The Wall Street Journal: David Murdock’s Last-Remaining Acre on Lanai Asks $17 Million

The former Dole Food owner sold 90,000 acres to Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison for $300 million in 2012, but kept his oceanfront vacation home

By E.B. Solomont

In 2012, former Dole Food owner David Murdock sold the tiny Hawaii island of Lanai-once one of the country’s largest pineapple plantations-to Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison for $300 million. While that meant ceding around 90,000 acres to Ellison, Murdock kept the roughly 1-acre parcel where he had built himself an oceanfront vacation home.

Now 101, Murdock is putting that estate on the market for $17 million, according to listing agent Paul Stukin of Deep Blue HI.

Measuring about 140 square miles, Lanai is located to the west of Maui and has a population of about 3,000 people. There are a number of private homes on the island, but Ellison now owns nearly everything else, including a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course and two Four Seasons properties that Murdock initially developed.

Located next to the Four Seasons Resort Lanai, Murdock’s home is about 8,500 square feet with seven bedrooms, Stukin said. Completed around 2001, the stucco house has Asian and Spanish influences, with a green tile roof, wood flooring, marble baths and custom koa-wood furniture, which is included in the offering.

Murdock’s house is three stories, with living spaces designed to maximize ocean views, Stukin said. The primary suite has a private lanai, office and gym. Outside, there is a flat grassy lawn and a crescent-shaped pool, Stukin said. The estate also connects to Lanai’s Fisherman’s Trail, a historic coastal path.

Murdock, who declined to comment, once owned the storied Casa Encantada estate in Los Angeles, and currently lives in Lake Sherwood, Calif., Stukin said. A self-made billionaire, Murdock got his start in the produce business in 1985, when he bought Castle & Cooke, a Hawaii real-estate firm that owned Dole and most of Lanai. Murdock took Dole private twice, in 2003 and 2013. He stepped down as chairman of the company in 2021.

Multimillion-dollar home sales on Lanai are infrequent, according to Stukin, who there are only a handful of oceanfront homes on the island, including Ellison’s. A few luxury properties, between $1 million and $6 million, have sold in the past couple of years, according to Zillow.

Luxury real-estate prices in Hawaii spiked during Covid before normalizing somewhat in recent years. But Stukin said wealthy buyers are still seeking Hawaii real estate. “There was a pause before the election, and now the phone is ringing,” he said.

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