DESTROY SICKO’S HORROR HOUSE
Developer aims to buy and then level Epstein’s Fla. sex pit
The developer in contract to buy convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s Palm Beach estate is hoping to demolish the secluded compound’s menacing mansion sooner rather than later.
Todd Michael Glaser, famous for building luxury homes owned by Alex Rodriguez, Billy Joel and Hulk Hogan, now hopes to close on the notorious lakefront property by Jan. 15 after some minor delays, he told the Daily News.
If all goes according to plan, he then hopes to gather enough neighborhood support to go to Palm Beach officials by Feb. 9 and request special permission to raze the six-bedroom main house and three-bedroom staff house before April 1.
Such a dispensation is necessary because the opulent enclave generally prohibits such demolition projects during the busy winter months, when wealthy snowbirds flock to so-called Billionaires Row for its subtropical climate, white sand beaches and palatial homes with yachts docked out back.
“Neighbors who are usually against something like this will possibly be for it,” Glaser told
The News, citing his desire to relegate the shameful chapter in the property’s pedigree to the history books.
“We have all these gawkers. If the house is gone, what are they going to take a picture of? So we might be able to get it knocked down early, which I want to do, just to get rid of it,” he said.
Glaser, one of the developers behind the Zaha Hadid-designed One Thousand Museum tower in downtown Miami, said the home is a blight on the community, and dealing with the public attention it attracted has been a “disaster.”
“It’s wild. People came out
to the site, sent emails. People showed up at my house in Miami Beach. I have a woman telling me she’s calling the EPA, something about nuclear medicine,” he said.
“A women’s group wants to go in and do a prayer. I’ve got neighbors praying I can knock this down,” he said. “I’m trying to get this thing knocked down.”
Built in 1952, the ghostly white dwelling designed by society architect John Volk was one of the properties where Epstein groomed and sexually assaulted underage girls and women as part of a sprawling sex trafficking scheme, prosecutors said.
Epstein pleaded guilty to Florida state prostitution charges in 2008 and served 13 months in a local jail, though the sentence ended up being a work-release program almost unheard of in Palm Beach County.
According to the Miami Herald, Epstein’s dozens of victims were underprivileged middle and high school girls recruited in and around Palm Beach County between 1998 and 2006.
A wealthy and politically connected investor at the time, he managed to evade much more serious federal sex trafficking charges — and gain a nonprosecution agreement from former
U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta – with the help of his powerhouse defense lawyers Kenneth Starr and Alan Dershowitz.
After his conviction, Epstein continued living the life of a billionaire playboy, jetting between his homes in Palm Beach, Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Paris, New Mexico and a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands until he was arrested again at Teterboro Airport in July 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking minors in New York and Florida.
He died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell a month later.
The proceeds of any sales of his properties are expected to go to his estate, which set up a fund to pay claims from his alleged victims.
Glaser’s deal to purchase and raze the Palm Beach mansion was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
His plan is to completely overhaul the prime property at 358 El Brillo Way with a 14,000 square-foot Art Moderne home, WSJ reported.
Glaser and his partners reportedly are paying $18 million for the slice of so-called Billionaires Row, a decent discount from the home’s original $22 million listing price.