Facebook co-founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has fallen out of the limelight a bit compared to rival billionaire Elon Musk. But he's got some designs of his own that are worthy of a Bond villain. Mark is building a massive Hawaiian compound with its own village and underground bunker that when all is said and done will reportedly cost an estimated $270 million and rank as one of the very largest homes in the entire country and the world.
The so-called "secret construction project" is located on the island of Kauai, in between two tourist-heavy districts. And this secret project really is a secret, as nobody working on it is allowed to discuss what it is that they're doing. They're all bound by non-disclosure agreements and can only speak to the press anonymously. As one such source told Wired:
"It's fight club. We don't talk about fight club…Anything posted from here, they get wind of it right away."
Another source puts the security around the project in an even more dramatic light:
"The only other time you see that is when you're doing secure military installations…For a private project to have an NDA attached to it is very rare."
Nevertheless, the report has managed to get a picture of Zuckerberg's plans both from anonymous press leaks and public records, and it shows that the property will be one of the most impressive on Earth once it's complete.
The compound is made up of over a dozen separate structures, with at least 30 bedrooms and bathrooms between them all. They include not just one but two full-fledged mansions, still being constructed, but the most fascinating elements of Zuck's island lair have to do with features outside the main houses. Like the network of circular treehouses connected by rope bridges, and a massive, 5,000-square-foot underground bunker equipped with its own living space and ladder-accessed escape hatch. Secret passageways known as "blind doors" designed to blend into the surrounding walls, abound.
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Another building on the compound will serve as a fitness center, with gym, swimming pools, sauna, hot tubs, cold plunge pool, and more. Elsewhere there are guest houses and other facilities, and indications that this is more than just an elaborately designed vacation home for the Zuckerberg family — he's reportedly held multiple corporate events there already.
The construction on the compound alone comes with a price tag of $100 million, and when you throw in the money to purchase the land it will have a total cost of around $270 million. There have been human costs, too. A contracted security guard had a fatal heart attack when weather conditions forced him to climb up a steep hill following a 12-hour shift, circumstances that are described in a wrongful death lawsuit the man's family has filed against Zuckerberg's LLC. And a construction worker was seriously injured when a crane fell off the side of a steep hill, fortunately making a full recovery.
Controversy and secrecy surround the project, and it's not known for sure when it will be completed. It's been the source of tension between Zuckerberg and the island's other inhabitants, some of whom see his intrusions as a form of colonization, changing the character of the idyllic island for the worse. Neighbor Jeff Lindner put it like this:
"There used to not be any cars…They're not there to enjoy the island. They're there to get somewhere, and you're in their way."
Zuckerberg has tried to make peace with the island, forming political partnerships with the mayor and donating money to local causes. He and his wife Priscilla Chan have become some of the most notable philanthropists in Hawaii in the process, but there is still resentment from locals over what he's doing on the island, and you can probably expect it to grow as the project nears its eventual completion.
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