David Koch Billionaire Lifestyle and Homes Across America

David Koch owns many different homes across the United States. With places in New York, Southampton, Colorado, and Florida he has access to large and furnished homes. This shouldn't come as a surprise to one of the wealthiest individuals in the United States.

In Colorado David owns two homes in Aspen, Colorado (they are actually on the same street).  Both of these homes are owned by trusts homes. Generally people who have multiple residences in different states will do this to avoid probate in multiple states. One trust is the "David H Koch 2003 Trust" and the other is just the "David H Koch Trust". The smaller home is 3 bedrooms, 3 and 1/2 baths and roughly 4,000 square feet in size and was purchased for $1.75 million in December 1991 and currently is appraised at $7.1 million. The larger Colorado home features 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms and is 9,600 square feet in size and features a finished basement as well. The larger home was purchased in January 1989 for $1.9 million and currently appraised at $15 million in value (the home was remodeled in 2013). Koch in his bachelor days would open his Aspen home to throw some extravagant New Year's Eve parties that would often hundreds of people for the occasion. In 1993 David invited 800 people for New Year's Eve and Newsweek said it was as one of the top parties to crash. Brother Charles also has a home on the same street in Aspen as well. You would think with three Koch homes on the same street they could rename it Koch Drive at least. Charles purchased the home in 1992 for $2.65 million and was recently appraised for $10.7 million. Charles also has a caretaker apartment as part of his home too.

We can't forget the Palm Beach that Mr. Koch owns in Palm Beach. The property is nicknamed El Sarimento. The 32 room home 16,000 square foot home was purchased from David and Julia Koch in 1998 for $10.5 million. Wife Julia then gave the home a $12 million face lift (which included increasing the number of square feet to 30,000). The 2017 property taxes for his Florida residence was ~$638,000. Here are photos of Julia and David that were published in the home from February 2003. The Koch family has even held fundraisers at the home for cancer.

The New York place (his primary residence) is a 9,000 square foot duplex that occupies the fourth and fifth floors of 740 Park Avenue and was purchased for $18 million. The 18 room duplex was purchased in 2003 and it took one year before the Koch family actually moved in because of lavish remodeling. David even poked fun at his wife and her spending habits for remodeling as "there was no budget and she still managed to go over the budget". In April 2016 there was a fire in the apartment (that started in sauna of another apartment tenant that was above). Koch was forced to move his family to a hotel for interim quarters.

The Park Avenue home was purchased after David Koch and his family moved out of the 1040 Fifth Avenue apartment. In 1995 Koch purchased the former home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis for $9.5 million. The 1040 Fifth Avenue 15th floor apartment was 5,300 square feet, 5 bedrooms and 1/2 baths. Here are photos after Julia Koch did some remodeling of the apartment and the sketch plans. The apartment also featured three fireplaces, a conservatory, a library, and two terraces. David was quoted as saying "As much as I love the old Jackie Onassis apartment, it wasn't large enough". Koch sold it for $32 million in 2006. Koch and his family had to move out because the area wasn't large enough for David, his wife Julia, his three children, Julia's mother, and the 3 nannies (7 total people). What is interesting is when Koch first purchased the property (he was still single at the time and not yet married to Julia). Around this time in the mid 1990's David (who at the time was 50) was trying to gain membership into the Southampton Bathing Corporation (an exclusive club) and it was speculated he wouldn't gain membership and wouldn't be let in "until he was more stable and had a family". David and Julia were dating at the time and when David purchased the former Jacqueline Kennedy apartment Julia was referred to as the "mistress" of the apartment.

Speaking of New York we can't forget the Southampton home. This roughly 12,000 square foot home has 7 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms. Given the large property size the Koch family also uses plenty of water. His water bill was $34,500 in 2014. Between 2015 and 2016 Koch used 22.5 million gallons of water (he has been the heaviest water user of water in the county for the past 5 years). What is even more interesting is Koch is head of Koch Membrane group which sells equipment to purify water for companies around the world.

According to Sons of Wichita David in his bachelor days was known for having parties at his 7 bedroom, nine-bathroom South Hampton beach house. Actually back in the day he had 5 different properties in the Hampton's. He would be a gracious host offering guests six different types of champagne and serving two meals (dinner and breakfast). Of course not just anyone could get in. In order to secure the party Koch hired 40 security guards to make sure no riff raft would enter.

It is apparent that David Koch lives well and has different homes all across the country. In the late 1990's, David even had a home in Wichita, Kansas. He has been known to charter a yacht which runs $500,000 per week. David also likes fast cars and was quoted in the late 1980's as having a Ferrari but pointed out he didn't have fifteen. Koch said he would rather give his money to charity versus buying "bigger and better paintings". In his free time he enjoys reading: biographies, historical fiction, military history, taking a private jet with his friends to Africa, the Amazon jungle, and the Himalayas. Speaking of reading, in the early 1980's Koch had a subscription to two dozen magazines (not even including technical trade journals). Also during this time period Koch described that during the weekend he would ski, study pollution control designs at his office, attend parties with a girlfriend.

If you look at what David Koch spends compared to his annual income it is actually quite modest. I blogged on this post how my best estimate as to the dividends that Charles and David Koch each receive is $200 million a year. David pointed out in a 1999 article with M.I.T. that he gave away half his income to charity every year. Assuming this living on $100 million per year before taxes isn't too bad (if you back out taxes (Federal and NY state) it would be roughly $50 million of after tax cash flow to live on).

David Koch has worked hard for a number of years to earn this level of income and have this type of wealth (important to remember his net worth is tied up in an non liquid stock since it is privately traded). Back in this 2014 interview he said that he still gets to the office at 9 A.M. but then stays until 7 P.M. and for him 12 hour days are not unusual. Being the executive vice president of a $115 billion company (revenues) is not a 9-5 job. At 77 years old David Koch is still working and not off retired just hanging out by the beach. This work over many decades has afforded him the opportunity to enjoy the amazing growth of Koch Industries and allowed him a life of luxury.