Billionaire Ken Griffin Wins Permission To Build Tall Fence on Palm Beach Compound

When it comes to Palm Beach, even a billionaire has to get permission to build a fence.

When billionaire financier Ken Griffin wanted to build a taller-than-average fence around his massive Palm Beach, FL, property, he went hat-in-hand to the Planning, Zoning, and Building Department of the Town of Palm Beach. (Realtor.com® contacted the department for comment.)

While the typically approved fence height is 7 feet, Griffin wants the northern boundary of his 27-acre property to have a fence ranging in height between 9 feet 2 inches and 9 feet 11 inches, according to Yahoo News.

Good fences make good neighbors

Griffin doesn’t want the taller fence for heightened privacy, but because the shifting topography of the land demanded it, said his lawyer. Without a higher fence, neighbors would have seen each other from certain angles.

Griffin’s attorney on the project, Maura Ziska at high-end real estate law firm Kochman and Ziska, told the department that the billionaire’s neighbors, John and Margaret Thornton, were in favor of the taller fence. (Realtor.com contacted Ziska for comment.)

“The neighbors don’t want to see each other,” adds local real estate agent Dana Koch, of Corcoran.

“The town does take the neighbors into account and wants everyone to be happy,” Koch tells Realtor.com

Additionally, new Federal Emergency Management Agency building codes mean that new construction must be built higher than would have been allowed years ago—thus the need for higher fences.

“This happens quite regularly,” Koch says of the requests for higher fence permits.

Amassing Palm Beach’s largest property portfolio

Griffin has already invested $450 million into developing the parcel at 1247 S. Ocean Boulevard on Billionaires Row, just a quarter-mile from Mar-a-Lago.

It will include a $150 million–$400 million house on 8 of the 27 acres. When complete, the massive 50,000-square-foot estate will be worth $1 billion, according to the New York Post.

Over the past 13 years, the Citadel founder, 56, has spent billions of dollars assembling an unparalleled portfolio of trophy properties across the country, including in Miami, Chicago, and New York.

“He’s a whale’s whale,” property appraiser Jonathan Miller, of Miller Samuel, tells Realtor.com. “In my career, I’ve really never run into somebody that singularly has dominated a segment of the market in so many different places. He’s a prolific buyer of full retail-price real estate.”

Griffin might currently hold the title of Palm Beach’s mightiest property owner, but that doesn’t mean he can willy-nilly add a few feet onto the top of his fence. Like every other builder, he needed permission from the town.

Nor did his billions guarantee he would get it, says Koch, who has been selling real estate on the barrier island for 16 years.

“It’s never easy or a guarantee,” he says. “The codes are very stringent. That’s the beauty of Palm Beach. That’s why it looks the way it does. That’s why you don’t have a trailer or boat in someone’s front yard.”

Months earlier, the department had approved a plan by the billionaire to rehabilitate the structures called groins near his land that jut out from the sand into the ocean to slow erosion. The groins, dating to the 1930s, had worn down over time.

Too expensive for the town to replace on its own, the department agreed that the financier could pick up the tab for the four groins along his property.

“That’s a one-off situation more than the fence,” says Koch. “Those groins were outdated. It’s a nice thing [Griffin’s] doing.”

Even billionaires get told ‘no’ in Palm Beach

Palm Beach is a town that thrives on money, but not even someone with lots of it will always get their way when it comes to town permits.

When Florida real estate magnate Todd Glaser wanted to build a midcentury modern mansion with art deco influences on the site of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein‘s demolished house at 360 El Brillo Way, which he’d purchased for $18.5 million, the town was not swayed.

The architectural commission (ARCOM) rejected the design, declaring it would not fit in with the surrounding homes, calling it “too commercial” and “alien in Palm Beach,” according to local law firm Rabideau Klein.

But don’t cry for Glaser, who decided to part with the vacant lot for $25,845,000, scoring about a $7 million profit.

“In Palm Beach, ARCOM runs the show on all exterior facades and architectural plans before they proceed to the Town of Palm Beach for building permits,” explains real estate agent Margit Brandt, of Premier Estate Properties.

And if there is one thing besides money that a Palm Beach homebuilder needs, it’s patience.

“The process could be considered onerous by some residents, and certainly involves longer lead times than traditional building permit processes in other parts of the state,” Brandt tells Realtor.com.

“But ultimately, there is a consensus that the existence of some type of mediator entity like ARCOM has played a pivotal role in preserving the classic, elegant, and timeless aesthetic of Palm Beach.”

What’s difficult to get in Palm Beach

While taller fences might be given leeway due to new building codes and shifting topography, Brandt says that common sticking points between builders and the town include the desired scale of a new house, as well as style (as Glaser learned) and setback.

Then there are driveway gates. While a gate might seem like a no-brainer for elite privacy-wanting residents, they aren’t always easy to get approval for.

“Many residents have had trouble getting gates for their driveway, because the house would then look out of place compared to other neighbors with open driveways,” says Brandt. “And some gates and fences have gotten denied because they were too high.”

But Brandt, like Koch, believes the town’s strictness with permits is, on the whole, good for the town and its ultrarich residents.

The town has done a “pretty good job” of balancing the need for new construction and renovations with the classic aesthetic that has made Palm Beach “one of the most charming, beautiful, and talked about towns in the world,” she says.