By E.B. Solomont
Google co-founder Larry Page has bought two massive Miami estates for a combined $173.4 million, according to people familiar with the situation. The deals come as Page and other Silicon Valley moguls descend on Miami in the face of California's proposed tax on billionaires.
Page paid $ 101.5 million in December to buy one of the properties, a waterfront compound in Coconut Grove that had long been the home of late restaurateur Jonathan Lewis. He then purchased a nearby Coconut Grove property for $71.9 million from heiress Sloan Lindemann Barnett and her husband, Roger Barnett, on Jan. 5, property records show.
Jonathan's husband, Mark Lewis, didn't respond to requests for comment. Reached by phone, Sloan declined to comment.
California's proposed ballot initiative would impose a one-time, 5% tax on the assets of billionaires. It would retroactively apply to those who were California residents as of Jan. 1, 2026. Since the proposal was announced, high-profile tech entrepreneurs have flocked to Florida, setting Miami-area agents abuzz with gossip about which property is being purchased by which billionaire mogul. Google co-founder Sergey Brin is also said to be in discussions to purchase a Miami home, according to people familiar with the situation.
"Pretty much every other day I'm showing property to a client from the San Francisco Bay Area," said Dina Goldentayer of Douglas Elliman. "Every conversation I overhear, they're talking about the wealth tax and how it's retroactive. They're in a hurry and they're all looking at the same houses."
Several agents told The Wall Street Journal they couldn't talk about the deals because they had signed nondisclosure agreements that could end their careers if broken.
The former Lewis compound spans about 4.5-acres on Biscayne Bay in Coconut Grove, one of the city's most coveted neighborhoods. Lewis was the son of the late Peter B. Lewis, the onetime CEO of Progressive Insurance Company. The property, listed for $ 135 million in 2024, was most recently asking $115 million. The estate has two primary residences. One was designed for Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan in the 1920s, and Lewis built the other home for his father around 2002.
The other property, purchased by the Barnetts for $45.9 million in 2021, is less than a mile away. Sloan is the daughter of billionaire George L. Lindemann, and Roger is chief executive of health-supplement maker Shaklee. The Barnetts sold a San Francisco mansion to billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs, wife of the late Apple visionary Steve Jobs, for around $70 million in 2024, setting a record for the California city.
The Barnett property wasn't on the market at the time of the deal, so little information is available. The real-estate data website PropertyShark shows it was built around 2015 and spans about 17,000 square feet with seven bedrooms.
Page and Sergey Brin founded California-based Google as Stanford University students in 1998, and built it into one of the world's most valuable companies. They stepped down from active management of Google's parent company, Alphabet, in 2019.
Page is worth around $270 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. In addition to his home in Palo Alto, Calif., Page obtained New Zealand residency in 2021.
Miami's ultraluxury market has skyrocketed in recent years. In 2025, there were 19 sales above $50 million in Florida, compared with 12 in New York and 10 in California, according to Miller Samuel. Miami had four deals above $100 million last year. Billionaire hedge funder Ken Griffin paid $106.875 million for a Coconut Grove estate in 2022.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 07, 2026 17:18 ET (22:18 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments