesias.
The mansion at 12 Indian Creek Island Road, originally listed by Goldentayer for $85 million in May, boasts impressive amenities such as a home theater, wine cellar, cabana, pool, and 200 feet of bay frontage. It was constructed in 2000. Property records indicate that Indian Creek #1 LLC acquired the estate for $28 million in 2014, with Leo Kryss, a co-founder of the Brazilian electronics and toy company Tectoy, being named as a registered agent for the entity in a 2020 mortgage recording.
Bezos and his fiancée, former news anchor and pilot Lauren Sánchez, have been actively seeking a new or renovated mansion in the Miami area. Bezos’ connections to South Florida date back several decades, as he graduated from Miami Palmetto Senior High School in 1982. In a separate real estate move, Bezos’ parents, Mike and Jackie Bezos, purchased two waterfront homes in Coral Gables for $78 million last year.
While Bezos stands as the wealthiest individual to invest in Miami-Dade properties this year, he is not alone among billionaires in doing so. Hedge fund magnate Ken Griffin recently acquired an additional estate on Miami Beach’s Star Island, now owning nearly 6.5 contiguous waterfront acres. Additionally, former Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife, Wendy, have been accumulating properties on the Sunset Islands in Miami Beach since at least 2020, amassing over $100 million in real estate investments over the past three years, as per property records and sources.
