Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff spent millions of dollars secretly purchasing about 600 acres of green space in Waimea, Hawaii.
Since 2000, the big tech billionaire has purchased at least 38 parcels of land in a small farming town on the Big Island of Hawaii, with a population of less than 10,000.
With inventory already low in Waimea, news of the property purchases has residents, many of them Native Hawaiian, worried about rising housing costs and the loss of a close-knit community culture. According to NPR.
NPR revealed Wednesday that Benioff is the buyer behind all the land purchases. Benioff has amassed a fortune of $10.5 billion, according to Forbes, and is the co-founder and chief executive officer of San Francisco-based Salesforce, one of the world’s largest software companies that owns popular software. Business messaging app “Slack”.
Mr. Benioff reportedly purchased the land through at least six anonymous limited liability companies (LLCs), all with the same address in the San Francisco Bay Area, and one nonprofit organization.
Although Benioff’s name is not listed on any of the documents, there is no dispute that Benioff owns the land, about 25 of which are located at the beach resort, according to NPR.
Benioff’s first purchase in Hawaii was a $24.5 million waterfront property at the Marriott-operated Mauna Kea Beach Resort, according to NPR.
He spent the better part of the next 15 years purchasing beach resort coastal properties with a total market value of $100 million.
During the pandemic, he scooped up 22 parcels of residential, commercial and agricultural land in and around Waimea, NPR reports.
According to NPR, citing public records, Mr. Benioff almost always pays more than current market value for his Hawaii properties.
For example, when he bought Waimea’s Mamane Bakery in 2022, he used the land the bakery had stood on for more than 30 years to serve his popular lilikoi cheesecake and mango-guava hot cross. It coughed up more than 50% of the market price. Buns.
An NPR investigation found that 11 of the 38 parcels of land Mr. Benioff has purchased in the area over the past 24 years were for philanthropic purposes, including an affordable housing project donated to a private school in Waimea in 2022. It turns out that the focus is on housing at a reasonable price.
The former location of Mermane Bakery will become a community center, Benioff confirmed to NPR.
The center has reportedly been open for “community-wide use” since September and serves a number of different religious groups. Officials at the facility call it a Jewish community center and say it has Hebrew writing on the walls, according to NPR.
Benioff also owns 282 acres of land called the Ouri Project. The project was donated to the Hawaii Island Community Development Corporation and transformed into a destination for affordable housing on the Big Island.
The organization has developed about 900 homes in the Ouri project over the past 30 years, and plans to build at least 40 more on the still-uninhabited Ouri land, according to NPR.
Another 158 acres of land owned by Benioff adjacent to Ouri will also be used for philanthropy, but plans for that land were not immediately clear.
The remaining 24 properties Benioff owns, totaling about 165 acres, are reserved for Benioff and his family, NPR reports.
That includes a private ranch with 10 horses and about 12 homes across Wimea, where residents told NPR they often see the 59-year-old Benioff driving around in his Hummer.
Benioff insisted to NPR that he has no intention of building a Salesforce office in Waimea.
“There is nothing in Hawaii owned by Salesforce. That will never happen,” Benioff told the outlet. “Unfortunately, let me tell you the reality in Waimea and Hawaii: We can’t do that. We don’t have enough land, we don’t have enough homes.”
“So, people say to me, and a lot of people say, ‘Oh, I heard you’re going to have a Salesforce campus here, and you’re bringing over 50 or 100 people.’ They don’t understand what’s going on in this town and this state,” he added.
Benioff also boasted to NPR about how much he loves Hawaii, saying, “Everyone has seen the movie ‘South Pacific.'” It’s Bali Hai. ”
“This is a place that everyone loves. It’s a magical place. It’s a place where people come and change and change and evolve. They experience God. They experience nature. They experience themselves.”
The Post has reached out to Benioff for comment.
