A Beautiful Portfolio

The Villa Maryland in Cap Ferrat, France (WSJ)

20 years ago a business colleague vacationed in Europe. Only later did she fill in the details.

A friend had terminal cancer, and Paul Allen had invited the lady and a group of her closest acquaintances to enjoy the comforts of his chateau in the South of France. And so it was that Sue and friends had the run of Paul Allen's estate, complete with staff and the services of a Cordon Bleu chef for a week.

Enchanted Hill near Beverly Hills (WSJ)

His co-founding of Microsoft made him a billionaire by the age of 30, and Paul Allen was famous for his portfolio of eclectic investments (Charter Communications, Seattle Seahawks, SpaceShipOne, and Portland Trail Blazers, among many others). The composition of his vast real estate portfolio is less well-known but is now being evaluated following his death in 2018.

While geographically diverse, these properties share common elements. They aren’t by any means on the wrong side of town, but they also aren’t typically in a hot spot. For example, rather than Seattle’s elite, pricey community of Medina, where Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos have homes along what is called the Gold Coast, he chose the more suburban Mercer Island, where he bought on the less-desirable south end of the island. In Los Angeles, his compound is in what’s called “Beverly Hills Post Office,” where homes can sell for about half of those in Beverly Hills proper. His ranch in Idaho is over the Teton Pass from the ritzy ski area of Jackson Hole, Wyo., near where the workers who can’t afford Jackson live and commute. His property on the peninsula he bought on Lopez in the San Juan Islands, Wash., is on the island’s less prestigious side, far from the village. Yet the homes he built were impressive estates.

Their potential to do harm has prompted calls (from the left--where else?) to abolish billionaires' existence, but that potential doesn't trouble me. Billionaires directing their favored philanthropic causes are far more efficient and effective than a government bureaucracy with its attendant inefficiencies, not to mention graft and corruption.

And if a Paul Allen chooses to spend his fortune on building or preserving beauty, that's fine with me, too.