THE DEAL: After relocating from the Seattle area to Florida, billionaire Howard Schultz, the former chairman and chief executive of Starbucks, has sold his house in Hawaii's affluent Hual lai Resort community for $36 million in an off-market deal.
THE BUYER: The buyer is upsizing from a smaller house in the wealthy Big Island community to accommodate a growing family, said listing agent Robert Kildow of Hual lai Realty. Kildow declined to identify the buyer, who agreed to buy the house over FaceTime, he said.
Despite never formally listing the house on the multiple listing service, the property went into contract at the asking price about a week after Kildow started quietly marketing it, he said.
THE SELLER: Schultz bought the house for $25 million in 2015, according to property records.
Schultz, who didn't respond to a request for comment, is credited with transforming Starbucks into a global coffeehouse chain. He stepped down from his most recent stint as the company's CEO in 2023.
In March, he bought a $44 million penthouse in Surfside, Fla., and announced his relocation from the Seattle area, where Starbucks is based, with his wife, Sheri Schultz. "We are enjoying the sunshine of South Florida and its allure to our kids on the East Coast as they raise families of their own," he wrote in a statement on LinkedIn.
THE SPECS: The 1.8-acre estate has eight structures with a combined eight bedrooms and about 15,400 square feet.
THE MARKET: The home is the most expensive sale in Hual lai Resort, where homeowners have included Citadel's CEO, Ken Griffin, and Postmates co-founder Bastian Lehmann.
Houses in Hual lai almost exclusively trade off-market and typically sell in a matter of days thanks to a waiting list of buyers, said Kildow. The previous record for the community was $30.2 million in 2021, he said.
On the Big Island, luxury homes sold for a median $8.56 million in the first half of 2026, up 26.9% from the same period in 2025, according to Hawaii Life brokerage, which wasn't involved in the sale.
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