Bezos and Zuckerberg on the outside: The US billionaires' country club doesn't accept just anyone
Two of the world's wealthiest people, the Qatari royal family, and the daughter and son-in-law of the US President all find themselves on the wrong side of the club door, as the old guard fortifies the last stronghold under their control — the Indian Creek Country Club in Miami. The prestigious club has become the most polite battleground in Florida between old money and new money.
In Miami's "billionaire bunker," people don't protest in front of a new neighbor's house, wave signs on the only access road, or shout slogans over the fence. At Indian Creek, even protests arrive in white clothes and with a cocktail glass in hand. The elegant way to make it clear to Jeff Bezos, Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner that they still don't truly belong is much simpler: they just don't get sent an invitation to the country club.
The Billionaire Bunker
Mark Zuckerberg purchased a monstrous estate for $170 million in this gated enclave. Last February, Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos arrived as special guests for the annual pier party of the Indian Creek Country Club. Around them, on the lawn sloping down to Biscayne Bay, club members played cricket in white clothes. Behind them stood the clubhouse, built in a Mediterranean villa style, overlooking the pool and the Miami skyline. The setting looked like an advertisement for the life Bezos had already bought for himself, but entry to it had not yet been approved.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Amazon founder didn't come just to enjoy the view. He came to mingle and personally convince the gatekeepers to admit him. Bezos exchanged pleasantries and shook hands, much like a candidate in a primary for the top one percent. Some members, including real estate tycoon Richard LeFrak and businessman Eddie Lampert, stood in line to meet him. However, the truly important votes belong to the old families, some of whom have been rooted in South Florida for generations. Six months have passed, and the invitation still hasn't arrived.
Rules of the Paradise
It is an insult that is hard to quantify even in Bezos's terms. He purchased three properties on the island for a cumulative sum of about $234 million. Yet, he is allowed to look from his house at the golf course, but not to step on it without an invitation. Real estate agencies selling homes there explain to potential buyers in advance that, unlike other communities where buying a house automatically makes you a member, this community doesn't work that way.
Indian Creek spans about 1,200 dunams, including only 41 residential plots, and is accessible by boat or via one bridge secured by its own police force. In its center lies the country club with an 18-hole golf course. The joining fee approaches $1 million, and annual dues are about $44,000. But money is the easy part. A candidate needs the sponsorship of two existing members and letters of recommendation from five others. A membership committee screens the names, and then a board of 15 members votes.
Even Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon didn't open the gate immediately: one member organized a petition against his acceptance. Solomon eventually won, but according to members, he only comes for golf games and returns to his main home in New York. In contrast, Jersey Mike's founder Peter Cancro and football legend Tom Brady went through the process without any particular difficulty.
Sewage Diplomacy
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump also haven't managed to get accepted yet. Mary Anne Shula, widow of legendary coach Don Shula, sponsored them and held a cocktail party to introduce them to board members. Later, the couple invited management to their housewarming party, but only about half the members showed up. On an island where absence from a party is a political message, the couple understood that the road to the "green" is still long.
With no other choice, Kushner, who in recent years has conducted behind-the-scenes contacts between Israel and the Palestinians, Russia and Ukraine, and the Trump administration and Iran, tried to channel his mediation skills into a no less complicated arena: the island's sewage system. He helped promote a solution under which a new pumping station would be built opposite his house, and the club would allow landscaping work on the golf course area. Sources say the opposition to them is starting to soften. Almost everything on this island carries a price tag, except for social approval. And that is perhaps the only product that Jeff Bezos still cannot get delivered to his home.
