Forbes values Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach at $160 million, 16 times the amount the American leader shelled out for it

Last Thursday, while posing for photographers with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Donald Trump couldn’t help but notice the extremely lavishly decorated living room. “Many of the world’s greatest leaders have asked to be welcomed to Mar-a-Lago,” Trump boasted, sitting on an ornate white couch, during what he called an opening statement before a bilateral meeting with Abe on trade and relations with North Korea. – They like it here, I like it here.”

The Palm Beach Club has become the president’s favorite vacation spot. It’s also one of his best investments.

Trump bought Mar-a-Lago in 1985 for about $10 million – $5 million for the huge house, presumably $3 million for the lush finishes and $2 million for the 400 square feet (37 m2) of great beach right across the street. Forbes today values Mar-a-Lago – surely one of Trump’s toughest assets in terms of valuation – at $160 million, which is 16 times the amount Trump shelled out for it. It’s unclear how much money the president has invested in or extracted from the asset over the years.

That return on investment beats even the S&P 500 index, whose return on investment was 12 times over the same period. For this, the president should be thankful for the rise in real estate prices in Palm Beach over the past thirty years and the successful transformation of the estate into a private club and now the Southern White House.

Built as a winter residence for Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to a grain empire, during Florida’s real estate boom of the 1920s, the estate was luxurious even by the standards of that lavish era. The stone for the wall cladding was shipped on three ships from Genoa, Italy, the gilded ceiling replicated the “thousand-winged ceiling” in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Venice, and the lobby was decorated with 16th-century Roman busts. Eventually, she built a 58-bedroom house on 17 acres of manicured greenery, citrus groves and greenhouses.

When she died (Post died in 1973), she suggested that the federal government use Mar-a-Lago as a summer presidential residence. But in 1981, faced with the large cost of maintaining the mansion, the government turned it over to the Marjorie Merriweather Post Foundation, and four years later the latter sold the estate to Trump for about $10 million.

In 1995, Trump turned it into a private club for Palm Beach’s elite, with an ocean-view pool, beauty salon, spa, and tennis and croquet courts. In January 2005, he added a 20,000-square-foot (1,850 m2) ballroom. That same month he married Melania and hosted a reception at the club, where Bill and Hillary Clinton attended.

Trump’s frequent visits since becoming president have added to the estate’s notoriety. In January 2017, Trump published a staged photo of himself appearing to be writing an inaugural speech at Mar-a-Lago. Three months later, he ordered missile strikes against Syria while having dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the mansion.

This ROI outperforms even the S&P 500 index, whose ROI was 12 times over the same period. The president has Palm Beach’s rising real estate prices over the past thirty years to thank for this and the successful transformation of the estate into a private club and now a “Southern White House.”

Built as a winter residence for Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to a grain empire, during Florida’s real estate boom of the 1920s, the estate was luxurious even by the standards of that lavish era. The stone for the wall cladding was shipped on three ships from Genoa, Italy, the gilded ceiling replicated the “thousand-winged ceiling” in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Venice, and the lobby was decorated with 16th-century Roman busts. Eventually, she built a 58-bedroom house on 17 acres of manicured greenery, citrus groves and greenhouses.

When she died (Post died in 1973), she suggested that the federal government use Mar-a-Lago as a summer presidential residence. But in 1981, faced with the large cost of maintaining the mansion, the government turned it over to the Marjorie Merriweather Post Foundation, and four years later the latter sold the estate to Trump for about $10 million.

In 1995, Trump turned it into a private club for Palm Beach’s elite, with an ocean-view pool, beauty salon, spa, and tennis and croquet courts. In January 2005, he added a 20,000-square-foot (1,850 m2) ballroom. That same month he married Melania and hosted a reception at the club, where Bill and Hillary Clinton attended.

Trump’s frequent visits since becoming president have added to the estate’s notoriety. In January 2017, Trump published a staged photo of himself appearing to be writing an inaugural speech at Mar-a-Lago. Three months later, he ordered missile strikes against Syria while having dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the mansion.