Thursday, May 5, 2011

Mark Zuckerberg Upgrades To His Biggest Mansion Yet

By Ryan Tate

Mark Zuckerberg Upgrades To His Biggest Mansion Yet

Mark Zuckerberg Upgrades To His Biggest Mansion Yet Just in time for his birthday, Facebook's CEO has acquired what will be his third home since September, a walled, 5,000+ square foot Palo Alto manse complete with a saltwater pool and music alcove. It cost $7 million. So much for Mark Zuckerberg's everyman lifestyle.

Zuckerberg won't move in for several more months, according to the San Jose Mercury News, but when he does the new place will be a convenient 10 minute drive from Facebook's new office space in Menlo Park. With its outdoor walls and trees, the estate offers more privacy than Zuckerberg's security camera studded, 3,800 square foot College Terrace rental, which as we first reported he moved into just a few months ago. The new place has five bedrooms, the same as his current rental and up from four bedrooms at Zuckerberg's prior rental, which he was living in through at least September.

And if Real Estalker is right, the new pad is even more impressive than the numbers suggest. The blog has fingered a recently-sold turn of the century home in the Crescent Park neighborhood as very likely Zuck's new home. The property, pictured above, was sold for $7 million in March, features "privacy hedges" and was recently overhauled with a spa, outdoor fireplace and a lap-lane salt water pool.

"A wide rocking chair porch leads to an impress-the-guests entrance hall and reception area," Real Estalker writes, "banquet hall sized dining room.... [and] a glassed-in sun porch. The master bedroom includes a bathroom with twin Carrera marble topped vanities, separate soaking tub and shower and heated floors for tootsie warming on those chilly and damp NorCal mornings."

Zuckerberg is not expected to move into his new Palo Alto home for several months, and the prior owners reportedly still live there. But he may be itching for the wall and high shrubbery; as Facebook's valuation zoomed from $23 billion to $80 billion in less than a year, Zuckerberg's security has become a heightened concern. Earlier this year he acquired a stalker.

Of course, trading a streetside rental for a multimillion dollar walled compound gives Zuckerberg less purchase on his carefully cultivated image as a typical workaday Silicon Valley engineer in lifestyle and comportment. He may still wear sandals and hoodies, and Zuckerberg's home still looks modest next those of, say, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison (8,000 square feet) or Microsoft founder Bill Gates (66,000 square feet).

But the social networking kingpin is no longer on a month to month lease and his new place is twice the size of the home he was in last summer. Seven million dollars is a lot of money even by Silicon Valley standards.

Still, with Facebook reportedly approaching $4 billion in annual revenue, it's hard to dispute that the 26-year-old has earned a move up in the world. Besides, it's his birthday next week. Mazel tov, Mark.

[Photo of house via Real Estalker, Curbed]