Friday, October 11, 2024

Islands on the market

USA: Death of an Island – Paul Allen’s Island Set For Extensive Development

After spending almost a decade on the market, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has finally found a buyer for Allan Island, his American private island bolt-hole.

(Image Courtesy of Wally Gudgell/Windermere)

(Image Courtesy of Wally Gudgell/Windermere)

After languishing for nine long years on the private island market, Microsoft co-founder and Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen has finally found a buyer for his private island retreat, selling the 292-acre Allen Island to a Seattle-based buyer for USD 8 million.

Straddling the US-Canadian border on the northern tip of Washington State, the island was initially listed for the more impressive price of USD 25 million, before being reduced firstly to USD 13.5 million and finally to its eventual sale price, as Allen sought to get rid of the island as soon as possible.

Once intended to serve the Allen as a private vacation retreat, the island, located within Washington State’s San Juan Archipelago, boasts incredible views of the surrounding area, with beaches overlooking not only the picturesque Rosario Strait but the Olympic Mountains, too.

After shelving plans to develop the island in favour of purchasing a lot on nearby Lopez Island back in 1996, Allen Island was left completely untouched aside from the existing wooden caretaker’s cabin, a landing strip and a network of nature trails which snake across the island’s entirety.

This unspoiled landscape could soon be a thing of the past, however, with the new buyer reportedly planning to divide the island into separate lots. The Multiple Listing Service also indicated that the land have already been split into 44 separate tax lots, with plans to build develop 12 individual homes across the island’s 292 acres already in place.

Have your say: Do island owners have a responsibility to preserve the environment or should they be free to develop as they see fit? Drop us a line on Facebook and share your thoughts!

 

 

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