Earlier this year, a landmark Oahu estate popped up for sale. Though the property only spans about 1.5 acres in prime Honolulu, it was saddled with a $65 million price tag, an amount that would easily make it the most expensive single-family Hawaii house ever sold. For comparison, the longtime Hawaii record-holder was a 16-acre Kauai estate, which sold for “just” $46.1 million more than seven years ago to billionaire Bill Foley.
But the Honolulu house sold almost immediately, and for an eye-popping $65.8 million—nearly $1 million over the unprecedented asking price, perhaps an indicator that there was more than one interested party in the one-of-a-kind compound. Though the winning buyer was not immediately identified, we’ve learned he is B. Wayne Hughes Jr., one of two primary heirs to the multibillion-dollar Public Storage empire founded by his father, the late Los Angeles-based entrepreneur Wayne Hughes.
It should be noted that while this is easily the biggest Hawaii home sale on record, it’s not necessarily Hawaii’s most expensive compound. Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez are widely believed to have paid $78 million for a Maui estate a few back, but that was an unusually complex transaction that involved Bezos buying out the LLC that owns the land rather than the land itself, so the actual sales price went unreported in records.
And then there are other billionaires who have spent years cobbling together vast estates by purchasing numerous parcels of land. We’re talking about people like Mark Zuckerberg on Kauai, Oprah Winfrey on Maui, and Marc Benioff on the Big Island. And Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison also now owns nearly the entirety of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, of course.
But for the moment, Hughes can bask in the pleasure of owning what is officially Hawaii’s most expensive (sold) estate, for now. Located on oceanfront Kahala Avenue, arguably Oahu’s most expensive and prestigious street, the double-gated complex was built over a period of several years and completed in 2018 by the late Silicon Valley tech CEO John Ocampo and his wife Susan.
Known as Hale Hanohano, or “house of honor,” the Mediterranean-inspired compound has both its admirers and detractors. Real estate brokerage Coldwell Banker gushed that it was a “Hawaiian dream come true.” But veteran interior designer Brad Smith had a less favorable review of the place, calling it “photogenic” but decrying the architecture, which features a main house flanked by two mini-me secondary residences as “too symmetrical” and the overall interior design as “over-curated,” “emotionally hollow” and the dreaded “boring.”
We don’t necessarily disagree with Smith’s review, but we also think he may be missing the whole point here. In reality, this 11,800-square-foot compound was always intended to be less of a home than a super-posh, ultra-exclusive boutique hotel thinly disguised as a single-family residence—a perfectly impersonal landing place for jet-setting billionaires like Hughes, his wife Molly and their extended family, who have multiple homes and will almost certainly spend no more than a handful of weeks per year living at Hale Hanohano, which was never intended to be a warmly homey residence.
That being said, everyone can agree that Hale Hanohano is practically lavish beyond belief. The Ocampos poured money into every aspect of the property: the cobblestones lining the long driveway were imported from London, the Olympic-sized lap pool is heated and offers underwater speakers, there are retractable pocket doors throughout, Venetian plaster walls, a commercial-grade elevator, three kitchens with Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances, a gym and a 2,400-bottle wine cellar with adjoining tasting room.
Intended for multi-generational living, the three distinct structures include the 6,100-square-foot main house, a 3,100-square-foot “secondary house” and a 2,500-square-foot guesthouse, all with multiple ensuite bedrooms and living spaces. There are also extensive gardens, mature palm trees, a children’s play area and exquisitely manicured lawns. And from nearly every room in each of the houses, views drink in picture-perfect views of Hawaii’s beautiful ocean water.
But best of all, the property offers a whopping 213 feet of ocean frontage along what is generally considered to be one of Oahu’s finest beaches. And because the house is located in Honolulu—albeit far from the bustle of downtown—it’s just a short drive to all sorts of high-end shopping and dining destinations.
While Hughes, 66, is new to Hawaii’s ultra-high-end real estate scene, he’s certainly not new to Hawaii or to Honolulu, for that matter. For many years, he’s owned Honolulu’s popular Aina Haina shopping plaza. And late last year, he launched his own Hawaii-focused news website, the Aloha State Daily. Per Forbes, his net worth stands at an even $2 billion.
An avid surfer, Hughes is also a born-and-raised Californian who graduated from San Marino High School and the University of Southern California. He’s owned several expensive homes in Malibu, though most of them have been sold off in recent years. Several years ago, Hughes and his wife departed California and are now full-time Wyoming residents; their primary home is a multimillion-dollar estate in Jackson.
The Hughes’ Wyoming mansion spans 6,500 square feet, is valued at more than $15 million, and sits just outside Jackson’s exclusive 3 Creek Ranch golf club—with its award-winning, Tom Fazio-designed course—and is also located just a short walk down the road from Harrison Ford’s own longtime Wyoming ranch.
And if Hughes and/or Public Storage sounds vaguely familiar when it comes to the high-end real estate world, it’s probably because his younger sister—fellow billionaire Public Storage heir Tamara Gustavson—recently sold her landmark compound overlooking Malibu’s Paradise Cove for $100 million to media mogul Byron Allen.