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Subscribe to RSSMiami mogul David Siegel and his wife, Jackie, give a tour of their massive dream home, under construction again after a hiatus following the 2008 economic nosedive.
For a Florida time-share mogul and his wife, size does matter.
After the economic crisis of 2008 caused the couple’s dream home in Windermere, Fla., to go into foreclosure and forced an overleveraged David Siegel to put it on the market, building has resumed on what is to be the largest privately owned home in America.
An estimated three more years of construction lies ahead to finish the modern palace dubbed “Versailles’’: a 90,000-square-foot mansion that will include a 30-car garage, 10 bathrooms, a homework room, a roller rink, three pools, two tennis courts and a bowling alley. There is also a grand ballroom with a ceiling high enough to fit a four-story building inside.
Siegel, 77, and his wife Jackie, 47, gave NBC’s Janet Shamlian a tour of the work in progress in a segment that aired on TODAY Friday.
“We never set out to build the biggest house in America,’’ Jackie said. “It just kinda happened.’’
The saga of the home’s construction has been chronicled in the book “The High-Beta Rich’’ by CNBC’s Robert Frank, as well as in the award-winning documentary film “The Queen of Versailles,’’ which made the couple a symbol of outsize spending, debt and real estate in America. Siegel, who owns timeshare resort firm Westgate Resorts, filed a lawsuit against the filmmakers claiming the movie unfairly portrayed his business, but the case was dismissed.
On TODAY, Siegel told Shamlian that he would not have agreed to do the film if he knew then what he knows now. However, Jackie, who is pursuing a reality show, said she still would have participated.
“But what I would have done differently (in the documentary) if I had known so many millions of people would be seeing it is I would have worn more makeup,’’ Jackie joked.
While the nation still struggles with an unemployment rate just below 8 percent, Siegel said he has recovered from the economic crash and that his company has resumed enough profitability to enable him to complete Versailles.
In the fall, Siegel made national headlines when he sent an email to his employees saying that if President Barack Obama were re-elected and raised Siegel’s taxes, he would be forced to fire workers and downsize his company.
Siegel, a staunch Republican, denied intimidating his workers into voting for Mitt Romney because their jobs might be at stake. "I can't tell anyone to vote," he told Frank in an interview. “I want my employees to be educated on what could happen to their future if the wrong person is elected."
As for Siegel’s future, he and his wife, who have eight children, are planning on living in the mansion once it’s completed and are not building it just to sell it.
“We are finishing it to actually finish it, but we do want to live there,’’ Jackie said.
In the meantime, the two have been living in a home that is a two-minute drive away from Versailles. Their current house is 26,000 square feet and has 15 bedrooms, four kitchens, and closets bigger than many New York City apartments.
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So this guy's finances went to the crapper when a Republican was president. Now that a Democratic is president his finances have vastly improved. Go figure!
Kinda funny aint it?
As I recall, in 2008, Mr. Obama was President. And the article didn't say his finances had "vastly" improved. And the economy isn't exactly on a tear, four years later, is it?
He said he has "recovered" from the the financial crisis. Read the article.
Did he lay people off anyway? Obama raised his taxes.
Wow all the hate over a successful person. It's his money and he can do with it what ever he wants... I'd take it and leave the country and live in Monaco and keep all my money so the Gov't can't steal any more of it than they already have
Interesting. They declare bankruptcy and go into foreclosure yet they get approved to get the equivalent of a hotel, while the rest of us who have never shown such lavish financial irresponsibility cannot get a loan. Don't get it.
They were bankrupt, now building biggest house on earth.... so they forget about raising their employees to a decent wage, screw everyone else, im building it.
They have a lot to thank President Obama for. He kept the Bush recession from becoming a Bush Depression with ZERO help from the Republicans.
Man, what a waste of time, money, space, and resources!
.... and silicone.
Another wealthy elderly @!$%# and his young wife trying to bring to fruition a dream that may never be. He may be dead before the project is complete and she will laugh all the way to the bank. How many times have we heard the same story?
I thought this story was about the WH....funny how the Obama network dosen't want to comment on the second oval office...that's costing the taxpayers 386 million...like he needs a second office...he dosen't use the one he has....
What are you talking about? Yet another rumor that is wrong...
White House has denied building a second Oval Office for President Barack Obama to work in pending the completion of renovations at the executive mansion.
White House chief spokesman Jay Carney denied the report recently published by the Real Clear Politics web site that said Obama was going to move into a "nearly identical replica" of the Oval Office because of the ongoing construction work.
"Reports about a replica Oval Office are false and no one is moving from the West Wing, certainly not – no decisions about that have been made and not on any time frame," Carney said.
Since the Oval Office was built in the White House in 1909, it has undergone numerous repairs, technological upgrades and restoration work.
Herbert Hoover, for example, had to make significant repairs to the presidential office after an electrical fire in 1929 and for a brief time he moved his workspace to the Navy Department.
Real Clear Politics also claimed that Obama's top advisors would temporarily move with him to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is part of the White House compound.
And you think people believe Jay Carney...duh...and it's not a rumor....check it out...
You believe what you want...
no, people like you, "believe what they want".
I believe the truth.
So this right-wing nutjob had to stop work on his mega-mansion and went bankrupt due to the Bush Depression, but has now resumed work on the mansion due to the Obama Recovery.........and yet somehow Obama winning was a bad thing?
What an idiot.
90,000 square feet and only 10 bathrooms? My house is less than 3k sq ft and has 3 baths. Seems disproportionate. They should consult the architect. ;-P
yeah, but you've got 4 story "ballroom", probably some indoor pools, a bowling alley etc that takes a lot of room.
I'm guessing each bathroom is as big as my house.
Worth hundreds of millions of dollars and desperate for fame in a reality TV show.
Sick.
Just goes to show you that one need not be poor to be white trash.
As of the time of this post, the video credit describes Mr. Siegel as a "Miami mogul." Also, the video tag says: "Inside building of 90,000 square-foot Miami palace."
Epic editorial fail, NBC. Windermere is near Orlando, not Miami. You're only about 200 miles off.
Greedy pigs. Won't pay their employees a decent wage, then flaunt this ostentatiusness in these hard times.
Bunch of jealous people on here.... thats for sure. I find it comical. Good for these two for being able to do something that they want to do. Haters going to hate.
btw... building 150 more homes is not great for the economy... as we have seen with the house crisis.
Just a tad ostentatious, what?
LOL oh my God. 30-car garage? 3 pools? Setting this house to foreclosure and then resuming to build it? That means you couldn't afford to build it anyway, right? These people are the stupid rich kind that are so self-absorbed and ready to flaunt their wealth and are such try-hards. Not to mention the guy's a total scumbag for trying to manipulate votes, and the woman seems like a total idiot that knows nothing but being pampered and living her little bubble of a luxurious life. We'll see if this house is ever completed, and if so, how much of each square footage of the house gets used.
BTW, Windermere is near Orlando and not Miami as the video caption says.
It doesnt mean that he couldnt afford to build it anyway... it means that he was making a business decsion to not build something that already lost all of its value. These people maybe "stupid rich" but that is the great thing about this country... we have that opportunity. Jealous much?
All I can say is when that's finished the kids would have lots of hide-n-seek games.
All I can say is that's one heck of a hide-n-seek game waiting to happen.
Who wants to call a 90,000 square foot building home? It's more like a hotel or office building. What a waste of money. All of that space couldn't possibly be cozy.
The property taxes alone must be more than many "upper middle class incomes"
How very republican of this guy. A true believer.
Janjoyce:
"How very republican of this guy. A true believer."
So does that make George Soros, the "king of the liberals" a Republican too? He's got a $9.8M house in New York that you can check out here:
So in your eyes, only "Republicans" build excessive homes instead of giving it all the "less fortunate" I guess. How do you explain Soros? Or all the leftist liberal Hollywood types with their huge mansions and private jets? You're a hypocrite.
Link didn't take for some reason. Here it is again:
Although it would be easy to pass this off as an eccentricity of the rich, at some point those people will die and this property will still be there. Unless another owner were to appear and take care of it, it will stagnate and probably rot. It is undeniably a big house. But it will never have the historical appeal of the Biltmore House, or Villa Vizcaya, or the Hearst Mansion. I predict this place will have a rendezvous with the wrecking ball within 20 years.
A skating rink, 3 pools, and a bowling alley. More likely to be repurposed as a vacation destination, or "Fun Center" as they call them here.
Maybe, if the Village of Windermere's zoning allows it. As a private residence, it is wildly impractical except for maybe a few internet gurus and oil sheiks. As a commercial property, you'd have to be a bold investor to take a chance on it. Once completed (and I emphasize that it is STILL under construction), the monthly carrying costs are probably going run in the neighborhood of $100,000. Taxes, insurance, air conditioning (important for mold abatement in Florida), groundskeeping, pest control -- it's basically a shopping mall.
And its in Windermere. No offense to the people of Windermere, but it typifies a sleepy, small central Florida town of mostly rich people and the people who work for them. If it was in the Hamptons, or Malibu, or the South of France, or someplace with a touch of swank to it, it might find someone to love it. When these people die, I fear it will become an unloved, unwanted White Elephant. I doubt their heirs will want it due to the costs associated with owning it. They will probably auction it off. It might find a taker or two. Or it could end up being foreclosed for non-payment of taxes and the Village of Windermere might end up owning it. And they won't want it or have any money to take care of it. Ergo, wrecking ball! Knock it down and start over with something a bit more practical.
Hey what do you know? Once again, you idiots have been able to, within the first 4 comments of a news story, turn another topic into a political debate! You All are so brainwashed by politicians and media to turn every possible news story into a political topic and then break out the "republiscums" and "libtards" words like a bunch of jerk-ass 5 year olds. Wake up you idiots! Stop politicizing EVERY possible subject and sucking at the proveribial teets of your bought-and-paid-for politicans. (and p.s. if this douche wants to spend his money on a 90,000sq ft house, so be it. Sure I'd rather hear that he built some animal or homeless shelters, but he won't and it's still a partially free country so let him be).
Did you even read the article? The homeowner is the one who turned it into a political debate by threatening to fire any of his employees who voted for Obama.
Why would anyone need a 90,000 square foot house? They'd have to send out a search party for anyone who got lost.
Couldn't these folks find a better use for their money?
shamefull..